The Overkill is an arts and gaming festival focused on the impact of digital culture on our society. The festival showcases a selection of interactive and participative art installations, indie/arthouse games, and presents an alternative film program, experimental live performances and activities such as workshops, network meetups, talks, hybrid symposium…

The Overkill festival is open from Wednesday 15 to Sunday 19 November.

Wednesday 15 November : Participant introduction dinner

Thursday 16 November : LARP introduction workshops + Official opening

Thursday 16 to Saturday 18 November : LARP

Friday 17 November : Playful program Zuraida Buter

Saturday 18 November : LARP Final Assembly

THE OVERKILL : THE OUTBURST OF THE DIGITAL SWAMP

Rather than evading the (digital) wetlands, The Overkill wishes to design a route through its muddy paths. Artists navigating the Postdigital constellation think of the swamps as a playground to hybridise, as material under transformation and a womb for monstrous mutation. Today the swamp is reconsidered as a space for agency, it is inhabited by amphibious entities and exiled varieties of the self, the swamp is a liquefying space expanding on the different ecosystems.

The Overkill festival invites these hybrid and mixed media artists, accustomed to the porous and dripping networks of the everglades and welcomes everyone to venture into unstable fantasy spaces. Influenced by the proliferation of memes, wet aesthetics, derailed futures, “phygital”* morphologies and mixed fairy tales, these networks are to be navigated in daring ways, taking on a role and playing on the scenarios of an imminent reconfiguration of the planet."

* phygital : a combination of physical and digital

The Overkill festival

For the fourth iteration of the video program in Sickhoes, Sickhouse selected 2 poetic machinimas exploring the edges of virtual worlds. What happens when, through its avatar, the player wanders far from the action of the game to the edges of the virtual environment. What are the limits of the world around the main action, how far can you run away, climb above or look down? Where does it break and what do you become in these liminal spaces?



- THE EDGE OF THE WORLD machinima / 8:50 min. / 2021
This video work explores the "out of boundaries" landscape of the game Cyberpunk 2077. We are tempted to think that landscapes just go on and on indefinitely. But where does a landscape begin – and where does it end? Where is its edge? Does the virtual world have a limit? Natalie Maximova is pushing against invisible boundaries, discovering and documenting the rough edges of the game world and exposing the representational logics behind it.


- ROCK, STAR, NORTH. machinima / 23:06 min. / 2022
Rock, Star, North. is a poetic travelogue set in the Grand Theft Auto V universe, inspired by the wanderings of Wordsworth, Basho and Nan Shepherd shot entirely in-game. In 2016, Glasgow-based poet Calum Rodger undertook a poetic odyssey inside San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto V’s hyperreal replica of California. In 2017, he chronicled his journey in a 20-minute performance poem titled Rock, Star, North, which premiered at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh in May of that year. In 2021, the poem achieved its final form: a machinipoem, composed entirely of footage from the game, alongside an all-new reading and updated text.
“And having been a gamer my whole life, these poets’ work provided a framework in which I could quasi-parodically propose that the ‘virtual sublime’, such as it is, is no less worthy a subject for the ‘romantic’ treatment than nature itself. “ Calum Rodger. Interview with Matteo Bittanti.


Sickhoes #4 Wandering at the edges of the world

We are the atomic playground of Enschede!

Sickhouse is a playful art space focused on the impact of digital culture on our society. We unwrap games as means to engage on social topics.

Frontpage

Tuesday 4th of July we’ve been informed by the board of Planetart that they are stopping with their role of facility administrator and leaving the building of Stationsplein, per 1 October. In this statement we are presenting the consequences for Sickhouse’s organisation, programs and community.

The building of Stationsplein, that we are in at the moment, was always meant to be demolished, to give space for the new square the city wants to develop for the station. Aware of this situation, we have been looking for a new location and solutions for a few years already. As we were not part of the WARP Technopolis project anymore since January 2022, we started, independently, in April of the same year to look for a new place for Sickhouse. With the support of the gemeente and our partners we have been studying different options. 

For a few months, we have been working on the possibility of moving into the old fire station of Enschede on the brandweer straat, together with 2 other cultural organisations, BlackBrick, a media art platform and GrensFrequentie, a musical breeding ground. We are making great progress and we are optimistic.

The new deadline of 1st of October, is definitely tight for a smooth transition and disturbs the last quarter of Sickhouse’s programs and The Overkill festival plans (15 to 19 November). We will be looking for the best options in the coming weeks and will announce the definitive plans for the end of the year shortly.

We hope Planetart and the WARP technopolis community will find ways to recover from this situation and develop their projects further.

For now Sickhouse is open the whole month of July with an open air Cinema, performances and our first Summer Film Camp. In August we take a summer break and we reopen the 1st of September with a gaming event and on the 2nd of September our short film festival Ko(o)rts is back. We will work on making September a month to celebrate the crazy years we had on Stationsplein!


For the rest of the year, we’ll share some updates as soon as we can. In these challenging times, we will keep doing our best to create a safe space for our community and visitors.

Marie Janin and Aike Lütkemöller, co-directors of Sickhouse and the team.

Statement future of Sickhouse

Do you want to make your own movie with professionals and learn how to write a scenario, draw a storyboard, build a decor, film, act, edit and present ? Summer Film Camp is a fun, 2 weeks program, welcoming young and curious minds in the world of filmmaking. It will be experimental, it will be collective, it will be DIY and full of surprises and improvisation.

The Summer camp is hosted from the 24th of July to the 4th of august.

If you want to learn in a playful way how to tell stories this is for you!

If you like to work together with a team and explore new things, this might be for you!

If you don’t have money for holidays this could be the solution!

To take part in the camp you only need to send your motivation letter to Aike from Sickhouse. In your mail explain what you like in movies, what is your favourite movie ever and what you would love to do in the camp. 

Film Camp summer 2023

We are starting a local game maker meetup! 

 is a professional gamemaker-meetup, welcoming any creative, regardless of the engine they are working in. At colliders we talk, present, introduce, play, give feedback and enjoy creations and ideas. Colliders aim is to develop a strong network for the indie/arthouse/serious game industry in the east of the Netherlands. With this meetup we want to support each other and create more opportunities for collaborations and exchange. The meetups are open to makers, enthusiasts, producers, artist, curators, etc.

Depending on the input of everyone, colliders will invite guests for talks, workshops, feedback sessions and more!



The first COLLIDERS MEETUP X GAME NIGHT is the 19th of May!



Colliders will be back every month in combination with the game night, curated by Shaman Garage, meaning after the meetup you can play a cool selection of games together!

You are interested and you want to share your ideas don't hesitate to sign up or mail us directly! (marie@theoverkill.nl)

Colliders - Game makers meet up

Sickhouse is very happy and proud to share that it has been granted with the “Creatieve Broedplaats Twente” funding.

This grant is meant to support Sickhouse to become a stronger structure, meaning at first taking care of its team and implementing the next steps of fair code practices. The grant will also be used to support the production and diffusion of playful experiences within a professional and supportive network. And finally the grant is here to develop a European network of DIY/DIT art and playful spaces.

Our ambitious plans bring Sickhouse to the next level, support independent creations within a healthy network and help export local knowledge all over Europe.

In 5 years Sickhouse became a space for multi disciplinary practices, experiments, celebrations, (self)explorations and expression. From gaming it takes its attitude, challenging its visitors while engaging in colourful adventures. From art it takes its organic shape, moving and transforming itself at the contact of others.

We are looking forward to using this support to focus on what matters the most to us : give space to PLAY.

Creatieve Broedplaats funding

Our new program supporting the creation of an independent game has started. After a productive JAM weekend in February, we received beautiful applications and selected 

and their one button story based project.

 will combine their expertise in the fields of 

 to create an interactive narrative experience for The Overkill Festival. Under the self imposed constraints of using 

 as input device, Ivan McGill and Pablo San Gregorio will deep into the 

Find out about their work on their insta page 

Once a month Pablo and Ivan, supported by our Zuraida Buter will present the program of our 

 following thematic supporting their research. Friday 14 of April is the first of their series!

Once in May and once at the end of August Pablo and Ivan will present the progress of their project to the public with feedback session. Don't hesitate to join to support them!

The gaming experience will premiere at The Overkill festival in November.

To support Shaman Garage studio with feed back and ideas, 

we are welcoming young players to the program

. If you like to play and to experiment, you are curious about the making process of indie game and you are between 15 and 25, this might be for you! 

Since Pablo and Ivan are from Spain the program will be in English, but we are able to help translate when necessary.

To become part of the Sick game community, send us a short motivation email to present your self and we'll get back to you to share the program.

You will be welcome once a month with Pablo and Ivan for a group session before Game Night, you will be invited to studio visit in the region and you will be invited to exhibition and festival tours when possible. Of course you will also be the guest of The Overkill festival, later in November.

If you are interested send your motivations to Marie : marie@theoverkill.nl

Sick Gaming trajectory

The newsletter of March is out! If you want to recieve it your mail you can also

, Sickhouse became 5 years old! We celebrated this with a two day anniversary event with music, movies, exhibitions from the Sickhouse crew, and of course a lot of games.

, we hosted a party of which the entrance profit will go to the following Sickhouse x The FemDem DJ-workshop program! We believe it is extremely important to give womxn-DJs the stage in this sadly still very male dominated world. (more info about the workshops coming up!)

 made a presence for an unforgettable party. And the whole celebration was made extra perfect by the amazing balloon art from 

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Together with our anniversary we launched our new website ( the one you are now on:), made by 

 This playful platform is now the one space where our event calendar, news, live stream, our community network and soon also our online digital archive comes together! But to fully get to know our website, we would love to invite you to play SWAMP SURFERS with us on March 10th! This game, created by the Sickhouse crew together with 

, will make you discover all the parts of the website.

, Sonic DIY* comes back for its third edition, to explore the creation of sound outside the regular music spectrum! This edition has an amazing international line up. A unique chance to see this artists from all over the world! (check here 

is an art collective that builds and explores sculptural electronic systems.


is a composer and performer based in Amsterdam. 



*sonic DIY is a concept created by Ole Nieling and Patrick Jonkman

 finally arrives in Enschede, and Sickhouse is organizing it’s first long term exhibition together with her!



Music videos, documentaries, animations, filters, brand content... Anne Horel expresses herself in many colourful ways. Playing with codes, she takes us into the surreal worlds through an aesthetic that combines various elements of pop and digital colture. Defining herself as a Polymorphic digital Artist, Anne has made social media her medium of predilection.

Within this new chapter we dive into social media platforms as we would in a rainbow version of the swamp. Following the show created for the Lavoir Numerique in France, Sickhouse is inviting Anne Horel to find playful and relevant ways to pull her work out of the (flat) screens. For this she wants to look into 3D printing, ceramic workshop, nail art, make up and more!

SAVE THE DATE: The 24th and 25th of March 

will be the official opening of Anne's exhibition in Sickhouse with an incredible performance by 

In the weeks and months to follow, this will be an ongoing project, with different (hybrid) events. The exhibition will be open every weekend for you to visit.

(with Wilmink theater / combi ticket coming soon)

News
Statement future of Sickhouse

News
Film Camp summer 2023

News
Colliders - Game makers meet up

News
Creatieve Broedplaats funding

News
Sick Gaming trajectory

News
March to the Sick

Upcoming Events

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NewsStatement future of Sickhouse

NewsFilm Camp summer 2023

NewsColliders - Game makers meet up

NewsCreatieve Broedplaats funding

NewsSick Gaming trajectory

NewsMarch to the Sick