Action-Adventure Game Lab for Climate Justice – Berlin, June 26th to July 2nd

“… ice sheets are melting faster than the models projected, but resistance is beginning to boil. In these

existing and nascent movements we now have clear glimpses of the kind of dedication and imagination

demanded of everyone who is alive and breathing during climate change’s ‘decade zero.’”  Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything, 2014.

“To hack is to differ” McKenzie Wark, Hacker Manifesto, 2004.

Following Naomi Klein’s “This Changes Everything. Capitalism vs. The Climate”, The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (Labofii) assumes that in the face of climate change not only our ways of living, but also our definitions of art and protest will have to change. In the lead up to the Paris COP21 Climate Summit in December 2015, the Labofii is collaborating with the climate justice movements to create a new form of political engagement: Throughout 2015, a digital online and offline action-adventure game will be developed via a series of hackathons/labs that will bring artists, activists, designers, scientists, hackers, architects, gamers, performers and other citizens together to conceptualise and build the game together. Thus, we will explore the edge between public space and cyberspace, the virtual and the real, the world of gaming and the world of

activism.

This mass participation trans-media framework will merge the street, bodies and cyberspace, and will turn the city into a playing field of creative resistance open to all. In the game, teams will aim to achieve missions, in which they can score points by taking action against climate change and for climate justice, in one city or beyond. These will be non-violent forms of creative action such as performative interventions and political street art, confronting the influence of lobbyists on the United Nations or protesting open cast coalmines. These actions take place without central coordination but teams can use an open source smart phone application to report in real time on their achievements.

From 26th June to 2nd July 2015, the “Action-Adventure Game Lab for Climate Justice” will take place in Berlin during the Foreign Affairs festival. It will be a week of collaboration and sharing knowledge, a lively workshop in which creative forms of resistance will be introduced and discussed, a space of intense cooperation and self-management, using popular educational tools, games and horizontal forms of decision-making.

There will be an opening gathering and introduction on the evening of 25th June for those who are or can be

around earlier.

The lab is free but places are limited and we need to balance the participants with different skills.

Please use the online form to register!

The deadline for applications is Sunday 7th June (midnight). We will let you know if you have a place by Wednesday 10 June.

We cannot cover accommodation costs, but can help find hosts if needed. A free lunch will be provided to all participants during the event.