This is the research diary of researcher Lisbeth
Klastrup, since february 2001 sharing her thoughts on life, universe, persistent online
worlds, games, interactive stories and internet oddities with you on the www.
I am currently on leave from the IT University
of Copenhagen, and from aug. 2006 - aug. 2007 working as Associate Research Professor at the Center for Design Research Copenhagen, an independant center situated at the School of Architecture. During this year, I will be working on a book about the development of aesthetics, design and interaction on the WWW, together with colleague Ida Engholm.
My blog often reflects how busy I am in general, so posting may be pretty irregular, as well as my potential response to comments. But I read them!
My list of publications.
My official homepage at ITU.
Contact:
lisbethATklastrupDOTdk
February 2001 March 2001 April 2001 May 2001 June 2001 July 2001 August 2001 September 2001 October 2001 November 2001 December 2001 January 2002 February 2002 March 2002 April 2002 May 2002 June 2002 July 2002 August 2002 September 2002 October 2002 November 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007
Fellow research bloggers
-Denmark
Jesper Juul
Gonzalo Frasca
Martin Sønderlev Christensen
Jonas Heide Smith
Miguel Sicart
Mads Bødker
ITU blogs
-Norway
Jill Walker
Torill Mortensen
Hilde Corneliussen
Anders Fagerjord
-The World
Terra Nova (misc, joint)
GrandTextAuto (US, joint)
Mirjam Paalosari-Eladhari (SE)
Jane McGonigal (US)
Patrik Svensson (SE)
Elin Sjursen (NO)
Adrian Miles' Vog blog (AUSTR.)
Other Related Blogs
Mediehack
Hovedet på Bloggen
Bookish
Tempus Tommy
Flickwerk
Jacob Bøtter
Corporate Blogging
Fellow Researchers, non-blog
-Denmark
Susana Tosca
T.L. Taylor
Espen Aarseth
Soeren Pold
Ida Engholm
Troels Degn Johansson
-Norway
Ragnhild Tronstad
-Sweden
Anna Gunder
Jenny Sunden
Mikael Jacobsson
-Finland
Aki Jarvinen
Markku Eskelinen
Raine Koskimaa
©Lisbeth Klastrup 2001-2007
Disney is very soon to launchToontown, their attempt to reach a very young market of online gamers. It will be interesting to see if they succeed.
PCHCLS (Post Continental-Hopping Conference Lobotomy Syndrome)
I've had all the best intentions of blogging more about my DAC experiences. But I've simply been too tired to go over the somewhat off-key attempt at a conference dissection I wrote at an altitude of 10.000 meters, somewhere over Siberia (meanwhile scaring the life out of Jill and Susana, my travel companions sitting a few seats behind me, because I sneaked my way into "Economy Extra" to do it, and thus appeared to have vanished mysteriously from my seat). So it will rest in peace. Three days back in Denmark, I am still severely jetlagged and I have spent most of the day today sleeping, since it is a national holiday and thus defendable to spend an entire day doing nothing...
Furthermore, I have suddenly been forced to focus on a lot of other stuff: students had to be supervised because tomorrow is project deadline,Tuesday I learnt that seemingly my ph.d. thesis has passed and been approved for defense and it is about 99% sure that I will defend it on June 20, less than a month from now (arghh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), indeed a passing of information which suddenly made my adrenaline levels soar to new and unexpected hights on top of my serious lack of melantonin, the strange mix of which in the end resulted in me feeling even more exhausted....And we suddenly have to come up with ideas for the layout and text for the bookcover of the anthology, I'm editing with colleague Engholm. If we make the deadline early next week, it means that the anthology will hit the bookshelves of Danish booksellers in late January 2004, which is wonderful news, but it also means I have a lot of serious editing in front of me in the very near future.
I showed all the nice photos Susana and I took with the digital camera in Tokyo and Melbourne to the BF. "It doesn't look like you were very many people at the conference", he commented. Hmmh. But true enough, according to the pictures. Next to the conference presentation shots, most of them depict Susana, Torill, Jill, Nick and Noah, Hanne-Lovise, Anne-Mette and me in various social situations, supplemented by the odd Australian. Darshana, a nice local Melbourne "Game Boy", at some point commented that people at the conference were rather cliquish. Perhaps we were at times (luckily his Australian companion didnt agree), but I think part of the reason is also that these are people that I only see at conferences once or twice a year or even less, and the fewer DAC conferences, unfortunately the less the chances to be with them. They are all fun and smart people to be with, none the less because they are by now "old friends" which I have known since the DAC 1999/2000 conferences.
Hanging out with "the clique" didn't mean that it was not nice to meet and hear presentations from a number of new faces. By pure chance (really!) I particularly enjoyed those in the session, I myself chaired: Jane Mcgonical talking about "immersive gaming" and the Beast Game following the A. I. movie, Andrew Hutchinson on interactive narratives and Tiffany Holmes on Art Games and I also got to talk to them more before and after about their projects and work. I really liked the presentation by Mary Flanagan and also enjoyed getting to know her a little bit more "backstage" (*grin*) at the performance evening. I had a short, but interesting talk with Brett Nicholls, the New Zealander, who together with Simon Ryan presented an interesting paper on Jet Set Radio Future, and who aired their ideas of a game research event next year in their country. And presentations by local Australians, Ben Hutchinson and Darshana Jayemanne, also had some interesting potential and ideas to think with, though I did not agree completely with their "readings". It was also refreshing to see the way Darshana stood up and pointed to the fact that he was one of the very few people of the conference with Asian origins. I suspect it has something to do with the sad fact that it is because it is mostly Europeans and Americans who can afford to and have easy access to enjoy and study digital aesthetics and games at this point in time (even though, as we saw in both Tokyo and Melbourne, asians play games like mad, at least in the arcades...).
Sorry, just have to go sleep again. But will upload links later. Checkout conference impressions by Nick and Torill.
I've had all the best intentions of blogging more about my DAC experiences. But I've simply been too tired to go over the somewhat off-key attempt at a conference dissection I wrote at an altitude of 10.000 meters, somewhere over Siberia (meanwhile scaring the life out of Jill and Susana, my travel companions sitting a few seats behind me, because I sneaked my way into "Economy Extra" to do it, and thus appeared to have vanished mysteriously from my seat). So it will rest in peace. Three days back in Denmark, I am still severely jetlagged and I have spent most of the day today sleeping, since it is a national holiday and thus defendable to spend an entire day doing nothing...
Furthermore, I have suddenly been forced to focus on a lot of other stuff: students had to be supervised because tomorrow is project deadline,Tuesday I learnt that seemingly my ph.d. thesis has passed and been approved for defense and it is about 99% sure that I will defend it on June 20, less than a month from now (arghh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), indeed a passing of information which suddenly made my adrenaline levels soar to new and unexpected hights on top of my serious lack of melantonin, the strange mix of which in the end resulted in me feeling even more exhausted....And we suddenly have to come up with ideas for the layout and text for the bookcover of the anthology, I'm editing with colleague Engholm. If we make the deadline early next week, it means that the anthology will hit the bookshelves of Danish booksellers in late January 2004, which is wonderful news, but it also means I have a lot of serious editing in front of me in the very near future.
I showed all the nice photos Susana and I took with the digital camera in Tokyo and Melbourne to the BF. "It doesn't look like you were very many people at the conference", he commented. Hmmh. But true enough, according to the pictures. Next to the conference presentation shots, most of them depict Susana, Torill, Jill, Nick and Noah, Hanne-Lovise, Anne-Mette and me in various social situations, supplemented by the odd Australian. Darshana, a nice local Melbourne "Game Boy", at some point commented that people at the conference were rather cliquish. Perhaps we were at times (luckily his Australian companion didnt agree), but I think part of the reason is also that these are people that I only see at conferences once or twice a year or even less, and the fewer DAC conferences, unfortunately the less the chances to be with them. They are all fun and smart people to be with, none the less because they are by now "old friends" which I have known since the DAC 1999/2000 conferences.
Hanging out with "the clique" didn't mean that it was not nice to meet and hear presentations from a number of new faces. By pure chance (really!) I particularly enjoyed those in the session, I myself chaired: Jane Mcgonical talking about "immersive gaming" and the Beast Game following the A. I. movie, Andrew Hutchinson on interactive narratives and Tiffany Holmes on Art Games and I also got to talk to them more before and after about their projects and work. I really liked the presentation by Mary Flanagan and also enjoyed getting to know her a little bit more "backstage" (*grin*) at the performance evening. I had a short, but interesting talk with Brett Nicholls, the New Zealander, who together with Simon Ryan presented an interesting paper on Jet Set Radio Future, and who aired their ideas of a game research event next year in their country. And presentations by local Australians, Ben Hutchinson and Darshana Jayemanne, also had some interesting potential and ideas to think with, though I did not agree completely with their "readings". It was also refreshing to see the way Darshana stood up and pointed to the fact that he was one of the very few people of the conference with Asian origins. I suspect it has something to do with the sad fact that it is because it is mostly Europeans and Americans who can afford to and have easy access to enjoy and study digital aesthetics and games at this point in time (even though, as we saw in both Tokyo and Melbourne, asians play games like mad, at least in the arcades...).
Sorry, just have to go sleep again. But will upload links later. Checkout conference impressions by Nick and Torill.
For once, being back in Copenhagen I experience as a positive change in terms of weather and season. Coming from cold, autumnal Melbourne clad in Danish September colours, the suddenly lush and welcoming late Danish spring has never seemed sweeter. And then I discover that I even live in Cutting-Edge Copenhagen according to an article in New York Times (via Tinka).
Quote: "We haven't been this hot," a Danish friend told me, "since Christian IV".
(fyi, Christian IV is a Danish king who built the major part of the most well-known buildings in Copenhagen during the 16th century)
Quote: "We haven't been this hot," a Danish friend told me, "since Christian IV".
(fyi, Christian IV is a Danish king who built the major part of the most well-known buildings in Copenhagen during the 16th century)
Done the presentation, chaired the session and been to Australian winery and sanctuary relaxing today. Great concept.
I dined with a nice Australian, who mentioned that there was a review of the conference on the Australian Fibreculture mailing list, mentioning me. Seems my Milagros' trousers story went down well in general, though the fact that I did not address the feminist issues obvious addressing in relation to it seems to disconcert quite a few non Scandinavian theoretics.
It's a strangely game-oriented conference suddenly (I actually MISS papers on digital literature and interactive stories, honestly), and also some weird undercurrents of people being either against or pro the "ludologists" which are apparently taken to by synomous with the "Game Studies group" in general. Many of us would be and are in fact very uncomfortable about being stamped with this label and it seems to generate lots of weird and somewhat unconnected questions in relation to the "game" papers given by some of us... There is much more to say about this, which I will address when I get home.
I dined with a nice Australian, who mentioned that there was a review of the conference on the Australian Fibreculture mailing list, mentioning me. Seems my Milagros' trousers story went down well in general, though the fact that I did not address the feminist issues obvious addressing in relation to it seems to disconcert quite a few non Scandinavian theoretics.
It's a strangely game-oriented conference suddenly (I actually MISS papers on digital literature and interactive stories, honestly), and also some weird undercurrents of people being either against or pro the "ludologists" which are apparently taken to by synomous with the "Game Studies group" in general. Many of us would be and are in fact very uncomfortable about being stamped with this label and it seems to generate lots of weird and somewhat unconnected questions in relation to the "game" papers given by some of us... There is much more to say about this, which I will address when I get home.
Jetlagged!
Quick hello from Melbourne, Australia. Weird being in a city in the middle of advanced fall, leaves turning brown and cold and rainy.
Tokyo was fantastic, will upload pics later. And though there were some people with masks in Tokyo, Im sure we did not pick up SARS on the way. But suffering from serious soul-delay, so many hours away from Denmark.
http:game.itu.dk is up and running!!
Quick hello from Melbourne, Australia. Weird being in a city in the middle of advanced fall, leaves turning brown and cold and rainy.
Tokyo was fantastic, will upload pics later. And though there were some people with masks in Tokyo, Im sure we did not pick up SARS on the way. But suffering from serious soul-delay, so many hours away from Denmark.
http:game.itu.dk is up and running!!
Going DownUnder
OK, tomorrow Im off to the DACO3 conference in Melbourne. I will be flying via Tokyo, with Jill and Susana, spending a couple of days there. The Fujii-family, which I know from earlier, will partly be our hosts and tour-guides while there. It will be awesome, since it is my first visit to Tokyo and Japan. I'm really looking forward to the conference too, meeting old and new friends - since I have been to Australia before (travelled most of the country in 1991), I do actually look more forward to seing people than the country ;).
I will be gone from tomorrow (the 15th) and not back in Copenhagen before May 26th. No guarantees for posts meanwhile, almost (see below).
As preperation for conference, things have been cooking here. Hope to be able to announce exiting new website tomorrow before I leave, the "coming-in-to-being" of which I have been closely managing for the last week or so. Watch this space!
OK, tomorrow Im off to the DACO3 conference in Melbourne. I will be flying via Tokyo, with Jill and Susana, spending a couple of days there. The Fujii-family, which I know from earlier, will partly be our hosts and tour-guides while there. It will be awesome, since it is my first visit to Tokyo and Japan. I'm really looking forward to the conference too, meeting old and new friends - since I have been to Australia before (travelled most of the country in 1991), I do actually look more forward to seing people than the country ;).
I will be gone from tomorrow (the 15th) and not back in Copenhagen before May 26th. No guarantees for posts meanwhile, almost (see below).
As preperation for conference, things have been cooking here. Hope to be able to announce exiting new website tomorrow before I leave, the "coming-in-to-being" of which I have been closely managing for the last week or so. Watch this space!
Wauw! grandtextauto - a joint blog by Michael Mateas, Nick Montfort, Stuart Moultrop, Andrew Stern and Noah-Wardrip Fruin on digital narrative, poetry, games and art. With these imminent authors, we should be in for a joyful textual ride.
Thesis of-loading becoming a trend!
Anders of Surftrail has submitted his thesis and Jill is just about to do it.
The Scan DAC'ers rule! (read: The Scandinavian DAC conference attendees since 1998/1999)
Anders of Surftrail has submitted his thesis and Jill is just about to do it.
The Scan DAC'ers rule! (read: The Scandinavian DAC conference attendees since 1998/1999)
GDC 1999: video of Shigeru Miyamoto's Keynote in which he discusses his classic characters Zelda, Donkey Kong and Mario and the future of gaming.
Where is Raed ? is back again! posted by Diana Moon, internet friend of his. Long posts going back to almost the time when he stopped posting in March. I haven't had the time to read them, but am looking forward to. In some weird way, it matters a lot that Salam Pax actually seemed to have survived the entire ordeal of the invasion of Baghdad.
Some time ago, I saw a poster on a sidestreet to one of the central squares in Nørrebro. It said "Have you seen Zahir?". Zahir went missing during the bombardement of Basra and his parents, in apparent desperation, had made posters with his name, a large photo of a young child with big, dark eyes and details of when and how he went missing, hoping to find him again this way. That their poster made is as far as a street in Copenhagen is both very sad and uplifting at the same time.
It does seem, that in our age information really wants to be free. However, information can travel as fast and wide as it may, but it can never guard us from or prevent the experience of loss, of people, of places.
Some time ago, I saw a poster on a sidestreet to one of the central squares in Nørrebro. It said "Have you seen Zahir?". Zahir went missing during the bombardement of Basra and his parents, in apparent desperation, had made posters with his name, a large photo of a young child with big, dark eyes and details of when and how he went missing, hoping to find him again this way. That their poster made is as far as a street in Copenhagen is both very sad and uplifting at the same time.
It does seem, that in our age information really wants to be free. However, information can travel as fast and wide as it may, but it can never guard us from or prevent the experience of loss, of people, of places.
Message from the past
Via Jill's comment links I found Jorunn's webpage where she had linked to a "message from the past" - a letter written in 1902 by the wife of a vicar of a small Norwegian parish to her successor of 2002. It's a touching letter about the life and sorrows of a vicar's wife anno 1902 when the vicar still had to fetch water to the household from a nearby stream and no modern goods were provided. Now the letter has been transcribed and put online so her story can live on. And the wife of the vicar 2002 has promised to continue the tradition and will leave a letter for the vicar's wife (or husband!) anno 2102.
Prestefruens brev (In Norwegian/Danish)
It is interesting when the internet in a case like this is used as to archive and communicate written stories of everyday life, not just of today, but of yesterday. Bringing our attention to pieces of writing who could and would, most likely, not be made available to a larger public, nor reach as dispersed an audience as this, in any other way. However, the letter of the vicar's wife as a piece of literary writing is nothing special in itself, it is as much its rarity, the idea, the "aura" of the letter itself as it is presented to us in pictures, which makes this a special piece of writing. It demonstrates that even small and mundane everyday stories can become special in context. Unfortunately, there are so many everyday stories on the internet now, that we rarely have the opportunity to see and understand them in the context of the complex social reality which informs them. Multiplicity of a phenomena does lead to the loss of aura in the experience of it, I believe. Perhaps Walther Benjamin also predicted the demise of the story in the age of the internet, when he wrote his essay about The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
Via Jill's comment links I found Jorunn's webpage where she had linked to a "message from the past" - a letter written in 1902 by the wife of a vicar of a small Norwegian parish to her successor of 2002. It's a touching letter about the life and sorrows of a vicar's wife anno 1902 when the vicar still had to fetch water to the household from a nearby stream and no modern goods were provided. Now the letter has been transcribed and put online so her story can live on. And the wife of the vicar 2002 has promised to continue the tradition and will leave a letter for the vicar's wife (or husband!) anno 2102.
Prestefruens brev (In Norwegian/Danish)
It is interesting when the internet in a case like this is used as to archive and communicate written stories of everyday life, not just of today, but of yesterday. Bringing our attention to pieces of writing who could and would, most likely, not be made available to a larger public, nor reach as dispersed an audience as this, in any other way. However, the letter of the vicar's wife as a piece of literary writing is nothing special in itself, it is as much its rarity, the idea, the "aura" of the letter itself as it is presented to us in pictures, which makes this a special piece of writing. It demonstrates that even small and mundane everyday stories can become special in context. Unfortunately, there are so many everyday stories on the internet now, that we rarely have the opportunity to see and understand them in the context of the complex social reality which informs them. Multiplicity of a phenomena does lead to the loss of aura in the experience of it, I believe. Perhaps Walther Benjamin also predicted the demise of the story in the age of the internet, when he wrote his essay about The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
I'm in very good compagny with my article due for Volume 4/2003 of Dichtung Digital edited by Markku Eskelinen. Jill, Torill, Ragnhild, Anders, Aki and Raine (with a very out-dated homepage) will be contributing too and all their articles sound interesting. It is going to be a really good issue, I think :)
Singing on Sunshine Island
I'm off early tomorrow morning to give a concert with my choir on the sunshine island (solskinsøen) Bornholm this weekend.
Been some pretty hectic days before that.
Back again monday....
I'm off early tomorrow morning to give a concert with my choir on the sunshine island (solskinsøen) Bornholm this weekend.
Been some pretty hectic days before that.
Back again monday....
Death Stories project
Walgblog (DK)
DK forskerblogs (DK)
klast at del.icio.us
Site feed Link (Atom)
Klastrup family?
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Buy our book
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Conferences
ACE 2007
Mobile Media 2007
MobileCHI 07
Perth DAC 2007
DIGRA 2007
AOIR 8.0/2007
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My Ph.D. thesis website:
Towards a Poetics of Virtual Worlds
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Misc
I also used to host & work in a world called StoryMOO.