A space to play...with the space itself, with the other participants, with ideas in a physical way.

A space to reflect...on the questions being asked, on the new concepts we're discovering, on our own playful practice.

A space to wonder (and wander!)...to explore possibilities, to build utopias, to envision the potential for play in the world.

The Den is inspired by the research project "The Dark Would" established in May 2014 and is based at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL) at the University of Warwick.

By Robbie Foulston.

A not-so-formal opening of The Den, offering participants the opportunity to lose themselves in this playful space, to reflect on their own experiences of play and to start playing with some of the ideas & questions that are likely to re-occur during the conference.

The Den will then be open to play in for the duration Counterplay '17

By Robbie Foulston

Under CounterPlay Festivalen kommer Food Maker og Aarhus Mesterskaberne i Grød forbi Dokk1.

16-28 årige får mulighed for at droppe forbi Food Makers cykelkøkken og være kreativ med en grød. Herefter kan man komme forbi cykelkøkkenet og kreere et supplement til sin frokost i en mini-workshop, hvor der leges med maden.

Food Maker er en bevægelse omkring unge og madglæde i Aarhus. En stor andel af unge i alderen 16-28 år giver udtryk for, at de mangler håndelaget til at lave den mad, de har lyst til. Den udfordring vil Food Maker forsøge at imødekomme. Food Maker giver unge evner til at lave den mad, de har lyst til, og på den måde oplever de den frihed, der følger med, når man lærer nye evner.

I fremtiden skal det være ligeså almindeligt at tage en ven i hånden og mødes for at lave mad, som det er i dag at mødes for at løbe en tur eller tage på café. Det er den bevægelse, Food Maker skaber!

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Visit the Retrographic Studio on Thursday to get that photo of your fabled great-great-grand uncle that you always wished you had taken when you had the chance. Get a living relative or adopt a relative to snap a retrogram® as you pose as your thirtysecond cousin on your aunts side - complete with her pet owl and her weaponry!

By: A Secret Club

All of us can be creative as long as we practise through ideas, material and expressions. Yet, our creative mind can be stopped by doubts that we always need to create something which is beautiful or useful.

What if the whole process is not about creating something beautiful, useful and thorough? What if we consider this creative process as a playful one in which the sky is the only limit?

Join us in the open idea workshop and use your imagination to build your most crazy ideas using cardboard, wood and old toys! You don't need to have a specific purpose and it's not necessary to know what you end up with. Maybe you want to make toys for your invisible friend or an invention nobody can use? The sky is the only limit in this workshop.

Historisk leg

To aktører fra Den Gamle By vil instruere i, og fortælle om, forskellige lege, som kan dateres langt tilbage i tiden. Mange af legene kender man også fra skolegården i dag, en del af legene har udviklet sig over tid til moderne udgaver og andre lege kan nu få sin renæssance. Her vil være mulighed for at deltage i forskellige former for fangelege, små boldspil, sanglege og meget mere.

Historical play/games

Two historical instructors from The Old Town will instruct and tell about the old games and their developments. Many of the games is known from the danish playgrounds today, some has developed into new versions and some deserves to get their renaissance. It will be possible to participate in different kinds of tag, ballgames, singing games and more.

Arrangeret af Den Gamle By.

Join Monsieur Bart in blowing beautiful giant and small bubbles, creating a magical “bubble symphony".

Historisk leg

To aktører fra Den Gamle By vil instruere i, og fortælle om, forskellige lege, som kan dateres langt tilbage i tiden. Mange af legene kender man også fra skolegården i dag, en del af legene har udviklet sig over tid til moderne udgaver og andre lege kan nu få sin renæssance. Her vil være mulighed for at deltage i forskellige former for fangelege, små boldspil, sanglege og meget mere.

Historical play/games

Two historical instructors from The Old Town will instruct and tell about the old games and their developments. Many of the games is known from the danish playgrounds today, some has developed into new versions and some deserves to get their renaissance. It will be possible to participate in different kinds of tag, ballgames, singing games and more.

Arrangeret af Den Gamle By.

If you live in a city - and you don't just want to accept what's there but want to participate in creating and shaping your city and especially your neighborhood? From creative interventions to urban games and civic participation - you can shape the city you live in.

During this workshop, we develop concepts and prototypes that invite citizens to engage in playful activities, shaping and negotiating the rules of public spaces.

Hosted by Gabi Linde.

Politikere, forskere og praktikere diskuterer børns leg og fremtidens krav til kompetencer

Børn har slet ikke samme frihed til at lege som tidligere generationer, og det er et vigtigt politisk spørgsmål, hvordan vi får mere leg ind i børns liv, for vi ved fra forskningen, at fri leg i barndommen er en forudsætning for at udvikle de kreative og innovative kompetencer, der bliver hårdt brug for i fremtidens samfund.

International Play Association Denmark (IPA), Counterplay, Den Gamle By, og BUPL inviterer til debatmøde den 30. marts kl. 13.30-15 i Dokk1 i Aarhus som et led festivalen ”Counterplay '17”.

Paneldeltagere:

-> Lotte Rod, medlem af Folketinget, de Radikale
-> Lisbeth Lauersen, medlem af Aarhus Byråd, Socialdemokratiet
-> Morten Skrubbeltrang, generalsekretær for FDF i Danmark
-> Claus Jensen, faglig sekretær, BUPL Aarhus
-> Helle Skovbjerg, lektor, Aalborg Universitet
-> Carsten Jessen, emeritus, Aarhus Universitet og International Play Association Danmark

Debatten bliver modereret af Henrik Tarp Vang, UCC og IPA
www.ipa-danmark.dk

We’re inviting festval participants, local stakeholders and the general public for a roundtable debate about the playful city. We wish to combine the local and the international perspectives, and hopefully spark more discussions and initiatives.

- What does it mean for a city to be playful? - Who benefits from making a city playful? - How do we develop urban spaces in ways that invite citizens to interact playfully with each other and the surroundings?

Hosted by CounterPlay with participation of the Municipality of Aarhus (represented by city architect Stephen D. Willacy).

A space to play...with the space itself, with the other participants, with ideas in a physical way.

A space to reflect...on the questions being asked, on the new concepts we're discovering, on our own playful practice.

A space to wonder (and wander!)...to explore possibilities, to build utopias, to envision the potential for play in the world.

The Den is inspired by the research project "The Dark Would" established in May 2014 and is based at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL) at the University of Warwick.

By Robbie Foulston.

Try to design your own gameworld with Danish children, Coding Pirates volunteers and researchers from Aarhus University and University College London using the MissionMaker tool developed by the DARE Collaborative at UCL Knowledge Lab in London. Through the workshop you will experience how you can explore Vikings through game making and playful interactions. Experience how children rethink Vikings and work with the game making tools as you work and play alongside them to create your own expression of the Viking world through the MissionMaker tool.

Try to design your own gameworld with Danish children, Coding Pirates volunteers and researchers from Aarhus University and University College London using the MissionMaker tool developed by the DARE Collaborative at UCL Knowledge Lab in London. Through the workshop you will experience how you can explore Vikings through game making and playful interactions. Experience how children rethink Vikings and work with the game making tools as you work and play alongside them to create your own expression of the Viking world through the MissionMaker tool.

Come and try out the ReThink Vikings games made by groups of 40 British children age 7-12 for the Nordic Matters Festival at the Southbank Centre where Danish Coding Pirates ran a workshop with them. Here, you can try to be a Valkyrie saving human souls, the Midgard Serpent battling Vikings, fight against an opponent using tin foil battle axes or demonstrate your strategic capabilities as a Viking chief trying the pillage a British fortification and much more.

Seek out the psychic tattoo parlour of Friday to get your inner beauty tattooed on to your skin for everyone to marvel at!

The future is crystal clear: You will pick a card and be asked a question. Your answer willl give the Ornamentalists an exact glimpse of your inner beauty and swiftly - and relatively painlessly tattoo this on to your skin.

All of us can be creative as long as we practise through ideas, material and expressions. Yet, our creative mind can be stopped by doubts that we always need to create something which is beautiful or useful.

What if the whole process is not about creating something beautiful, useful and thorough? What if we consider this creative process as a playful one in which the sky is the only limit?

Join us in the open idea workshop and use your imagination to build your most crazy ideas using cardboard, wood and old toys! You don't need to have a specific purpose and it's not necessary to know what you end up with. Maybe you want to make toys for your invisible friend or an invention nobody can use? The sky is the only limit in this workshop.

Festlig duo med fuld pizzaskrue, klaverboksning og saxofontrut

Det er en fornøjelse at se børnene gøre store øjne når Jesper (den lange) tager sin saxofon op af den mystiske kasse, spiller på den lille minifløjte eller giver en jazzsolo på klaveret.

Når Thomas (den korte) samtidig med spiller swingende rytmer på sin pizzabakke, giver en mundharpesolo eller går ned blandt børnene med sin kazoo i munden og får børnene til at danse med, er det bare festligt!

Det er noget der rammer børn i alle aldre - og voksne. Kombinationen af en mand der elsker at spille jazz på pizzabakker og en klaverboksende multimusiker der også spiller på saxofon, fløjter, trommer, guitar m.m. - gør at denne koncert er et festligt fyrværkeri af toner i børnehøjde.

Man kan kun gå glad hjem efter sådan en koncert!

Join Monsieur Bart in blowing beautiful giant and small bubbles, creating a magical “bubble symphony”.

Ingen tilmelding - for både børn og voksne.

Bliv inspireret og klædt på til at arbejde med Animation med børn i dagtilbud, SFO og skole.

Stopmotion animation er et mangfoldigt fortælleværktøj, som kan benyttes til at genfortælle de fortællinger vi i forvejen kender og elsker eller være platform for egne idéer og fabuleringer. Igennem denne legende og yderst absorberende arbejdsproces fremmes børnenes kreativitet og samarbejdsevne. Børn lærer at formulere og afprøve deres idéer, hvilket hjælper dem i deres identitetsopbygning og kommunikation med omverdenen. I stopmotion animations værkstedet bliver både børn og voksne præsenteret for en særlig dynamisk og intuitiv måde at skabe fortællinger på, som bevæger sig på krydsfeltet mellem det digitale og det virkelige.

The Political Agora is a game where the players can explore their own and the co-players’ political views. It is not a game you can win, but an exercise in positioning yourself in relation to the other participants and in discussing politics.

Come and challenge yourself, your friends and friendly strangers in an innovative, political debate game that creates a safe space for exploring differing political views and opinions.

By Mikkel Christiansen, Morten Bjørn and Nanna Konge Nielsen

Challenges in contemporary societies call for renewed focus on participation, communities and general education. One of the relevant keys towards a more creative and innovative society might be play. At the CounterPlay festival we examine - through a range of different activities - what role play, as a practice and as a phenomenon, could play in different societal spheres as well as for different people.

Libraries have traditionally - and continues to be - a hub for a range of activities not to mention a range of different people. In this workshop we wish to explore and discuss how libraries can be more playful - for children and adults alike. How can play be used as a driver in creative processes, in democratic debate, and not least in relation to the library collections, literature for instance? What role does new technologies and old materials play? How might play and playfulness be an option for everybody, not only children? And how do we challenge notions of play as being noisy and messy and therefore not suitable for the library space?

The debate (in Danish) is open to the public. There will be talks by interesting people working in the field and opportunities to work hands-on with concepts and ideas for more playful libraries.

Program for the Playful Library track:
10.45-12.15: Workshop
12.15-13.00: Lunch
13.00-14.30: Debate

Registration required - go to registration. Hosted by Stine Liv Johansen and Louise Overgaard.