Embassy of Otherwhere
What kinds of approaches facilitate connection between people with no existing ties?
As a waspy northeastern person trained in fast-paced and somewhat transactional city culture, when I moved to Portland I was intrigued that people would linger over small talk with passersby and with cashiers at the grocery store. I decided I needed to research talking to strangers. First, I created the Embassy of California and learned some important principles about approaching random strangers on the street. Most importantly, 1. Approach people where they are already relaxed and social, and: 2. Have interesting props.
To this end I created a new institution, Embassy of Otherwhere, and designed a meeting-strangers game which was deployed at the Multnomah County Central Library and at KSMoCA, Portland, in November 2017.
The game was also included in Lauren Moran’s book, Scores for a Block Party.
