Workshop Statement

The Game of Dobble Debate: Play, Difference, and Coexistence is a research-creation project that investigates learning through design iteration, humor and play in the form of a card game, in order to encourage discussions about difference. Differing abilities are traditionally designated as disabilities but they could also be extraordinary ability, such as synesthesia. In the last decade, the role of game as a catalyst became foregrounded in various fields particularly in education and healthcare. This workshop aims to elucidate the difference and difficulties that is elicited through using play and humor rather than traditional play strategies. The Dobble Debate concept and practice was developed at OCAD University in Toronto. In addition to practice tests and successful introductory local workshops it was also presented at Transitio_MX06, Mexico City, the 17th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association 2016, Bologna Italy, and Multimedia, Cognition, – Art Therapy 2016 in Guanajuato, Mexico. Our aim is to improve the literacy of our workshop participants through this active participation creating a broader awareness. This will eventually contribute to grassroots participation in policy making. The goal is to create a deeper and more informed understanding and concern for different abilities – hopefully effecting positive societal change.

• Lynne Heller, Assistant Professor, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada, is a post-disciplinary artist, an educator and academic. Her interests encompass material culture, new media performative interaction, graphic novels and sculptural installation. Heller completed her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 and her PhD in 2016 at University College Dublin, Ireland from the department of Gender, Culture and Identity in the School of Humanities and Arts, with a research focus on feminist practice in online culture. Her research was practice-based, with a specialty in Digital Media Arts.  She is an Assistant Professor at OCAD University in the Faculty of Design, as well as being co-director of the Data Materialization Lab. She is also an adjunct faculty member of SMARTlab, Ireland.Heller has an extensive exhibition record both nationally and internationally and is the recipient of grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Canada. Recent exhibitions include Slippage at the Robert Langen Art Gallery, University at Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Chelsea Girls, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON, Homeostasis Lab, The Wrong – New Digital Art Biennale, made and exhibited worldwide, Another Season: An International Exchange Project, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON (the exhibition travelled to the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, the Detroit Centre for Contemporary Photography, and the Hippolyte Photographic Gallery, Helsinki) and Hysteria: Past, Present, Future curated by Anonda Bell, Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, USA. She exhibited this past year at WARC Gallery, Toronto, ON, ISEA2014, Dubai, UAE, touring – Salisbury, Leicester, Bristol, London and online, 2014-15. Recent publications include the chapter “Found Objects, Bought Selves” in New Opportunities for Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds, ed. Dr. Denise Doyle. Heller has run her own communications business since 1997, designing web sites for award winning projects such as Things That Matter: Stories of Living with Colorectal Cancer funded by the Canadian Cancer Society and Virtual Coach — a pain management tool for breast cancer patients funded by the University Health Network and the Centre for Global eHealth Innovations. lynneheller.com
• Anna Lew is a Communication Designer based in Toronto, Canada.  annalew.com
• Nina Czegledy, curator, Hungary/Canada
• Judith Doyle, Associate Professor, Faculty of Art, Graduate Studies, OCAD University, Canada.  .ocadu.ca/bio/judith-doyle-0
• Martin Shook