‘Promoting Playfulness Amongst Older People’ OPAN RDG workshop 1

DSC02112 ‘Promoting Playfulness Amongst Older People’ was the first of the OPAN RDG workshops for the ‘Making a Difference’ project held at Swansea University 31th May 2013 as part of the ‘Coming of Age’ arts trail and exhibition supported by ABMUHB and OPAN.

CARIAD members Leah and Cathy enjoyed the best Swansea University had to offer today (including the sun) at our first workshop for ‘Making a Difference’ supported by OPAN (Older People & Ageing Research and Development Network). We had a long overdue reunion with Graham Dean one of our friends from Lancaster University (http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/people/graham-dean(4ee2e191-9ee4-41b1-868c-92c43452aab6).html) and a core member of the project.

We also welcomed over 16 experts from the fields, of mental health, well-being, technology, interactive design, music, arts, creative business, academics and many more to brainstorm possibilities. After an introduction and summary of the projects themes and aims, we invited our audience to create Lego avatars of themselves to encourage sensations of play and memory.

Our Lego avatars then introduced themselves and their interests in the project. Graham presented some wonderful food for thought showing videos ranging from whimsical musings to state of the art technologies in memory boxes. Check them out here: Spotify box – http://vimeo.com/21387481More4 Rebrand -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ5U3t1zZ_s Music Memory Box – http://www.watershed.co.uk/dshed/music-memory-box

Finally our paper posit ideas board drew out some of our experts poignant and novel contributions leaving CARIAD with endless possible explorations from bread making to Ukulele orchestra’s. Our next step is to think about ways to encourage our stakeholders to play!