The VLCardsGame helps you to acquire conscious competence in reading and applying visual language. Whilst in the experience of play, informal learning on visual language and image-principles takes place. Once more competent in playing you can challenge yourselves in having to produce more profound art-works and arguments. This gives the game a strong growing potential in knowledge and makes playing suitable for all levels of expertise.
The Game’s ruleset
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Each team is given a mission card that contains the Expert Role you are operating from and four cards that contain descriptions of visual elements. Use as many of the cards as you possibly can in your creation and use any technique (draw, photography, paint, collage…).
Watch out! One of the six expert-cards has a contrasting objective: The Disastrous Amateurs’ mission is to make sure that no one will guess their Cards right. They will win the game if they end up last in ranking.
Amateurs beware! Your role is a special one: you must make sure that none of the other experts recognises you (because that will give you points and thus exposure). Therefore all the arguments you give are invalid and your goal is that the judging group will not agree with you.
The game consists of:
4 Gallery boards; 4 Gallery standards; 4 sets of 10 tokens;1 hour-glass; and the VLCards (06 Mission Cards (who); 08 Gestalt Cards; 09 Image Principle Cards; 10 Composition Cards; 12 Characteristics Cards).
How to play
Number of players: 3 – 8.
In order to play you need 3 to 4 teams, each team ideally being 2 players. You can also play with 3 or 4 single players. Playing time is approximately 60 minutes.
Round1, the Commission
1:
Make teams (one or two persons).
2:
Cards are shuffled.
Each team gets 5 cards randomly; 1 Composition card; 1 Principle card; 1 Characteristic Card; 1 Gestalt Card and 1 mission card. The mission card is secret.
3:
Each team has 20 minutes to create an artwork by trying to implement as many of the cards as possible. And as clear as possible. Don’t worry if one (or some) turn out to be impossible; later, you may place them upside down on the gallery board.
4:
Before the 20 minutes are over, bring (or print) your group’s artwork and put it on the Exhibition Board. Then place your implemented cards straight open the board. The cards you didn’t use are placed upside down (open). The mission card is turned on the backside (closed), so the others can NOT see who you are.
The team that finishes first with creating and printing is the first to play on round 2.
Round2, the gallery
this is the round in which creating is over and appreciating and convincing others starts
1:
Use the tokens and the hourglass. Each team gets the turn to act as the reviewing team.
As the reviewing team you have one minute for validating or debunking cards of another team by giving a clear argument per card. All other players immediately acts as the jury: thumbs up if the argument is valid, thumbs down if you think it’s false. If the majority agrees with the argument you may leave your token and earn points. Try to argument on as many cards as possible within your minute.
- A Validated – straight up or upside down – card gets your token: the top left value of the card is for the creating team, the top-right value is for the argumenting team.
- A debunked card is turned on the backside (closed) and can’t be played anymore: the reviewing team places their token and receives the value on the top right.
! Not Reasoning: If a group is not giving an argument and instead just says “ This is XX or this is not XX” without saying WHY, and the judging group agrees, then the group that owns the work may object with “No reasoning!” and the card stays with them.
! Not agreeing: When half or more of the other players consider your argument to be valid you receive the points on the card..
! Cards with a token on them are locked and can’t be played anymore.
Mind you: The disastrous Amateurs. This team has to play as if they were professionals, but actually, everything they say is just not right. They use fallacies for explaining the cards.
2:
After your second minute passed, you may place one or multiple tokens on the mission squares of the board, to guess which experts created the artwork (You might want to save some tokens for Round 3).
3:
The extra cards are shuffled and every team randomly gets the same number of cards.
Now each team has another minute to try to place the new cards on any of the art-works (including your own) with help of a valid argument. If you find a connection between an image and a card, place it straight up on that board with a token. If you can’t find any connection you can still place the cards (upside down) on the boards; put your token and explain why the image does not contain that element. Good or bad reasoning will be judged by the jury (same as step 1)..
Round3, the Finnisage
this is the last round in which players guess the roles and mission of other teams
1.
When all teams have finished their second minute of argumenting they can put their remaining tokens on one of the Roles on the boards (of other teams) to guess who the authors of that work were.
If you guess right both you and the authors receive the points..
2:
Each team turns the mission card face up, to show which expert role they played.
3:
Now points can be counted following the values of the cards to see who is the winner.
The card’s value on the TOP-LEFT side in the “Exhibition Row” is for the creating team.
The value on the TOP-RIGHT side in both the “Exhibition Row” & the “Finisage Row” go to the team who placed a token on the card.
The Mission cards have a value of 4. Each correctly placed token equals 4 points. You may place multiple tokens at a mission square on the game board.
Learning goals and outcomes
Player achieve awareness about design principles and visual elements.
And thus become skilled in reading and applying visual language.
For young designers it is crucial to master the language of images and treat them as a full grown language (within the western european conventions in which this game is developed). Being not yet conscious about the possible layered meanings of certain image constructions, students can’t consciously argument on the power of images, nor are they able to see their imprint. The power of directing meaning through images and through design is therefore not used – or at least not consciously used – resulting in a visual outcome that often does not correspond with the intended message. In order to prevent a low, trivial performance in visual expression, and prepare (future) professionals with solid skills in codification / decodification of visual communication an effective practice- based learning experience.
Separating the goal of the game from the learning outcome ensures that students are focusing on the play itself and not on the learning outcomes. This enables the student to increase her motivation to play. Once motivated and feeling competent, she attempts to improve – and even master – the competence by means of play.
What are the VLCards
The deck consists of four categories: composition forms; laws of gestalt; visual principles; and visual characteristics. For the game, the fifth category with player-roles was added. Using the cards tends to stimulate and guide one’s creativity without fear of getting stuck in conceptual obstacle-thinking.
For experienced designers, the VLCards function as a handy toolbox while designing and also when talking to clients.
Beginners can use the VLCards as a playful learning experience to increase abilities on visual language.
Content of the Cards
COMPOSITION
Composition is all about arrangement. Is an strategy of disposing the elements that create an image to have a certain impact/ emotion on the viewer. It involves how the elements are placed and according to which (invisible) lines.
LAWS OF GESTALT
Regularities according to which the perceptual input is organized into unitary forms or groups of forms. The relation between elements may cause the effect of being a group that makes sense in the overall image.
PRINCIPLES
The rules (or grammar) to combine elements and give clarity and meaning. The way elements and rules are used determines the message of the final composition
CHARACTERISTICS
These cards are all about the value given to an element, connected to ideas or emotions. The characteristics is a category of cards that describe a more metaphorical approach to visual elements and their construct in an image.
“Fun! it was an enthusiastic competitive way to work”.
“I found it a better way to learn by playing than just learning from a book or presentation”.
“It was fun to force ourselves making quick works based on certain rules”.