Games / en A history of board games comes to U of T’s Fisher Library /news/history-board-games-comes-u-t-s-fisher-library <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">A history of board games comes to U of T’s Fisher Library </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Games%20MAIN.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=zG1OcafT 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Games%20MAIN.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=0NSX8qIz 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Games%20MAIN.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=N7YPCeGj 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Games%20MAIN.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=zG1OcafT" alt="Alice in Wonderland"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Romi Levine</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-02-15T14:32:52-05:00" title="Wednesday, February 15, 2017 - 14:32" class="datetime">Wed, 02/15/2017 - 14:32</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">“The new and diverting game of Alice in Wonderland” is on display at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library (photos by Romi Levine)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Romi Levine</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fisher-library" hreflang="en">Fisher Library</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/games" hreflang="en">Games</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/history" hreflang="en">History</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Frigid winter days are a great excuse to stay indoors with good company and a pile of board games.</p> <p>As you roll the dice, reflect on this: you’re participating in a tradition of game-playing that dates back to ancient Mesopotamia.</p> <p>This month, the more recent history of board and card games is being explored in an exhibit at the University of Toronto's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.</p> <p>Curated by Fisher librarian <strong>Chris Young</strong>, “<a href="https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/exhibitions/monthly">Ludos Ludere: Games to Play</a>” looks at the ways games reflect the culture and values of the time they were created.</p> <p>“One of our mandates with special collections is to try and collect not just a range of diverse cultures in whatever form they come –&nbsp;but also a wide range of printed material,” says Young.</p> <p>&nbsp;<img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3447 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/HG%20Wells.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>A copy of H.G. Wells's 1911 “Floor Games”&nbsp;about children’s games is on display at the exhibit</em></p> <p>While games in different forms have been played for many centuries, board and card games are a relatively recent invention.</p> <p>“Card games and the books about card games were all made from the 17th century onwards when cards were easy to manufacture cheaply because of the printing press,&nbsp;cheaper paper materials, and mass production of ink and presses,” says Young.</p> <p>The popularity of gaming rose to the point where even famed authors like H.G. Wells&nbsp;were keen on writing about the pastime. The science fiction novelist published <em>Floor Games</em> in 1911 about various children’s games – a copy of which is on display in the exhibit.</p> <p>Most of the games on display are no longer played or manufactured but they all have ties to contemporary counterparts, says Young.</p> <p>“You can see how games people tend to play today are derived from other early genres that may no longer exist.</p> <p>Here are some of the games to check out at the exhibit:</p> <h4><u>Lotería: La suerte que habla, 2016</u><br> &nbsp;</h4> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3448 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Loteria.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p>The only contemporary game on display, Loteria<em> </em>is a true reflection of today’s political and cultural landscape.</p> <p>This modern take on a traditional Mexican game uses a board similar to Bingo with images instead of numbers. A riddle is read out loud, corresponding to a specific image – many of which are ripped right from the headlines.</p> <h4><u>The money game: how to play it,&nbsp;1928</u><br> &nbsp;</h4> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3449 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Wall%20Street.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p>It was mere&nbsp;coincidence that this economics-based game was released at a time when the world was in financial turmoil.</p> <p>The game looks like a book when closed, but it opens into a detailed set of instructions with a number of game pieces.</p> <p>“You’re trying to gather resources at a cheap cost from other players based on how many of that specific resource they have,” Young says.</p> <h4><u>Myriorama: a collection of many hundred landscapes, 1824</u><br> &nbsp;</h4> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3450 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Myriorama.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p>There’s no winning or losing in this game – players can place the hand-coloured panels in any order they wish.</p> <p>They are illustrated in a way that no matter what order they are played, the landscape will look complete.&nbsp;</p> <h4><u>The new and diverting game of Alice in Wonderland, 1898&nbsp;</u></h4> <p>Forty years after Charles Lutwidge Dodgson a.k.a. Lewis Carroll’s whimsical novel was published, this card game was released.&nbsp;</p> <p>The aim of the game is to make complete sets of a certain type of card. Illustrations on each card have been adapted from the book’s original art drawn by John Tenniel.</p> <p>“Cards were easy to be bought, distributed and played in almost any context because they fit in your pocket,” says Young.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 15 Feb 2017 19:32:52 +0000 Romi Levine 104955 at #Rio2016: οcheers for its Olympic athletes /news/rio2016-u-t-cheers-its-olympic-athletes <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">#Rio2016: οcheers for its Olympic athletes</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-08-05-olympics-2.jpg?h=80fdb8f8&amp;itok=C_OUo-EN 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-08-05-olympics-2.jpg?h=80fdb8f8&amp;itok=aohh9BkH 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-08-05-olympics-2.jpg?h=80fdb8f8&amp;itok=KiuUpsgI 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-08-05-olympics-2.jpg?h=80fdb8f8&amp;itok=C_OUo-EN" alt="photo of Christine Sinclair"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>krisha</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-08-05T16:07:40-04:00" title="Friday, August 5, 2016 - 16:07" class="datetime">Fri, 08/05/2016 - 16:07</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Christine Sinclair #12 of Canada scores their second goal during the match between Canada and Australia womens football for the summer olympics at Arena Corinthians on August 3, 2016 in Sao Paulo, Brazil (photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/arthur-kaptainis" hreflang="en">Arthur Kaptainis</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Arthur Kaptainis </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/olympics" hreflang="en">Olympics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/games" hreflang="en">Games</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-kinesiology-physical-education" hreflang="en">Faculty of Kinesiology &amp; Physical Education</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The excitement started even before the&nbsp;opening ceremonies –&nbsp;with a 2-0 victory by the Canadian women’s soccer team over Australia on the first day of competition.</p> <p>But which athletes and teams will University of Toronto students and faculty be cheering for&nbsp;at&nbsp;the 2016&nbsp;Summer Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro?</p> <p>“Team Canada, of course,” said <strong>Ayesha Ali</strong>. A&nbsp;third-year student from University College at the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science, Ali&nbsp;works the welcome desk at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport. She likes swimming – where Canadians appear to have good chances – and track and field events of all types.</p> <p>As a global health major, Ali is less impressed with the measures undertaken by the authorities. The Zika virus threat needs to be taken more seriously, she says.</p> <p>“They’re telling people to come at their own discretion,” Ali said. “I wouldn’t feel safe going there.</p> <p>‘The [Brazilian]&nbsp;government could definitely do more to make sure its citizens as well as tourists are protected. And the Olympic organization could have been better prepared.”</p> <p><strong>Melanie Yu</strong>, a Rotman Commerce student who is president of the student-run University of Toronto Sports and Business Association (UTSB), counts herself among the thousands of οpeople (and perhaps millions of Canadians) with a special affection for 2012&nbsp;gold medalist&nbsp;<strong>Rosie MacLennan</strong>&nbsp;–&nbsp;the Kinesiology &amp; Physical Education grad student and two-time trampoline Olympian who was named flag bearer for Canada.</p> <p>“I can't wait to watch her bring home gold,” Yu said. “Her story is so inspiring and I think she is such a great role model.”</p> <p>Yu’s favourite sport, however, is basketball. “It's exciting to see the Canadian team back in action again,” she said of the women’s squad from which so much is expected.</p> <p>“And Canadian pride aside, I'm also looking forward to watching the U.S. basketball teams – both men and women – as they have many superstars on both teams.”</p> <p>To say Dr. <strong>Doug Richards</strong>, medical director of David L. MacIntosh Sport Medicine Clinic, is a supporter of the Canadian women’s basketball team is putting it mildly. This associate professor at the Faculty of Kinesiology &amp; Physical Education (KPE) was the team physician from 1987 until after the London Olympics of 2012.</p> <p>Richards has treated the five newcomers to the basketball team as well as the seven veterans of 2012. “They are legitimate medal contenders,” he says.</p> <p>Richards also likes the chances of the Canadian Beach Volleyball teams. Again, his opinion has some authority, Richards having served as team physician from 1997 to 2014 and knowing well the three οalumni on the teams (<strong>Heather Bansley</strong>, <strong>Josh Binstock</strong> and <strong>Kristina Valjas</strong>) who played indoor volleyball for the Varsity Blues.</p> <p>Richards’s wife, Blues volleyball coach <strong>Kristine Drakich</strong>, has coached both Bansley and Valjas. His brother-in-law <strong>Ed Drakich</strong>, a former Blues coach, is the technical director of the Olympic Beach Volleyball event, a role Drakich played also in Beijing, London and in the Toronto 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games.</p> <p>&nbsp;And as chief medical officer of the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, situated on the University of Toronto Scarborough campus, he has frequent interaction with swimmers and wheelchair basketball athletes. Both the Canadian men and women wheelchair teams have qualified for Rio Paralympics.</p> <p>“Of course I will be interested in many of the οand KPE alums in other sports,” Richards adds. “<strong>Rosie MacLennan</strong>, <strong>Michelle Li</strong> (badminton) and<strong> Kylie Masse</strong> (swimming) have all been among my students in two undergrad KPE courses. The first two on that list have been my patients. I will be rooting them all along.”</p> <p>Not all the enthusiasm is confined to Canada. Yu reports that she and many of her UTSB&nbsp;colleagues are fans of the British track and field star Jessica Ennis-Hill, who will be competing in the heptathlon. “She’s overcome various injuries throughout the years and also gave birth in 2014 but is looking to retain the Olympic title,” Yu observes.</p> <p>Vice-president and principal of οScarborough&nbsp;<strong>Bruce Kidd</strong>, a former Olympian, says he will be following the fortunes of Dutee Chand (India, 100 metres) and Caster Semanya (South Africa, 800 metres) with special interest. These runners have been the subject of controversy owing to their failure to meet the International Olympic Committee’s former hyperandrogenism regulations – which Chand overturned through an appeal to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport.</p> <p>“Both women have been vilified in the media and ostracized by some members of the sports community,” says Kidd, a leading figure in the campaign to abolish the Olympic sex test. “They will no doubt face extra pressure in Rio.</p> <p>“Yet they have persisted, kept their heads high and made the Olympic standard to qualify for Rio. They are such remarkable and courageous women, I will be cheering loudly for them.”</p> <p>Kidd will also be solidly behind the οstudents and alumni competing in Rio, many of whom he knows personally and has taught. “Such a thoughtful, determined and unassuming champion,” he says of modern pentathlete<strong> Donna Vakalis</strong>.</p> <p>As well as Binstock, Li and MacLennan, Kidd mentions <strong>Crispin Duenas</strong> (archery) and four women from the οTrack Club: <strong>Alicia Brown</strong>, <strong>Micha Powell</strong>, <strong>Andrea Seccafien</strong> and <strong>Gabriela Stafford</strong>. &nbsp;“I admire these athletes so much.”</p> <p>Water quality in Rio has generated some headlines but the more enduring Olympic problem is doping. Richards, who has lectured on the subject in various courses, feels that progress is being made.</p> <p>“While the recent spat of positive re-tests and scandals emerging from Russia, Kenya, Jamaica and elsewhere could add fuel to a cynic's fire, I am more of a glass-half-full optimistic kind of guy,” he said. “I think the IOC faced a very difficult decision, both legally and ethically, as do the various international sport federations that are now dealing with each sport and its Russian athletes on a case-by-case basis.”</p> <p>Canadian athletes, he adds, are consistently among the cleanest in the world.</p> <p>For Professor<strong> Ira Jacobs</strong>, dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology &amp; Physical Education, part of the thrill of Rio is waiting to see if – or more likely when – the next plateau in human performance is reached.</p> <p>“I invariably get quite excited just before and during each and every Olympic and Paralympic Games,” he said. “On one level that excitement is because of the emotional high of seeing true excellence in a human endeavour personified in the remarkable athletes regardless of their nationality.&nbsp;</p> <p>“On a professional level, my exercise physiology research has involved the study of physiological capacities and limitations. As dean, I also closely follow the sports-focused research of my colleagues in the social sciences and humanities. So I think I have a good grasp of the magnitude of both physical and cognitive training that goes into the preparation of a high-performance athlete.</p> <p>“Yet in every Games there is at least one remarkable performance that has me questioning my knowledge and leading me to ask: ‘How is that performance possible?’</p> <p>“I’m quite excited to see when the question first materializes during the Rio Games. And hoping it will be associated with a Canadian athlete’s performance!”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 05 Aug 2016 20:07:40 +0000 krisha 99622 at