The Echo is a board game I created in response to the tabooisation of death, grief and loss.

The choice of theme was influenced by my personal experiences and the reality of recent years in the form of the climate crisis, a COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

The main goal of the project is to break the taboo of death, grief and loss by creating a safe space and giving a pretext for a group of loved ones to talk about their shared loss. The Echo is designed so that the topic addressed is freely chosen. It can be used to talk about the death of a loved one, the death of a pet or a break-up, for example. It is a help to open up memories, thoughts and feelings, both one's own and those of loved ones. It helps to externalise and provides an opportunity for a communal experience of loss while maintaining an individual narrative.

The product is designed for people aged 7 years and over. The Echo can support regular users, therapists, foundations or crisis intervention centres.

It has been developed on the basis of an extensive analysis of the literature, interviews with people with experience of grief and many tests and prototypes of the game. The Echo was created in collaboration with therapists experienced in working with children and adults.

The meeting starts with a reading of the rulesheet combined with a psycho-educational guide developed with the help of therapists. This element is intended to help create a safe and friendly atmosphere. In the middle of the board, participants write down the name of a chosen shared loss. Then, one by one, they share their memories and thoughts around a topic. Aids for selecting and recalling memories are tokens with words and pictures and sensory objects. From these accessories, according to certain rules, the participants create a mind map on the board, which is a visual representation of their shared loss. The interaction between participants is further supported by questions. The meeting ends depending on the willingness of those participating, usually the game naturally evolves into a casual conversation about the loss discussed.

The board has been made of laminated HDF board, which can be written on and wiped off with a marker, and the same material has been used for the rest of the flat accessories for visual consistency.

The sensory objects were made from diverse materials and have different shapes, structures and weights so that they generate multiple associations.

When designing the accessories, I referred to Jungian theory on the individual and collective unconscious and the archetypes he created.

Those who had the opportunity to play The Echo said they had a sense of catharsis at the end. It makes it easier to open up and talk about the loss experienced. The accessory evoked memories, sometimes completely forgotten. Talking about a shared loss gave a fuller picture of the experience in question and, most importantly, strengthened the sense of community and connection.

The Echo is a tool/board game developed in response to the tabooisation of death and grief. Its aim is to create a space and give a pretext for a group of close people to talk about a shared loss.

The choice of theme was influenced by my personal experience and the global reality of recent years in the form of the climate crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Today we are bombarded with death. We know it from drastic images in the media and big numbers. Death is on the one hand everywhere, although at the same time it is still taboo. We often do not know how to deal with the death of a loved one, how to start a conversation with another person, how to ask for help. Nowadays, we are usually left alone with death. At the beginning of the project journey, I asked myself where there is room for grief in the problems described above and how I could help in experiencing this grief.

The answers were developed from an analysis of the literature covering the historical, psychological and project fields of thanatology. Interviews were also conducted with people with experience of grief and, in the next stage, a number of tests and prototypes of the game on a diverse group of users. This process led to the formulation of the following design assumptions.

The main aim of the project is to remove the taboo around death, grief and loss. Until around the mid-nineteenth century, death was not taboo and was an accepted and intrinsic part of social life. As a result of factors such as the development of medicine, the transfer of patients from homes to hospitals or the outbreak of the First and Second World Wars, it gradually became more and more excluded from everyday life. Since the 1960s, with the emergence of the scientific field known as thanatology and the establishment of the first hospices, society has gradually begun to eliminate the taboo associated with death once again. The realities of the last few years, consisting of the aforementioned Covid-19 pandemic, Russia's aggression against Ukraine or the worsening climate crisis, challenge us as a society to face loss even more deeply and to find ways to cope with it.

Another assumption is togetherness and creating a safe space for sharing feelings and emotions. Our ancestors experienced grief in a communal way. They kept vigil at the side of a dying person, organised ceremonial funerals together, helped each other with daily chores after the death of loved ones. The project is intended to support a return to the social experience of loss. Sharing feelings and emotions strengthens interpersonal bonds, helps to experience them in a healthy way and is therefore therapeutic.

Another aspect is the observation that grief is not only about human death. Sigmund Freud was the first to observe this in psychological terms in Mourning and Melancholy, writing that "Grief is regularly a reaction to the loss of a loved one, or of an abstraction taking its place, such as a homeland, freedom, an ideal, etc.". From the respondents' answers during the interviews, it was apparent that grief can refer to the death of pets, to separation from a partner, to emigration from the country, to the loss of a job and many other subjective events. The project therefore aims to give space for experiencing a variety of losses.

The next assumption is to include children in the experience of grief, who are one of the groups excluded from this possibility. A study by Puck Hospice 2021 shows that as many as 73% of parents do not talk to their wards about death. This contributes to the emotional state and general wellbeing of the youngest. Their needs have also been taken into account in the project, so that they see they have the space to talk about difficult things and in the future may be more able to move out of the pattern of tabooing death, grief and loss.

Next, one important aspect of experiencing grief is cherishing the memory of the deceased person. This is possible by remembering moments experienced together and being in this together with other living people. Memory is very much linked to the subject of the narratives we and others keep. Narration allows us to organise our experiences and give them meaning, and sharing them with other people has a developing and therapeutic effect. The project is intended to give space for individual storytelling and for coming together with others.

Related to the aspect of memory is the area of objects, artefacts and memorabilia. They are a kind of connection to the past and can evoke memories associated with loss. The project attempts to recreate this sensory and haptic experience, and the designed accessories (images, words, sensory objects) aim to support the extraction of memories from memory. Their non-literal and abstract nature refers to Jungian theory of symbols and archetypes that function in the individual and collective unconscious.

The result is a tool that, on a game basis, creates a space and gives a pretext for a group of close people (e.g. family, friends, couples) to talk about a shared loss. The Echo is designed so that the topic addressed is arbitrary. It can be used to talk about the death of a loved one, the death of a pet, loss of faith, emigration from the country or any other aspect. It is a help to open up memories, thoughts and feelings, both your own and those of your loved ones. It allows you to externalise yourself and gives you the opportunity to experience loss and grief in a communal way while maintaining your individual narrative. From a psychological point of view, the best time to meet is at the end of grief, when there is a reorganisation of life and an openness to new experiences and conversations about loss.

The Echo is dedicated to people aged 7 and over who are ready and willing to talk with their loved ones about a chosen loss they have experienced together. The most important aspect of participation is that it is voluntary for everyone. The project can also support therapists, foundations or crisis intervention centres.

When designing the accessories, I referred to Jungian theory on the individual and collective unconscious and the archetypes he created. I was also inspired by board games such as Dixit, Secreters or Story Cubes, which use symbolic and metaphorical elements.

The Echo is fitted in a 40x40 centimetres box. Inside there is an instruction booklet combined with a psycho-educational guide, a game board, tokens with pictures and with words and dedicated stands for them, tokens with questions, a bag and sensory objects.

The board is made of laminated HDF board, which can be written on and wiped off with a marker. The same material was also used for the tokens and coasters for visual consistency.

The sensory objects have been made from diverse materials such as ceramics, natural sponge, 3D printing technologies, wood, metal, stone, concrete, glass, cork and fabric. They have different shapes, structures and weights so that they generate multiple associations. The sensory objects were inspired, among other things, by memorabilia from my collection, which I used for playtesting.

The course of the meeting is as follows. First the participants take the game pieces out of the box and prepare them. Then they read the instructions combined with a psycho-educational guide developed with the help of therapists. This element is designed to help create a safe and friendly atmosphere. Among other things, the handbook provides information on what grief is, how to cope with it and who to turn to in difficult times.

In the middle of the board, participants write the name of a chosen, shared loss. Then, one by one, they share their flashbacks and thoughts around a particular topic. Aids for selecting and recalling memories are tokens with words and pictures and sensory objects. From these accessories, a mind map is created on the board according to certain rules, which is a visual representation of the shared loss. The interaction between the participants is further supported by questions. The meeting ends depending on the willingness of the participants, usually the game, after the suggested three rounds, naturally turns into a casual conversation about the loss discussed.

Those who had the opportunity to play The Echo said they had a sense of catharsis at the end. It appeared to make it easier to open up and talk about the loss experienced. Accessory, it brought back memories, sometimes completely forgotten and repressed, and the game gave space to confront them. Seeing a different perspective of one's memory told by another person gave a fuller picture of the experience in question and, most importantly, strengthened the sense of community and connection.