Back Gaemen

HOW IT WILL WORK

* If you are interested in taking part then DM me on Instagram or e-mail me and we can sort out a date.
* You propose one of two areas in which we will meet: 1) Central London within the Oyster/contactless zone or 2) Surbiton/Kingston.
* Once we have the date and time sorted we will arrange a specific location in which to play.
* We will play for a minimum of one game, a maximum of three games. 
* At the end I will draw an imperfect portrait of you and we will co-create a haiku together to summarise our experience. (See image on the left for an example or the gallery at the bottom of this page). You will get to keep the portrait as a thank you gift from me.

THE PLAYERS SO FAR

At the end of our game I will draw an imperfect portrait of you* and we will co-create a haiku reflective of our experience. The idea of this is to experiment with encapsulating our interaction in a creative, non-linear and poetic way that evokes the experience when looked at.

You will get to keep the portrait afterwards. (If you’d like it)

*Any resemblance is purely coincidental

You say you want to play with strangers but I’ve met you. Can I still take part?
Yes. I meet lots of people at markets and talks and things and have fleeting conversations with a variety of folks – if this is you then you can still take part. As a big part of the project is about me wanting to find ways to meet new people I’m simply wanting to avoid playing solely with people I know well.

I can’t get to London. Can you come and play in my city/town/village/country?
Hmm. It depends. Maybe if the project grows and expands I might. But right now I’m keeping it to London to make sure I manage my energy sensibly and don’t spend a fortune on travel. But please do message with a proposal – it might be that I’ve had a number of requests in a certain area and can combine several games into one trip.

How about playing online?
Sadly not.  Backgammon itself isn’t really the main reason for doing this project – it is more about social interaction and coming together in a physical space with a shared and focused time-bound intention. And whilst playing online might be nice for other reasons, it doesn’t help me explore this curiosity.

What is the project about? Why are you doing it?
As with all my projects – I’m not quite sure yet. But I know I will work out why it fascinates me as the project evolves. At a high level I’m just wondering what happens if I invite strangers to play Backgammon with me.

Where did the idea come from? What’s the backstory?
One evening in late July I was feeling bored and lonely and decided to go to a board games evening in a pub in East London. When I arrived everyone was already in groups playing games together and I almost left. But then I came across a man on his own with a game and nobody to play with. It turned out his game was Backgammon and I managed to persued him to teach me how to play it. What followed was a lovely evening of playing and conversation where he told me how he had been playing it since he was a small child growing up in Persia (where the game originated around 5,000 years ago), showed me photos of his home town and chatted about life. It struck me that it had felt like a very easy way of interacting with somebody I didn’t know: A joint area of focus and interest that was structured and time bound, but also free and spontaneous. (A bit like backgammon combining strategy and chance). The interaction fascinated me so I wanted to explore it further with other people. And here we are.

This sounds fascinating, tell me more!
You can read more about the project in Episode #3 of Creative Adventures. You can listen to the podcast version HERE or read the written Substack version HERE.

Why are you calling it the Back Gaemen project?
Whilst I like the game, I don’t really like the name Backgammon. I think it is the “gammon” part of the word. I’ve not eaten meat for over 18 years and even when I did I wasn’t a fan of gammon. Also, in the UK at least, the word “gammon” has taken on a different cultural meaning. So I wanted to call the project something different and looked up the origins of the word and it is assumed that it came from the Middle English words “back” (referring to moving pieces back to the home board) and “gaemen”  (which means “game” or “play”). Having discovered this I like the idea of part of this project being about coming back to play so the title Back Gaemen feels far more appropriate. (There are also other theories as to the origin of the name).

What’s the end point?
I’ve no idea. But I know I will know when it is done.

I’ve another question not answered here
Send me an e-mail at stevexoh@gmail.com