All welcome, pre-registration required

This interactive workshop explores how game mechanics mirror systems of efficiency, competition and rationalisation. Facilitated by Carlos Paez Gonzalez, participants are invited to engage in multiple non-strategic, cooperative variations of chess, where rules can be reinterpreted, disrupted or abandoned in favour of conversation, improvisation and shared play. Moving between gameplay and discussion, the session encourages participants to reflect on how structures of logic and productivity shape interaction & creation, while opening space for alternative modes of engagement grounded in abstraction, uncertainty and collective meaning-making.

This programme is organised by Assembly 2025-2026 member Vaishnavi Pramodh as part of the Youth Takeover 2026.

Carlos Paez Gonzalez is a multidisciplinary theater artist, game designer and educator based in Abu Dhabi. His work focuses on community, using his knowledge as a game designer to create systems in performances that lead to expressive audience participation. Carlos has been working in English-speaking community theater spaces in the UAE since the age of 15, with groups like Resuscitation Theatre and Beyond the Veil. After completing a BA (Hons.) in Theater at NYUAD, Carlos stayed in the city, continuing to work in theater and growing the community through initiatives like Performance Co/lab and Performance Co//ective at 421 Art Campus. Carlos has also created original works of performance that have been shown in venues around the country, such as Alserkal Arts Foundation, 421 Art Campus, The Junction and Dubai Expo 2020. He is currently pursuing a MFA in Art & Media at NYUAD.

Vaishnavi Pramodh is an Indian-born, UAE-raised filmmaker and art director, whose works use humour and irony to explore the complex and transient nature of immigrant life. Influenced by her background in the visual arts, she uses surreal narratives and satirised visual motifs to explore identity, fear and loss of the self under rigid societal frameworks.