Papercrafting Utopia. Gaming Literacies from Bauhaus to Nintendo Labo

Abstract

What does the Bauhaus have to do with Nintendo Labo and the Maker Movement? The text represents a media-pedagogical investigation. It explores the question of the extent to which material studies at the Bauhaus - especially in the preliminary course, the “Vorkurs” – were understood as a field of experimentation in order to test and further develop reform pedagogical approaches. Certain ideals and values are inscribed in this pro-cess, which we can still identify today not only in so-called pioneering communities such as the Maker Movement, but which are also a central component of an educational game such as Nintendo Labo in which we are supposed to use cardboard kits to assemble the components of the Nintendo game console in a new way. These considerations are followed by ideas about play and game literacy, which is outlined here in general terms. Three aspects come to the foreground: (1) a rejection of traditional pedagogical approaches; (2) a fundamental re-evaluation of the possibilities and a radical simplification of the artistic material; and (3) an experimental, playful approach that has an explicitly constructive character.