Map The Room x Vū Cafe : Past Lives — An Interactive Dinner With Strangers
Twenty four strangers. A room transformed into a one-night exhibition of crossings.
Rooms to meet new people rarely come with a map. This one does. Map The Room is an artist led, interactive dining experience that creates ways to notice more of the people around you, even before you've met them.
For one Tuesday evening, Map The Room and Vū Cafe invite you into a room inspired by Celine Song's Past Lives, exploring the unlikely encounters, memories, and invisible threads that shape our lives.
Before arriving, you'll answer a short questionnaire. The stories guests share help me shape the evening through curated seating, visual artefacts, conversation prompts, and playful puzzles. Each of these elements offers an invitation to look beyond first impressions, ask more questions, and strike up conversations with people you might not otherwise meet.
What happens next is something we all have a part in shaping.
Season 1 Editions: 1 \ 2 \ 3 \ 4 | 5
Season 2 Film Editions: 6 |
More information: http://maptheroom.xyz
(Note: Photos shown here are from a previous edition in different locations.)
🥢 This season, Map The Room is partnering with restaurants to explore questions inspired by films, using their themes as a lens to look closer at our own lives and the people around us.
🕯️ An evening for the stories and experiences that stay with us throughout different chapters of our lives.
Some things travel with us through life. Maybe they're objects we've kept for years. Maybe they're chance encounters with people that changed our path. Or maybe they're yearnings that keeps resurfacing in different forms.
Inspired by Celine Song's Past Lives and its exploration of inyeon 인연 (因緣) (a Korean concept of the ties between people and their encounters), this gathering begins with the memories, echoes, and invisible threads running through our lives.
But that's only our starting point. Through the questionnaire, you'll also get to share which questions and curiosities within this theme you'd like to explore. I'll look for recurring ideas across the room and let them help shape where the evening goes.
We're really excited to be welcomed by Vū Cafe, a space fittingly shaped by the love of travel and multiple traces of cross-continental inspiration. We'll share a relaxed dinner featuring chicken skewers, mezze and flatbreads with a Mediterranean flair.
Important notes:
🎬 Haven't seen the film? No problem. It's a moodsetter, not required viewing. This event is less about a technical analysis of the film but instead an exploration of how the film's themes show up in our own personal lives.
🫶 Participation is always an invitation, never an obligation. You're welcome to pass on any question or activity, and nobody will be required to share personal stories with the whole room.
🧩 This isn't a workshop or guided healing space. There's nothing to fix, optimize, or figure out. We're here to get curious about the lives already in the room.
🌈 This event is queer-led and queer affirming. As a Chinese gay artist, I bring my own experiences and curiosities to the way I design these gatherings. Everyone is welcome to this event, and no particular identity or experience is assumed.
📝 Before The Dinner
This room begins taking shape before you arrive.
Answer 11 playful and reflective questions. Share a bit about the people, places, memories, and experiences that stay or endure with you throughout different chapters of your life.
(Personal stories may be interpreted to surface a shared thread, but won't be displayed or repeated in full.)
Joining us at the last minute? You're still very welcome!Some exhibition materials are already being prepared, so your answers may not appear in every printed piece. But you'll still be part of the full evening: the curated dinner, playful table rituals, conversation prompts, and room-wide exploration.
🫶 Is this room for you?
You enjoy a little mystery, reflective prompts, and playful problem-solving alongside good food.
You're drawn to conversations that wander into memories, turning points, coincidences, and the unanswerable.
You're curious about the lives people lead beyond their usual introductions.
You like the idea of discovering something about the wider room, even if you don't personally meet everyone.
You’re drawn to the idea of seeing patterns, overlaps, and differences between strangers
You're willing to bring some curiosity of your own. To ask questions, offer a little of yourself, follow an unexpected thread, or entertain a perspective different from yours.
A little bit about what participating looks like:
This is not speed networking, romantic matchmaking, or a guided healing space. But this is an experience we make together. The prepared visual materials and curated offer ways into conversations; what you choose to do with them is part of the evening.
🕯️What the night looks like
7:00-7:30: 👋 Arrival, Meet Your Table Partners, Browse the exhibit displays
When you arrive, you'll receive a pocket dossier introducing you to the room and your part in it. Explore a mini exhibition where guests' questionnaire responses have been interpreted in different ways : from visual maps to questions, curiosities, and playful artefacts. Each offers a different way to notice and learn about the people around you.
Some things might make sense immediately. Others might invite a second look as the evening unfolds.
There's no prescribed route. Follow what catches your attention, strike up a conversation, and see what you discover.
7:45-9:15: ✨ Feast begins
Take your seat and meet the strangers we've placed beside you. Prompts left around the table give you ways into conversation.
9:15-9:45: 🧠 Invisible Threads: A room-wide puzzle
There's another way to read the exhibition you've been exploring all evening. For the final part of our gathering, a cooperative puzzle opens up. Opt in to uncovering more hidden threads between the stories and people in the room.
9:45: 🥂 Open mingling
Follow your curiosity and continue the conversations that draw you in. By the end, you'll have encountered fragments of other people's stories, unexpected patterns, and perhaps a few threads you'll want to follow beyond the evening.
To keep the ambiance intimate, event is capped at 24 guests.
7 people max per table.
💳 Cost
The full experience runs about $107-$118 per person, in two parts: This experience is split into two parts: ticket + food.
🎨 1. Ticket:
Early bird: $56 (First 9 tickets)
Standard price: $68
Paid now to reserve your spot.
Includes: Design of the puzzles, facilitation, and bespoke printed materials.
and...
🍜 2. Food share: 50 per person
Paid by e-transfer at the end of dinner
Does not include: drinks
Pricing reflects this particular venue, menu, materials, and concept. Future Map The Room editions may be priced differently.
Refunds
I understand plans change! I offer refunds with at least 4 days notice before the event (Nov 13 7:00pm). After that point, tickets are non-refundable as materials are prepared and printed in advance.
📸 About Photography and Documentation
Photography Notice
Parts of the evening will be photographed and filmed. You'll be able to indicate your documentation preferences in the questionnaire and can change your mind at the event.
👋 About the Collaboration
Map The Room
is an ongoing dinner experience by Clarence Kitt, a Toronto designer, data visualization artist and facilitator. Each edition transforms what guests share into a bespoke social experience designed to reveal patterns, overlaps, and unexpected connections.
Vū Cafe
Vū Cafe & Studio is an art-filled setting. A place to sip, savor mindful bites, explore local art, and connect through conversation, exhibitions, workshops, and intimate evenings.