Funded by the Berlin University Alliance 2021-2022 call for Experimental Science Communication Laboratories
The project “Trash Games: Playing with the Circular Economy Transition at the HdM” has brought together the Chair of Circular Economy and Recycling Technologies (CERT, Technische Universität Berlin) and the Stadtlabor for Multimodal Anthropology (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) to develop and explore games and game design as formats of public engagement with the Circular Economy (CE).
The idea of a circular economy goes beyond current top-down efforts to achieve sustainable development by extending the life of products and the materials they contain through their reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling.
In this project we have experimented with games as a special form of science communication enabling accessible, speculative and interactive forms of participation of non-homogeneous publics in complex topics.
In cooperation with actors of the civic platform “Haus der Materialisierung” – part of the Haus der Statistik, flagship project for community-oriented neighborhood development in Berlin –, as well as other circular economy initiatives from Berlin, we undertook a several months-long research process, resulting in the prototyping of a game that explores potentials and conflicts in the social transition to a collaboratively managed circular economy.
Below you could see the main results of the project.
Project team
– Vera Susanne Rotter (Project lead)
– Tomás Criado (Project co-lead)
– Ignacio Farías (Project co-lead)
– Isabel Ordóñez (Research and Development)
– Johannes Scholz (Project Coordination)
– Petra Beck (Artistic research and documentation, game development)
– Sebastian Quack (Game design)
– Marisol Escorza (Graphic design)
– Sophie Wulf (Student assistant)
– Adriana Flores Franz (Video documentation)
Acknowledgement for the support in the project
– Johannes Bassler (Textilhafen Berlin – Berliner Stadtmission)
– Simone Kellerhoff (Material Mafia)
– Jens Peitan (MHKW Ruhleben – BSR)
– Elena Sofia Stranges (Ort-Schafft-Material)
– Frieder Sölling (Nochmall – BSR)
– Nora Wilhelm (Mitkunstzentrale)
WASTE WHAT? A game on the many ways we can reuse stuff
WASTE WHAT? is an open-source cooperative game, which explores how we can think about materials differently, trying out many ways to keep stuff in use. In the game you play as a material recovery initiative. Your goal is to creatively find new uses for discarded things, closing loops and reducing the amount of waste that is burned.
To download, CLICK HERE!
