Winners and Losers is an intensive four-week program led by creative artists and educators Alice Stewart, Mike Lazer-Walker, and returning favourites Kati Hyppä and Niklas Roy.

Children grow up with a playful instinct. We learn to relate to, interact with and understand other humans through ‘games’. These games teach us notions of competition and cooperation that help acclimatize us to the adult world. Wrapped up in the idea of a game is frequently a notion of winning or losing. How does this conception trickle into our adult psyches and affect the social, economic and physical infrastructure we co-create?

Through world-building, and the creation of interactive and tactile experiences, we will create experimental games in the form of physical artifacts and installations. To do this, we will use both hardware and software to sense and respond to the environment around us as we set out to envision new societies and new modalities of play that might exist within them.

Who is this program for?

Join the diverse movement of digital artists, creative coders, game-modders, art-games communities, experience designers, immersive theatre writers, personal-games advocates, story-tellers, performance artists, street game enthusiasts, and champions of the playful as we spend a month this summer combining technology, storytelling, and experimental games.

This workshop is geared toward anyone involved in creative projects that wish to begin incorporating world-building, interactivity, electronics, and experimental games and experiences into their work or practice. The course approaches game-making from an introductory level. No prior experience is required.

Apply here.