Graham Yeager

{Click here to see the rules}

Overview

This legacy card game is part of a participatory performance that uses a custom deck of cards, conversation and cartography to chart a path towards improving our community. A legacy card game is one in which the game is designed to change permanently over the course of multiple sessions. The physical result of playing the Deck of Searching is its destruction/conversion from a playable deck of cards to actions taken to empower humanity.  

The Deck of Searching uses the conversation potential of divination to promote the power of dialogue and an awareness of the forces of change around us. The custom cards are excuses for two humans to have an exchange of stories and experiences.  

A Searcher sits with a Reader and discusses the cards drawn at chance: one card for the unknown, one for solitude, one for a relationship and one for society. Interpretation of the cards helps identify areas of potential change in the Searcher’s life. At the conclusion of each reading, the Searcher will select one card and rip it down the middle across the longest edge. This act signifies their commitment to address the specific forces identified by that card. They keep one half as a reminder of their promise. The other half and additional halves from each reading are plotted together to create a map. The pathways that emerge show our desire to identify the forces of privilege, language, power and wealth. They are evidence of our commitment to always use these forces to empower humanity.

Collaboration with Elisa Hamilton

{Click here to see the rules}

SUMMARY

Between Us is a fast-paced collaborative word game, in which the players do not compete against each other, but work together towards the common goal of writing the same thing on their chalkboards. They write the answer to “What is between x and y?” where x and y are variables generated each round by players one and two, respectively.  When x = y the players win.

{Click here for the worksheet}

Spectrum consists of three phases: a classroom inspired presentation of word pairings drawn on a large chalkboard, worksheets designed to bring two humans together to create unique combinations and a small group session where participants mark and discuss how they relate to the words and a each other. The interactions challenge a presentation of the world as divisive and binary while promoting a practice of understanding across an infinite spectrum. This work was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts and a series of performances around Boston between March and August of 2017.

A collection of photographs taken during my time as a Public Trust ambassador during the summer of 2016 in Boston, MA. Learn more about the project and lead artist Paul Ramirez Jonas by visiting www.nowandthere.org