#collaborative boardgame democratic education codesign studentpress designthinking

[zsofiasonia]

DEMOLAB - UTOPIA FOR EDUCATION  A Co-design project with high school students

Demolab was a 3-year long non-formal artistic-civic educational project funded by UNDEF and ran by DIA in Budapest. It ended in September 2019, and it engaged with and encouraged high-school students to develop social sensitivity and learn democratic self-organisation through methods of critical design thinking. It was run by teachers, activists and artists who believe in the need for a democratised and innovated education. 

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I was honoured to work with the students and an incredible art teacher from the Batthyány Kázmér High School in Szigetszentmiklos with my artist co-facilitator,  Dorottya Vékony.

The outcome of our project (during the 2018/19 school year) was a collaborative board-game that addressed issues young people cared about, such as climate change, technology, loneliness and isolation. (The text on the print designed by students says: ’Talk to me’)  These issues were presented through the flora, fauna, geography and population of the imaginary island San-Miguel (resembling the name of their school which means ’Saint Nicholas Island’). The risograph prints are pages of the Zine the students designed, and they give information about the island (eg: imaginary herbs growing on the island, favourite recipes). The map acts as the board to play the game on. 

The project was given a risograph to work with, and the students felt so empowered by the process that they ended up founding their independent student press (Jelen Kiadó) and publishing their own independent newspaper even throughout the lockdown. 

Their Publications and the Board Game can be downloaded from here.

The 3-year long project ended with the publication of the Demolab-methodology, a documentary and an exhibition (Utopia Áruház  = Utopia Shopping Mall) in one of the abandoned communist-era shopping malls in Budapest.

The Demolab Documentary can be found here.