© Rémi Dayre

[Translate to English:] Next Level – Festival for Games

Since 2010, the "Next Level - Festival for Games" has been showcasing interactive and participatory models of digital games culture and illuminating their potential and perspectives. The multi-day event of the NRW KULTURsekretariat has long since established itself as a unique nationwide resonance space for the focussed examination of the art and culture of digital games. The format mix of art, culture, socio-political discourse and experimental gaming fun makes the festival unique and thus one of the most important programme items in the calendar of games and art enthusiasts.

After cycles lasting several years in Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf and most recently at Zollverein in Essen, "Next Level" will return to Dortmund in 2024. In addition to the City of Dortmund, cooperation partners include the Dortmunder U, the Academy for Theatre and Digitality, the Hartware MedienKunstVerein and the Technical University of Dortmund. Significant support is provided by the NRW Ministry of Culture. With a new concept, the upcoming festival edition in autumn will once again present a varied programme of sophisticated games, interactive performances, media education workshops and discussion formats for interested specialist audiences. For the first time, there will be an artistic director, the renowned curator Ulrich Schrauth.

At the centre of the last "Next Level" edition, which was attended by more than 2,300 enthusiastic gamers, was an extensive curated games parcours, which was supplemented by interactive works from the London festival "Now play this". Interactive art performances revealed new aesthetic dimensions and invited visitors to join in.

The first interactive music theatre video game "opera - a future game" by Michael v. zur Mühlen, with texts by Thomas Köck and music by Eloain Lovis Hübner, provided a unique combination of music theatre and game. Since 2023, this work initiated by the NRWKS has been continued in cooperation with the European Centre for the Arts Hellerau, where it was shown in May 2023. Subsequently, performances were given at the A MAZE festival in Berlin, where the production was nominated for the Explorer Award for Playful Media. Further presentations took place at the Leipzig ZIMMT Festival, at the Munich Kammerspiele, at ImPulsTanz Vienna, at Burg Hülshoff - Center for Literature, at the eCommemoration of the Körber Foundation in Hamburg and at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Further dates are being planned. In autumn 2023, "opera - a future game" was awarded the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST 2023 in the "Sound and Media" category.