2023 · Aida Baradari & Alice Cai
“The most powerful human ability is the ability to change ourselves.”
GameChanger is an experimental narrative-based framework inspired by Jungian psychology that facilitates personal transformation. It incorporates low-tech games (such as the “Yes, & game”) and meditations organized in three phases: Awareness, Acceptance, and Enactment.
We created this system through rigorous self-experimentation, testing creative methodologies in our own lives. The current web prototype represents initial insights, with plans to expand into additional mediums.
“Technology is inseparable from practice. To develop augmentation technology is to develop the practices that humans engage in their lives.”
The framework rejects viewing technology as isolated systems, instead emphasizing phenomenology—objects gain meaning through human experience and interpretation. Technology and human practice form an integrated whole.
“Light is the left hand of darkness…” — Ursula K. Le Guin
The initial phase involves self-discovery and identifying root causes for desired change.
Exercise: Carry a pen, document triggers of discomfort (conversations, events, objects), and write “Shadows” on your arm as a tangible reminder.
Embracing dynamic, passionate existence — Jack Kerouac
The Yes, & Game: A structured interaction using “antagonism and empathy” to examine personal narratives and how others perceive you.
Imaging: Free exploration of potential selves through imagination rather than adopting external narratives.
Exercise: Document alternative life possibilities and write “Visions” on your arm.
“今ここで (ima koko de). Here, now.”
Drawing from psycho-cybernetics, this phase emphasizes action preceding definition. Change manifests through lived experience.
Exercise: Collect evidence of new identity enactment through daily moments and actions, marking “proof” on your arm.
We continue self-testing and refining the framework before broader expansion.