CounterPlay ’17: Announcements

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We insist that the process of organizing CounterPlay must be as open, inclusive and explorative as (we hope) the festival is. This also makes it slightly more unpredictable and chaotic, and just like when we’re playing, we don’t know exactly where we end up. This is not a bug, but a feature; it is entirely by design (also when we sometimes lose control, how can we make anything playful if we control everything?).

We have, once again, had an overwhelming response to our call for proposals with so many wonderful people suggesting the most amazing and playful activities for CounterPlay ’17. We strive to design a program that mirrors the diversity of play, cultivating a diverse community in the process. We are also moving towards ever more playful formats to create an atmosphere, where everybody feels safe enough to risk not being taken seriously when they interact playfully with each other.

In addition to the amazing proposals, we are working with many good people to design activities specifically for the festival, not least for our special focus on playful cities / playful citizens“, where we will host a range of workshops, play sessions and open debate. There will also be a big, open creative space (the cardboard area from CounterPlay ’16). We are inspired by things like “Stupid Hackathon” and “Hebocon crappy robot contest”, so here you can make stupid, silly, useless things out of everything from digital technologies over wood and cardboard to broken toys.

While the schedule is not yet ready, the structure will be similar to that of CounterPlay ’16, so take a look at that program. This means that there will be “plenary sessions” where we all get together, many parallel tracks with workshops and play sessions, dinner on Thursday evening, and Saturday, April 1st, will once more be organized like an “unconference” for discussion and contemplation. Apart from the things we schedule, the festival wants to be hacked, so we expect numerous playful interventions we won’t know about.

For now, take a look at this list of all the activities and people we have confirmed for the festival – with (much) more to come in the beginning of 2017!

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