Venus, Jackie, Sofia, Sophie's game

BINDED AND BLINDED

Designed by: Venus, Jackie, Sofia, Sophia.

The idea behind this game was to have a relay race with teams in which each

person had some kind of sensory handicap. We would have liked to take away the sense

of sight, of speech, and of hearing, one sense per person, but this was too difficult

logistically. In the end, we came up with this: there are two teams of four. There is also

one referee. In a team, there is one person, the Navigator, who is ‘ tied’ to a chair. This

person can speak, but can’ t move. The other three people are tied (or arm-linked) back-to-

back as an “ amoeba,” and each is blindfolded. These are the Seekers (fuck you, Harry

Potter). The game should take place in a basically flat area, no less than 10 yards across.

At the beginning of the game, the referee blindfolds each of the Seekers, ties them

together, and places an object – either a ball, or a flag – somewhere opposite from the

Navigator’ s chairs in the playing arena. Then the referee spins the Seeker amoebas around

a few times, to disorient them spatially, and places them near the Navigators. The referee

gives the signal to start, and each Navigator tries to vocally direct his or her amoeba to the

object. The team who acquires the object wins the game.

A couple variations may apply. For instance, there may be 2 objects, one for each

team, or multiple objects for each team, so that even if one team gets the first object first,

the other team may have a chance to win in the end by getting all of their objects first.

Another variation, which was tested, is to have a moving object. This requires (a) for the

object to be strapped to a dog or cat, or (b) for the object to be a dog or cat. Or hamster.

But preferably not a hamster, because there is a risk of squishing. The hamster should

sign a liability form, at the very least.

One issue to consider, as was discovered, is whether the voices of the Navigators

are very similar. For “ Level 1” , choose two Navigators with distinct voices. For “ Level

2” , choose Navigators with similar voices, to confuse the Seekers. For “ Level 3” , use

kazoos.

It was found that this game, if played in a small arena, doesn’ t take very long to

win. Here are some solutions. 1: play the game in a larger space, for instance, the lawn on

CCA’ s campus. 2: add relatively safe obstacles to the path between the Seekers and the

object. For instance, large exercise balls, pillows, or “ quicksand” (a marked zone that

cannot be entered, or the team loses the game).