Prison reforms, fair nation­al bud­gets, jus­tice for immi­grants, the appro­pri­ate deter­mi­na­tion of tax bur­dens, the erad­i­ca­tion of racial seg­re­ga­tion in schools, the fight against cor­rup­tion, or the ques­tion­ing of police sur­veil­lance of the broad public—all of these are top­ics for the Cen­tre for Artis­tic Activism (C4AA). What is unique in their work is the com­bi­na­tion of art meth­ods and for­mats with social move­ments. In work­shops, sem­i­nars, sum­mer acad­e­mies, and oth­er pro­grams, they dis­cuss the motives and work­ing meth­ods of dif­fer­ent groups togeth­er with artists and peo­ple who are pri­mar­i­ly active in social move­ments. This is intend­ed to sharp­en demands and orga­nize actions in a more direct­ed man­ner. Every­thing else, accord­ing to the founders of the orga­ni­za­tion, would be an unfor­giv­able strate­gic mistake.

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While it is usu­al­ly only polit­i­cal and munic­i­pal deci­sion-mak­ers who sit around the table to decide on urban plan­ning projects, the games cre­at­ed by the Play the City agency bring var­i­ous groups and play­ers togeth­er: employ­ees of city admin­is­tra­tions, neigh­bor­hood res­i­dents, local busi­ness own­ers, ini­tia­tives, but also rep­re­sen­ta­tives of real estate com­pa­nies, archi­tec­ture offices, and many more. Every­one should par­take in the dis­cus­sion and deci­sions. At least, that is the great premise of the game. It should be played in the run-up to large-scale con­struc­tion and urban devel­op­ment projects, say those who devel­op the game to suit local con­texts, to expe­dite con­sen­sus build­ing, sup­port deci­sion mak­ing, and resolve conflicts.

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The young Berlin col­lec­tive No Shade seeks to change the music and club scene in the long run. For exam­ple, they strive to increase the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of female, non-bina­ry, and trans DJs and visu­al artists in the club scene through the orga­ni­za­tion of a reg­u­lar club night and a series of train­ing pro­grams. The col­lec­tive also wants to bet­ter net­work the var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties, crews, and club-goers to build a more sol­id foun­da­tion. These net­works, sup­port mech­a­nisms, and tools are essen­tial for keep­ing the some­times frag­ile, often pre­car­i­ous, fre­quent­ly iso­lat­ed, and most­ly par­al­lel-exist­ing sys­tems alive and fur­ther strength­en them by cre­at­ing moments of solidarity.

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