Play can challenge our imaginations by providing us with open-ended, self-directed experiences outside of extractive systems. Play puts us in contact with the complexity of the world, with humans, materials and ecosystems that surround us. It provides time and space to experience wonders and frictions, to (re)define ourselves and the universe that holds us.

Experimental Play takes place within a conscious political framework of embodied experience, sharing, critique and reflection. Experimental Play develops and depends on many things: materials, events, settings, scenarios, games, toys, infrastructures, instructions, environments, installations and communities.

Experimental Play continuously investigates and questions conventional modes of play. At the same time it takes seriously and builds on the rich tradition of play cultures that gave birth to the theater, to ritual and dance, to board and video games, hacking and creative technology practices.

The MA programme Spiel und Objekt / Experimental Play provides a small group of students with time and space to develop the art, skills and the diverse set of technological, material and social crafts that allow new forms of play to emerge.

In a two year programme of workshops, seminars and continuous mentoring, students build core competencies, such as process-driven artistic project development, critical play and interaction literacy, the crafts to work with digital technologies, new and old media & materialities, strategies for collaborative work and survival skills in the cultural sector and beyond.

Play forms the foundation of all studies at Ernst Busch University of Theatre Arts (HfS). The MA Spiel und Objekt / Experimental Play investigates these foundations and engages collaboratively with all disciplines at HfS as well as the other art universities of Berlin.

The Spiel und Objekt MA programme was founded in 2018 by Prof. Friedrich Kirschner and developed in collaboration with numerous colleagues, including Clemens Winkler, Julian Jungel and Prof. Hannah Perner-Wilson. Since 2025, MA Spiel und Objekt (newly translated as Experimental Play) is jointly directed by Prof. Hannah Perner-Wilson and Prof. Sebastian Quack.

Learn more at https://spielundobjekt.de