Game(s)Changer

Playing with Games – Games as a Socially Relevant Art Form

 

Over the course of three years, Akademie Schloss Solitude, in cooperation with the artists of Post Theater, is exploring how games can become artistic means of expression that engage with socially relevant questions. In workshops with participants aged 18 to 28, games will be played, analyzed, invented, and presented together.

More games are being played today than ever before – both analog and digital, especially by young adults. This is driven by the increasing availability of games and a growing need for shared recreational activities. Akademie Schloss Solitude and Post Theater invite interested participants to explore gaming itself as well as its potential as a space for experimenting with social issues. Through exchanges with international artists at Akademie Schloss Solitude and experts from the gaming industry, participants will have the opportunity to discover, rethink, and develop games.

A game changer is a radical turning point or a profound transformation in an established process. Players can become game developers and use games to influence contemporary societal discourses – precisely because games allow for a playful approach to understanding and addressing complex topics.

In the first year, the focus will be on cultural diversity in society as a central theme for game content. Additional themes will follow in the second and third years.

A cooperation between Akademie Schloss Solitude and Post Theater

»Game(s)Changer« is supported as part of Kulturkessel, a funding initiative of the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft in Stuttgart, made possible by Mercedes-Benz.

Theme 2025 with Open Call
»Play a New Bevölkerung – How Do We Want to Live Together?«

Have you ever played a board or computer game and wished it were different? More cooperative or with new ways to win? With opportunities to take on a different role? Or have you ever thought about what could make a game more exciting — or how it could better connect to your own world? Games tell us a lot about the world — but whose world? What would the world look like if we invented it ourselves and played within it?

In four workshop sessions (each lasting half a weekend, between May and July 2025) at Akademie Schloss Solitude, gaming enthusiasts will have the chance to explore the people behind game development. What themes and situations do games engage with? »Game(s)Changer« offers not only exciting insights into cultural backgrounds and game mechanics but also opportunities for exchange with international artists at Akademie Schloss Solitude and experts from the gaming world. Together with participants, we will explore the world of games and its diverse possibilities and formats, invent a (social) game, and present it at the end of the sessions.

A total of four workshop sessions on the theme »Play a New Bevölkerung – How Do We Want to Live Together?« will take place at Akademie Schloss Solitude in May and July 2025.

🔗 Find the Open Call here.