What kinds of games can be played using a cup, a ping pong ball, and a piece of cardboard? A game of movement, memory, chance, or something no one played before? Join design collective Aging in Play (AIP) to create your own games from everyday materials.
AIP co-designs games with older adults in pursuit of an empowering and accessible model of play through the “AIP Playbox,” their portable kit that contains modular elements and prompts for creating and playing games anywhere. While the project has focused on older adults so far, the workshop will also explore how an adaptable and player-led approach can bring people together across other shared cultures and communities.
For this hands-on workshop, come ready to try games that AIP and older adults have co-created so far, design your own games, and help build the AIP game library, as your game ideas may be adapted and tested in future AIP play sessions with older adult communities.
Led by Hao Jie Sim, Xiaolan Fu, Kelsey Zhang, Aging in Play (AIP) explores play as a shared community practice for older adults to support health, connection, and agency. Through accessible games, facilitation tools, and co-creation, AIP invites participants to move, create, adapt rules, and shape moments of joy together. The project challenges stereotypes of aging and frames later life as a space for participation, creativity, and community belonging.
Photo by Caleb Bryant Miller