Rippling Conversations

Key Info

Level of Difficulty

Moderate

Suggested Uses

Family activity, art therapy, befriending activity, art workshop

Suggested Duration

30 – 60 minutes (10 minutes per round)

Things You Need

Conversation cards, marbling inks (at least 2 colours), water tank, craft materials (canvases, wood pieces, ice-cream sticks etc.), skewer

Overview

Rippling Conversations is a game to bring generations together to share meaningful conversations through storytelling and crafts-making. A specially-designed deck of conversation cards would be used to spark discussions. Throughout the game, players would be creating beautiful visual representations of their conversations in the form of marbling art.

Objectives

To promote intergenerational understanding through the sharing of memories and stories, personal preferences, and individual viewpoints
To provide more opportunities for positive intergenerational connections
To facilitate a co-creation activity for an intergenerational group

Activity Instructions

Fill the water tray to an appropriate depth (approx. 8cm) with room temperature water.
Every player chooses a bottle of paint, each with a different colour.
Use the conversation cards (reminisce, imagine, learn) and start chatting. Players can switch between the topics throughout the game.
After sharing a story with the group, add a drop of your paint into the water tray.
After several questions, the floating drops of paint would form a colourful, unique pattern.
Once everyone is happy with the pattern, each player can pick an object of their choice (art materials you prepared) and dip it into the water tray together. Make sure there is space for everyone.
Use a skewer to slice and remove the extra paint before removing the objects from the water.
The round ends with every player creating a memento — a visual memory of the conversations and interactions from the game. The objects could be repurposed to make useful items (bookmarks, keychains, ornaments).
Place a piece of paper on the surface of water to remove the remaining paint before starting a new round.

Note: Marbling paint works on most surfaces. Touch-dry in 15 mins and fully cured in 24 hrs.

Facilitation Tips

Keep the conversations light-hearted. Do not force any participants to share anything if they do not want to.
Use bright colours for the marbling inks, preferable not black or white.

Preparation

1

Consider your target group, their needs, and your objectives. Download the planning questionnaire and fill it in before engaging your audience.

2

Download the Print-and-Play version of the conversation cards. You may pick and choose the cards that are appropriate for your audience. If you need to customise the questions of the conversation cards with your own questions. You may use the blank index cards in the template provided.

3

Prepare the craft materials required for the session.

Family Canvases

These are some of the artworks created by families and intergenerational groups while playing Rippling Conversations. Get your artwork featured by tagging us @intergendesign and using the hashtag #RipplingConversations on Instagram.

Art Therapy Toolkit

A creative clinical tool co-developed with Bernice Lin from LASALLE College of the Arts (MA Art Therapy) for dementia patients.