OPIP & SHUM
Dear ETO lovers, we present the OPIP and SHUM tactile and auditory version of the memory game.
The author of the social game OPIP and SHUM, designer Ana Armano Linta explored new versions of the famous social memory game such as we had not seen before.
OPIP and SHUM are based on the sense of touch and hearing. They can be played as an auditory or a tactile memory game or as a stacking or guessing game, and in each case, they have an inclusive character. The games encourage discovering the world by touch and hearing and help develop creativity and the ability to remember. Thanks to this, they are equally interesting to blind, visually impaired or sighted persons and enable playing and socializing together.
The experience of OPIP and SHUM begins by immersing into contact with nature: the retrieval of 16 wooden tiles (OPIP), that is, 16 wooden cubes (SHUM) from a cotton bag.
This is followed by the discovery phase: the tiles are smooth on one side and on the other there are frames for different materials interesting to the touch. The cubes are also a kind of frames: they are recessed and contain different material that make different sounds when shaken.
However, these fine, hand made wooden products are not just a frame for materials, but also for our perception: the moment in which we swich attention to the touch of the finger with OPIP and the ”touch” of our ears with SHUM.
That is the moment we gift to ourselves, free from the haste of everyday life, free from the visual hyperstimulation typical to our society. A moment dedicated to finer senses, but also to friendship, play, surprise, laughter and connecting with others.
2018. In 2018, at the International Festival of Design Plan D, the project OPIP and SHUM won top prize for the best work by young authors presented on the International Exhibition.
OPIP and SHUM are not designed and made only as a tactile and auditory game but as a call to all of us to lead a life that is a little more beautiful and more aware.
Ana Armano Linta received awards for works that are educational, socially and ecologically sustainable: Opip & Shum – top award for ethical design (Zagreb Design Week 2018) and BigSEE awards in the category of small product design and small wood product (2019); Tilty – Co-Create winning product (Milano Design Week 2018); AbOvo – press award (Ambienta 2017).
