School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe

What if you spent a month in Berlin this summer making games that actually mean something? Not the games you grew up playing. Not the controllers you're used to. Something weirder, more personal, more you! Our July program is for artists, storytellers, performers, filmmakers, musicians and anyone else who has ever thought “I have something to say and I’d love to try and say it through a game!”. You'll work with open source tools like Godot and Arduino, use graphics, sound, and found objects to build games and alternative controllers as feminist art practice. No experience necessary. We seek humans with curiosity and a willingness to be in a room with others who give a damn and who want to play, too. You'll leave with work you made, people you want to keep knowing, and probably a slightly different idea of what a game can be. July 6–31, Berlin. Applications open! Link in bio. Women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and others from under-represented communities in art and tech highly encouraged to apply! #altctrl #gamedesign #feministart #indiegames #berlinsummer #creativecoding #godot #arduino #alternativecontrollers #artandtech #schoolofma #summerschool

Welcome to our Summer 2026 programs! This is a learning trilogy about reclaiming power—over systems, over stories, and over our own bodies and minds. All programs run four-weeks full-time and include a final exhibition at programs end. Additionally, participants are invited to stay for a one-month residency following each program for putting your newfound skills into practice or taking time to learn something new independently in our studio space in Berlin, Mitte. June: Data Cyborg Stories: Investigative Storytelling for Liberation using Data and AI is inspired by OSINT tools like webb.io, designed for the love and support of up-and-coming citizen investigators who want to better understand the current tools of the trade. In a time when the media landscape feels broken, how do we use data and AI to uncover hidden truths? This is about becoming a better detective on behalf of your communities and the issues you care about; for transforming overwhelming information into meaningful investigative art. July: Creating Alt-Ctrl Games as Feminist Practice asks what happens when we diversify who makes the games we play? Video games historically suffer from a lack of diversity and this is us hoping to help change that. You’ll build alternative controllers using found materials, sound, and Godot, an open-source game engine to tell your stories, and turn play into resistance. August: Performative Media as Artistic Practice, Research, and Public Action is about reclaiming your physical presence in a fragmented, digital world. Using TouchDesigner and Ableton, we’ll treat performance not as spectacle, but as a personal tool for bravery and public action. The world is stupid right now. These programs offer a chance to slow down and build something that matters, while connecting with a community of diverse humans who also give a damn about the world. We'll get hands-on with latest tools while having deeper discussions about how the hell we’re going to survive all this together. No prior experience necessary. Bring your openness and curiosity and come join us in Berlin this summer (and beyond)! Group hugs dear community for your support in the development of this work.❤️🍉

Check out our 2026 summer school program brochure for a more informal peek inside our programs, school, and community! Link in bio. We’re running three summer programs focused on three different areas of art and tech: 1) data, ai, openclaw, investigation 2) alt ctrl and videogames from a feminist perspective 3) performance, embodiment, and touchdesigner Please share with your peeps! We’re a tiny org, all support to spread the word is greatly appreciated! In addition, we offering artist-in-residency scholarships to support local Berliners* currently living here at time of application. DEADLINE EXTENDED! APPLY FOR THIS BERLIN ARTIST RESIDENCY UNTIL THURSDAY, 30. April. *Note: Proof of residency may be requested. Women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ encouraged to apply! #art #technology #design #humanconnection #summerschool #berlin #data #ai #openclaw #rag #liberation #altctrl #videogames #feminism #sound #performance #digitalmedia #embodiment #empowerment #schoolofma

¡Hola a todes! El próximo lunes 18 de mayo regresa nuestro encuentro mensual para hispanohablantes en el campo del arte y la tecnología. Para esta quinta edición, teniendo en cuenta que, el propósito principal de estos encuentros es construir comunidad, hemos decidido abordar un tema muy «humano»: el duelo, y hablar de cómo el arte y la tecnología nos han ayudado a transitar este complejo proceso, pero profundamente humano, por el que todos hemos pasado, en especial las personas que hemos migrado <3 Hello, everyone! This coming Monday, May 18th, our monthly gathering for Spanish speakers in the fields of art and technology returns. For this fifth edition, bearing in mind that the primary purpose of these gatherings is to build community, we have decided to address a very "human" theme: grief. We will discuss how art and technology have helped us navigate this complex yet profoundly human process that we have all gone through, particularly those of us who have migrated. <3

Berliners! We got to join in on the @a_mazefest opening night kick-off last night and it was brilliant! If you love indie games or are just curious about what humans are up to these days in the space of alt indie games GO TO THE A MAZE FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND! You won't be disappointed! Congratulations to everyone on the organizing team and everyone showing works there, SO IMPRESSIVE!!! Happy 15 year anniversary and cheers to many more! <3 #playfulmedia #AMaze2026 #arthousegames #indiegames #positivechaos #berlin #schoolofma

Years ago we got the magical opportunity to collab w/ @pictoplasma the brilliant character design festival based in Berlin by hosting a nighttime drawing event for 5 strangers at a time on opening night. At the end, everyone took their drawings of the dreams they wanted to leave behind, behind a curtain for the grand reveal: the festival's mascot "Missing Link" was ready to welcome them and help them to let their bad dreams go! It was so fun to see everyone so excited. <3 While sad to have just missed this years festival in Berlin, SO EXCITED to find that you can ***get a subscription to Pictoplasma*** and still catch the festival and see all the talks you missed!!! And if you sign-up asap, you may also get to see all the animations from the film nights, too! (it says on the site animations will only be up for 24hrs due to licensing). Also: THE ANIMATION FILMS ARE ALWAYS THE BEST!!! HURRY!!! This has been a public service announcement. :) #pictoplasma #pictoplasmaberlin #pictoplasma2026 #animation #films #24hrs #membership #schoolofma

Better than M e t a ads, we have real live postcards! #winning #haha #summerschool #education #games #videogames #altctrl #sound #makers #making #funtimes #berlin #schoolofma :)

Hi to all the new humans following us! Someone must have shared news about us or something, so thanks for that! Just going through the archives. These are a few images from the first ever School of Machines four-week full-time program in 2014 which focused on projection mapping and creating responsive spaces with computer vision. Fun times! A slide from one of our program leads, Chris Sugrue, read: an audiences/participants' imagination is an important part of any interactive experience. Every interactive work has a story and it is only partially written by the creator. That still holds true. A lot of photos were taken back in the day but instagram was still a bit new at the time and there was a desire to not share every single thing on social media of all places. That desire is still true too quite honestly. We hope to be sharing more on our own website soon. Since the beginning, the goal has always been to run great programs, connect with the lovely humans from around the world who joined us, and to empower them to create things that only they could create. It was NOT to make sure the whole world knew exactly what we were up to at all times which seems to be more of the popular trend nowadays. So we probably have some catching up to do and things to share! Keep an eye out! <3 PS: We were never officially sponsored by Club Mate but should have been! Lol. If you know them, tell their people to get in touch. :) #art #tech #design #humanconnection #education #berlin #summerschool #archives #schoolofma

Happy May Day everybody! It's not just a day to celebrate, people gave their lives to fight for workers rights and the eight hour work day. Think today about the power of regular humans rising up because they know deep inside that humans deserve better than [looks around at a world on fire] all this. Peace to all. See you in the streets! Be safe out there. <3 #mayday #workersrights #protest #worldisonfire #besafe #seeyouinthestreets

Dear Berlin peeps, last call! Artist-in-Residence spots are being offered in connection with each of our summer program topics and the deadline to apply is this Thursday! ***Please share with all your communities and friends!*** Local artists with practices relating to: — Data & AI: investigative storytelling for liberation — Game design: alt ctrl games as feminist practice — Performance & media art: as research and public action ... are all welcome to apply! For more info, all links in bio! Fav spots at the Volkspark am Weinberg park across the street included! :D #art #technology #design #data #ai #openclaw #rag #offline #opensource #python #raspberrypi #journalism #truth #ecofeminism #liberation #investigation #summerschool #berlin #schoolofma #nomorewars

I want to start to talk more about this program because I think it's one of the most important programs we've put out into the world. Signals, a program which focused on hidden communication in times of authoritarian regimes which we ran in 2022, was also one of these. The world we are currently living in is ridiculous. Criminality is happening in front of our faces daily, innocent people are dying daily, most governments are complicit, and we have no way to stop any of this. The easiest thing to do is feel defeated or to check out completely but we can't let that happen because then they win. We created this program because we are motivated by those taking power into their own hands, whether artists, independent investigative journalists, or simply concerned citizens who give enough of a damn to dedicate their lives to exposing truth. We want to support these individuals with a deeper understanding of current technologies to do their work more effectively, and to create systems offline so that their work isn't so easily compromised by the algorithms and the people that seek to control us. So please, share this program with all the people you know who might benefit from this work and the supportive community that stems from it. We all need to support each other in being brave, being safe, and doing the work that needs to be done so the future doesn't become even more dystopian than this. We also have two scholarships for Berlin artists with relevant work on this topic. Deadline to apply for Berliners is 30. April. Please help us spread the word. <3 Data Cyborg Stories: Investigative Storytelling for Liberation using Data and AI 1. June - 26. June For more info and to apply, direct link in bio. #art #technology #design #data #ai #openclaw #rag #offline #opensource #python #raspberrypi #journalism #truth #ecofeminism #liberation #investigation #summerschool #berlin #schoolofma #nomorewars

READING CLUB: HOSPICING MODERNITY Join us for our first School of Humans Reading Club event on Wednesday, April 29. 2026 — 18h to 20h The book Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira departs from the assumption that modernity is beyond repair. It asks how we can shift our energy away from trying to ‘fix’ it towards the sticky work of trying to lay to rest the stories, habits and behaviours we inherited from this system. What grief, disillusionment and complexity do we have to befriend to do this work, and how can these states become generative for something else to be born? We gather for an evening to read aloud together and discuss selected sections from the book. If you didn’t read the book before and want to familiarise yourself with the ideas before the session, this video is a helpful introduction: /watch?v=X0ZkOFFmbIY School of Humans is a sister org of @schoolofma