Project: Pillowtalk — Vidushi Arya

Pillowtalk

Curating a Safe Space: For deeper connections and designing meaningful conversations beyond our physical environments.

Game Design, Experience Design and Social Design
Research, Facilitation, Curation and Art Direction

Pillowtalk on display during the exhibition

WHAT I DID: I designed a card game inspired by bedrooms to help people gently step outside their comfort zones and form new friendships.

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED: A Card Game and an interactive Installation.

METHODS I USED: Research, Dialogue, Illustration, Prototyping, Workshops, Photography

SO, WHY BEDROOMS?

Once you move out of your parents' home, finding a space that feels truly your own can be challenging – your bedroom becomes your home. It’s hard to keep chasing a sense of belonging after you move out.

I set out to find new connections and meaningful friendships in a new city by exploring the ‘Bedroom’ as my site. Bedrooms reflect our personalities and mental states, prompting my exploration of self, space and new relationships. I aimed to answer the following questions:

What do our bedrooms reveal about us and others?

How do comfort and vulnerability coexist in this space?

How can this environment be recreated metaphysically?

Mark Cowper’s series on the ‘Ethelburga Towers’, where he photographed the structurally identical, yet diversely rich and unique living rooms of his fellow residents prompted me to think about our personal spaces as reflections of ourselves during my visit to the Museum of Home (highly recommend it!).

In Samuel Gosling's study A Room with a Cue, he discusses how the time we spend in our personal spaces allows them to become reflections of our identities and moods. He introduces the term "behavioral residue" to describe the traces we leave behind, which reveal our past actions and suggest future behaviors.

I engaged in conversations with people about their bedrooms and asked them to document these spaces for me. These discussions allowed me to test the prototypes of my card game. I discovered that our emotions are often amplified within our bedrooms, as these spaces reflect our mental state and personalities.

THE CARD GAME:

Pillowtalk encourages intimate conversations and free-flowing dialogue amongst new friends. It helps players gently step outside their comfort zones and form friendship and familiarity through tactile engagement.

It allows us to dig deeper than our everyday interactions and engage in a dialogic practice, helping us become empathetic listeners and have meaningful conversations by responding to prompts on the cards.

The game features four categories of cards:
– Window (blue): Ice-breakers
– Bedroom (pink): Bedroom-related topics
– Mirror (yellow): Reflection and feedback
– Comfort (transparent): Promote mindfulness, control the pace and respect boundaries

Pillowtalk

THE EXHIBITION:

To allow the visitors to experience the game, I curated a cozy setting to mirror the intimate atmosphere of my bedroom using my personal belongings/objects to curate a warm and inviting environment. This was an immersive experience where people developed new connections and made new friends/acquaintances by engaging in rapid-fire rounds of the game.

“My Bedroom” curated for the display.

Participant submiting her question.

Peter unveils the photographs behind the blinds at the exhibition.

Participants chatting in the comfortable space during the exhibition.

I created these hand-drawn stickers, featuring objects from my bedroom, to immortalize Pillowtalk and encourage ongoing conversations; they unexpectedly became popular, with people using them as conversation starters.

THE IMPACT:

I created a pocket zine featuring feedback from the participants I spoke to during the test rounds of the game, who also allowed me to document their bedrooms. This feedback has helped me evolve the project by rethinking 'comfort' as a feeling rather than just a physical space — something that can be replicated through these cards to have a meaningful conversation.

Pocket zine recording the feedback from every interaction during the testing. A7 Illustration on Recycled Paper.

During the exhibition, I encouraged participants to submit questions they were curious to ask. The questions revealed a shared interest in deeper dialogue and meaningful connections. The workshop got a positive feedback, helping participants expand their comfort zones beyond physical spaces through their curiosity and emotional connection.

I invited people to submit a question they’d like to see in a potential expansion pack of the game. Pictured here are some of the anonymous submissions.

Photography by Zhiyu Zheng and Vidushi Arya. Bedrooms of Yang, Rohil, Hanan, Jasmine, Zhiyu and Vidushi