Activity 6: The Imaginary Journey
Overview of the activity
To reflect on how heritage is present in one’s life and in that of others. In pairs, participants lead each other through a personal journey using sound.
Objectives
- Gain awareness and explore some elements of heritage and how these impact our memory and life.
- Establish a relationship between heritage (material and immaterial), memory, body and sound.
- Reflect on heritage and how it can be represented without words.
- Reflect on how one’s heritage is present in one’s current life and is related to one’s identity.
| Duration (in minutes) | Min/max number of participants | Room/space requirements |
| 60 minutes |
|
This activity can be done both indoors or outdoors. |
| Minimum knowledge requirements of participants | Materials needed | Preparation |
| No requirements | None required | No prior preparation is needed |
Instructions
- Each participant must think about one heritage element (material or immaterial) related to the place where he/she lives or where he/she was born.
- Create pairs.
- In pairs, participant A guides participant B through a heritage element (material or immaterial) related to the place he/she lives or where he/she was born without using words. Participant B will close their eyes, while participant A uses sounds to recreate the element. Participant A should use sounds, such as whistling, clapping to recreate the heritage element. Participants should not speak to each other and should maintain concentration throughout the activity.
- When everyone is finished with their journey, switch places so that now participant B guides participant A through a heritage element.
- Once both partners have gone through their journeys, they can take a few minutes to share their thoughts and feelings.
- Reform the whole group and debrief the exercise all together.
Evaluation
Some questions for discussion include:
- What was easy and what was difficult?
- Did you discover something about your heritage you hadn’t noticed before?
- What did you like and/or dislike? Were there moments of pleasure? Were there moments of conflict?
- Did you prefer to guide or to be guided?
- How did it feel to be part of someone else’s heritage?
Teaching tips, stories and experiences during piloting
This activity can also be done online.
Additional resources
Boal, A. (1992) Games For Actors and Non-Actors. Routledge: London.