Digging down to the depths – Project CO-SWITCH
Throughout our lives, we come in interaction with countless everyday items. Most of the time, we don’t even stop and think about their symbolic or therapeutic implications. But what if these objects say more about us than we might first think? This is the question that led Aranka Adelina Vass to designing CO-SWITCH, a psychological board game that offers deeper insight into the mysteries of our psyche.
CO-SWITCH is both a game and an opportunity to get closer to our inner selves and our friends. It comes in dual modes: in Float mode, marked beige, the player has to describe an expression using objects. This mode is more competitive, prompting players to think creatively and respond rapidly to the topic at hand. Mode Deep, marked blue, on the other hand encourages deeper conversation. In this mode, players need to answer questions with the help of objects, resulting in intimate, personal discussions. The two modes share not just the same set of objects, but also the same topics, from spirituality to career and romantic relationships.
CO-SWITCH builds on the associative and symbolic readings of items: a belt buckle for example could represent paternal strictness or elegance, a ruler can speak of the struggles experienced in Math classes or of a meticulously organised home, and a star-shaped item can also carry a lot of personal meaning, while the unique compositions can also give rise to novel logical connections. This way, the game allows the players to share their personal thoughts and feelings, which in turn can help them understand themselves and the others better, while practicing empathy and emotional communication, and not unimportantly, also deepen their connections. Just for play.
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Aranka Adelina Vass received the Best Designer Maker prize of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design for her CO-SWITCH project – check out last year’s winner HERE!
The project was completed at the Digital Object Design specialisation of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, with Dóra Rea Kövér and Eszter Lóki as her consultants.
