Playing with Games – Games as a Socially Relevant Art Form
Over the course of three years, Post Theater, in cooperation with Akademie Schloss Solitude, 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. 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 and experts from the gaming industry, participants 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 is on cultural diversity in society as a central theme for game content. Additional themes will follow in the second and third years.
»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.
Edition 1 – “Café-Diverse” (2025)
How do we want to live together in a diverse urban society? What societal structures shape how we interact – and how can we question them through play? These questions were at the heart of the workshop series »Play a New Bevölkerung«, developed as first part of the project »Game(s)Changer«. Together with local people (ages 18–28) and fellows from the Akademie Schloss Solitude, games were played, analysed, reimagined, and reinvented – as an artistic form of engaging with social issues.
With the final event »Café Divers«, the participants of the workshop series now invite you to a presentation, discussion, and game session:
The »Game(s)Changer« workshop team took on the board game classic “Café International”– and gave it a critical makeover. In the 1989 »Game of the Year«, people were placed in a café and sorted by nationality. More than 35 years later, there are new ideas about how a society defines itself – and how it should interact.
In two new versions of “Café Divers”– an audience can literally play with a more diverse population and debate the questions raised in the project.
The game can be played in performative sessions – only requirements are a calm space and curious participants. Post Theater (1 or 2 persons) host up to 20 people per session of approx. 1 hour.
Contributing team: Hiba, Hanna, Aileen, Lilli, Corrinne, Hiroko, Max.
Zeitplan 2025
1. Block
09.05.2025, 15–19 Uhr:
Kennenlernen und Lieblingsspiele spielen.
10.05.2025, 10–14 Uhr:
Noch mehr spielen und überlegen, warum was wie Spaß macht – und warum nicht.
2. Block
23.05.2025, 15–19 Uhr:
Wie gehen Spiele-Autor*innen vor?
24.05.2025, 10–14 Uhr:
Spielen von Spielen zum Thema Stadt und Gesellschaft. Planen des eigenen Spiels.
3. Block
11.07.2025, 15–19 Uhr:
Wie designed man ein Spiel? Wie baut man Prototypen?
12.07.2025, 10–14 Uhr:
Wir testen unsere eigenen Spiele und entwickeln sie weiter.
4. Block
18.07.2025, 14–19 Uhr:
Wir überarbeiten unsere Spiele und planen die Präsentation.
19.07.2025, 10–19 Uhr:
Der letzte Workshoptag endet um ca. 19 Uhr mit einer öffentlichen Präsentation des Spiels.
Eine Kooperation von Akademie Schloss Solitude und Post Theater
»Game(s)Changer« wird gefördert im Rahmen von Kulturkessel – eine Förderinitiative des Kulturkreises der deutschen Wirtschaft in Stuttgart, ermöglicht durch Mercedes-Benz.