Archive of CRN Home Page Topics for Discussion

Nov. 7, 2003 Party as Interactive Communication Experience and most important, Fun! Hillel Weintraub, Future University - Hakodate

This month, I'd like to explore the idea of "party" as interactive and communicative experience. At the end of October, my students and I organized an event at the Asahigaoka no Ie, a home for the elderly in Hakodate that is part hospice, part residential nursing home, and part day center. This was not a workshop or playshop in the usual sense, but simply a 2 hour "party". There was no intent to "learn anything" and no "agenda" to worry about. This was our volunteer activity so we felt very relaxed, as opposed to the work/playshop at CAMP (Children's Art and Media Park) where we felt we had to prove something to others who supported our planning and efforts. This month, I'd like to look at the party, and next month I will explore another style workshop we held recently. The party was organized at the last minute with very little planning. My students and I have been extremely busy - we just returned from the fun and stress of planning the CAMP workshop, and they have been busy with their research and me with my teaching. But we decided just a week ago - let's have a party! It's Halloween! ("What do you do at a Halloween Party?" they asked!) We just decided to "do it!" - we had been working hard, so having a party seemed like a fun idea. We called Asahigaoka no Ie's animator (that's the wonderful name Asahigaoka no Ie gives to their event organizer and planner, Kikuchi-san) and she said, "Great!" The rest was up to us. We met on Thursday morning and decided something about the flow of the party, which was going to be held on Friday evening - just a day and a half away. Not much time to get organized! But also not much time to worry! The first thing we asked ourselves was - "What's important for us for this party?" We had many answers - to have fun and relax ourselves, to help the elderly residents have fun and relax were the two main ideas. Of course, since my students and I are interested in exploring intergenerational communication around the theme of "PLAY", this was a unique opportunity for us on a research level. The next thing we asked ourselves was - "What's important for Halloween?" Masks and make-up and pumpkins and carving something. Oh yes, telling scary stories, too. And one more thing - the feeling of autumn. We had a good source of masks and make-up (mostly my extensive collection of masks and face paint) and we practiced in my office - see some pictures here. That evening the students did some pumpkin carving. But we decided that carving pumpkins was too difficult and expensive to involve everyone. We needed to find a smaller and cheaper solution. Our source of pumpkins was selling them at about 1500 yen each, and he didn't have any small ones. Also, pumpkins really aren't easy to carve - a big knife is needed, and it's hard for more than one person to really get involved in the cutting. So we came up with a great solution and replacement for pumpkin carving - we bought some lovely large peppers - green, red, purple and orange - and at the party we gave one to each of the twenty elderly people from Asahigaoka no Ie. Since none of us had ever carved a pepper before, we had no idea how well this would work. But it did! The peppers were large enough so that we were able to put little candles in them,too, so they shone when we turned out the lights. And everyone walked or moved around the room in their wheelchairs in a carved pepper parade. This pepper carving took place after our face painting activity, which was also a greater hit than we could have imagined! We wondered if most of the people would be willing to have their faces painted, but almost everyone took part in either painting their friends faces or having their own face painted. And they seemed to enjoy it very much. The comments we heard from the elderly people as they left were things like, "Thank you so much for bringing this wonderful party to us!" One person said that she had never seen everyone smiling so happily. Another man who had jumped up, but on a mask and danced at the end of the party, said he enjoyed this party so much and hoped we would come back again. With more time and planning, would this party have been even more successful? Well, that's an interesting question! I think this party had a kind of spontaneity that was really wonderful and appreciated by everyone. And my students were so relaxed and able to enjoy the chance to communicate with elderly people while helping them paint faces or carve peppers, or sitting and eating pumpkin pudding and drinking punch. There are some wonderful pictures of this party posted at Asahigaoka no Ie's homepage. The text is in Japanese, but the pictures are there to give you some image of what went on that night! Have a look! http://www.asahigaoka.jp/season/100_index_msg.html I'd like to think more about "party" as a metaphor for happy communication spaces! Next month I'll write about a different kind of workshop we held at CAMP in Keihanna Research Park between Kyoto and Nara! CAMP is a space designed for interaction with children and technology. Asahigaoka no Ie is a space designed for happy and fruitful lives of the elderly. My students and I want to find ways to bring these two groups -the youth and the aged - together!

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