Catapult Coyote

This exercise didn't really work, so if you do give it a whirl - please do let me know where and how it can be proved.

For the third Flying Monkeys event, the theme was 'Migration' and for the table activity I wanted to create something that illustrated how a person's narrative could change dramatically by the process of migrating from their starting point, where their character developed to their end point where they became a fish out of water and all that character work would be tested.

The mechanics were simple; Once upon a time, when I was working on the Multi Platform project Victor, I pitched the idea of 'Angry Mexicans' based on the same game engine as the famous bird based mobile game. The project included tales of real life coyotes, and I thought a fun way to engage with them would be to re skin the mobile game and have them send Mexicans across the border - the concept only ever remained an amusement, until...

I ordered a catapult balsa wood kit and constructed the old siege weapon. I then purchased a big map of the world for the lego figurine proxies to land on.

We didn't have enough time on the evening, but my hope was that with so many storytellers we would have a frenzy of character building, with everyone sharing their techniques on how the built characters and also why those characters would be motivated to migrate.

Instead, I gave everyone an AR colouring template, where they could colour in their characters and concoct a backstory as they did. They would then present those paintings to the catapult, who would bring them to AR life (Ohhh- ahhh) before launching them onto the world map to continue their story.

Too much concept, not enough time. Also, I think the AR Colouring In was too time consuming and also too much of a distraction - more people were amazed with that to actually engage with the narrative exercise.

Finding The Words Game

Find the Words

A quick and very easy icebreaker.

Ingredients:

Space

Post It Notes (Hundreds)

Sharpie Marker Pens

Bucket

Scenario Cards

So, this game, which was premiered at the last Flying Monkey's event,  is devised to have people learn to express themselves under limited resources.

Often when asked to say something under difficult circumstances, people respond “I cannot Find the Words”. This game is designed to help them find the words.

Begin by handing everyone in your group a pad of Post It notes. 

Give them precisely five minutes to write on each note a separate word; nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions etc etc.

Collect all the Post It Notes in a bucket.

Now ask your group to take a handful / a few handfuls of the Post It notes and distribute them around the room. They can be as visible as people wish, but emphasize that the more precious words should be perhaps hidden as treasure and demand more effort to find.

Reconvene and now present each person in the group with a Scenario card:

A scenario card should demand that each participant “Find The Words” to say something specific.

Examples:

“Find the Words…to leave your lover”

“Find the Words…to say goodbye to your best friend”

“Find the Words…to bring comfort to someone suffering”

“Find the Words…to make a child smile”

Now, each participant will embark on a treasure hunt to make a sentence/ paragraph that will achieve the demands stated on the Scenario Cards.

FM 2nd Event