School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe

08/09/2026

Creative Berliners! New 8-week After Hours evening course to get hands-on with the technical and ethical implications of designing your own AI agent. Come join us! Opportunities for need-based scholarships and work-study until 21. September! https://www.schoolofma.org/programs/p/fall2026-after-hours-ai-agent

08/09/2026

Dear community,

we’re excited to share our upcoming After Hours evening course with you: (AI) Agent Provocateurs!
This course is about empowering humans to understand what’s under the hood of Al; how getting your hands dirty building an autonomous system yourself, and having to make your own ethical decisions along the way, can offer you a much deeper grasp of just how complex what’s happening in the world of tech and Al really is.

We need more good humans who understand the technical and ethical perspectives simultaneously, so this is us aiming to empower you to help make that change.

Our community is thoughtful, politically-engaged, critical and working with the latest tools that make this kind of work accessible to artists, creatives and other curious humans. Come join us!

This will be an eight-week evening program based IRL at Acud Macht Neu / School of Machines this Autumn!
We offer a limited amount of need-based scholarship opportunities and work exchanges for this program, apply until 21. September.

See website for more info.
(Al) Agent Provocateurs
Thursdays, 6-9pm
For more information and to sign-up, link here and in bio!
https://www.schoolofma.org/programs/p/fall2026-after-hours-ai-agent

01/09/2026

Hi Berliners! This is the first of a few events we have going on at this years Berlin New Media Festival this week. If you're curious about new media art and want some mentorship/support for your ideas, come join us! https://www.schoolofma.org/.../p/berlin-new-media-week-2026

21/08/2026

Berliner friends, we've had an amazing month with lovely humans! Come to our show next Friday!
https://www.schoolofma.org/news/no-rules-showcase

12/08/2026

Applications for Data Stories close soon and we keep thinking about how many of us are exhausted by systems that turn us into data points without ever asking.

This program is our attempt at something different. Four weeks in Berlin, starting 31 August, working hands-on with agentic AI and storytelling to actually reclaim some agency in how these systems get built and used. Not theory. Doing.

One example: we'll be working with Open Claw, running things locally instead of handing your data to servers where it could be exposed, tracked, or hacked. Small choices like this are part of what it means to author your own relationship with these systems instead of just being subject to them.

Real talk: running an independent school outside institutional funding means the numbers have to work, and we try to be honest about that rather than pretend otherwise. If joining this course has been on your mind, reach out, we can talk about a payment plan that works for you.

If you're someone who wants to stop being subject to data systems and start authoring them, come find us.

Link in bio!

Data Stories:WORLDBUILDING FOR RECLAIMING COLLECTIVE AGENCY
31. August - 25. September
• Based in Berlin, Germany
• Four weeks, full-time
• Small class of participants
• One-month on-site residency following program completion

06/08/2026

TONIGHT! Come meet lovely humans in our community sharing food that reminds them of someone they love!

Join us for our upcoming community potluck this Thursday, 6. August, 18-20h.

Come share food and drinks and get to know people from our Performative Media program. The theme and request for this potluck: please bring food and drinks that remind you of someone you love.

Hope to see you Thursday! ❤️

To Find Us:
Our Make-Believe Studio space is located at ACUD KUNST HAUS (Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin). To attend any of our events, go thru the big red doors on the right side past the mailboxes. Take a left once you exit towards the hinterhof. Then turn left and you will see the elevator there on your left. Take it to the 5th floor. 🙂

04/08/2026

Join us for our upcoming community potluck this Thursday, 6. August, 18-20h.

Come share food and drinks and get to know people from our Performative Media program. The theme and request for this potluck: please bring food and drinks that remind you of someone you love.

Hope to see you Thursday! ❤️

To Find Us:
Our Make-Believe Studio space is located at ACUD KUNST HAUS (Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin). To attend any of our events, go thru the big red doors on the right side past the mailboxes. Take a left once you exit towards the hinterhof. Then turn left and you will see the elevator there on your left. Take it to the 5th floor. 🙂

31/07/2026

Berliners, Exhibition Tonight at School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe! Come by if you're free!

30/07/2026

This Fall, back by popular demand:

Latent Bodies
28. September - 26. October
Online!
Five-weeks, Mondays, 7-9PM CET

This course invites us to think about how bodies perform with and within the latent spaces of technological media. We will consider how bodies are broken apart, analyzed, and reconstructed in generative systems, from dataset fragmentation to diffusion-based reassembly. We will make and share our own experimental artworks while exploring radical and canonical artists and theorists from this multifaceted field.

For more info and to sign-up, link in bio and https://www.schoolofma.org/programs/p/fall2026-latent-bodies

Taught by Jess Tucker (they/she), an American and Dutch artist currently based in Berlin. Their performances and installations combine video, electronic music, prints, sculptures, and digital interactivity to playfully examine how machinic mediation shapes our experiences of embodiment, selfhood, and desire. Their work has been featured in international exhibitions and performance programs, including Rewire Festival, FOAM Museum of Photography, Goethe Institut, Sónar+D, the Van Gogh Museum, Mana Contemporary, and the International Museum of Surgical Science. Jess is a 2025 Re:Humanism Prize winner and Lumen Prize Finalist. Jess is currently a Lecturer of Digital Media at NYU Berlin, and they have also taught courses in video and new media art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Iowa, and the China Academy of Art.

# LoRAtraining

27/07/2026

School of Machines expanded a year ago to form Make-Believe Studio, a beautiful sun-lit space on the 5th floor of ACUD Kunsthaus where we co-create. We are now looking for new members who are interested in sharing the space and being part of our artistic community.

We work, think, create, critique, study, learn and explore together. Our focus is on the critical use of emerging technologies, as well as creating a solid architecture of care and counter-culture that can function as a base for everyone interested in bringing about positive change in the world.

You’ll fit right in if you are interested in: game design, mixed reality, new media, interactive installations, sound design, live performance, visual anthropology, data privacy, radio arts, alternative economic models, collaborative infrastructures.

Our membership is €200/month and includes two studio spaces (one set up for hands-on work and the other for collaboration and focused work), tools for prototyping, a supportive community, exhibition space in ACUD, mentorship, and peer-reviewed work.

We offer discounts for students and other options based on personal needs/situation.

More info at schoolofma.org/membership

We look forward to hearing from you!