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
Sleep
All I really want to do is curl up in a corner and sleep for days. I feel totally burnt out. But I have an article to finish, 700 mails to sort through, a 100 page thesis to read, an oral exam to conduct, at least one more meeting, 2 reviews and an interview with a journalist to deal with before I can finally retire and go on holiday sometime tomorrow evening.
All I really want to do is curl up in a corner and sleep for days. I feel totally burnt out. But I have an article to finish, 700 mails to sort through, a 100 page thesis to read, an oral exam to conduct, at least one more meeting, 2 reviews and an interview with a journalist to deal with before I can finally retire and go on holiday sometime tomorrow evening.
Some pics from the ph.d.defense. And Torill has blogged a very nice description of the event :). It seems like my defense haven't scared her off from her own, soon to come, I'm glad that is so!
A Doctor came out!
He, he, from someone who has tried it, I can now say that a Ph.D. defense is not that bad, after all. Perhaps because it took place with massive symphathy emanating from an audience of almost only familiar faces: friends, family, colleagues from DIAC and KUA, old students. It definitely had something to do with the very nice evaluation committee (Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Cynthia Haynes and Jonathan Dovey) who had lots of humouristic remarks and who probed me gently to think more carefully about aspects of my work where I had been too unclear or imprecise. Most of the questions they gave me were related to form, manner of presentation, argument, methodology and fuzzy concepts. All relevant and pertinent. But it seemed also that they had no major objections against or severe criticism of the content of the thesis as such and they recommended me to think about publishing it after some revision :). Hence the "examination" after the presentation felt more like what I think it should be like; a fruitful dialogue with very clever people who want to help you improve your work and thoughts.
After the defense and the examination which all in all lasted a little more than 3 hours (approx 50 mins presentation and 100 mins questions), it did not take the commitee too long to come back to me and present me with the final paper recommending I be awarded the degree of Ph.D. This happened at the reception next door to the room where the defense had taken place. A colleague videofilmed this precious moment (some 6 MB).
Oh, and I think the best comment I got regarding my presentation was from my older sister, who exclaimed: "Now I finally understand what you are doing!".
Finally, in all modesty I'm rather proud to be the first female Ph.D. graduating from the IT University (three males, so far). I believe this fact in particular would have pleased my mother, who was one of the very first female veterinarians to graduate from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen in the early 1950's. It's a good family tradition we have going, I think ;).
Going offline for a bit of relaxation and a coffee with Susana and Torill. It feels a bit like someone ran me over with a steam engine during the night.
He, he, from someone who has tried it, I can now say that a Ph.D. defense is not that bad, after all. Perhaps because it took place with massive symphathy emanating from an audience of almost only familiar faces: friends, family, colleagues from DIAC and KUA, old students. It definitely had something to do with the very nice evaluation committee (Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Cynthia Haynes and Jonathan Dovey) who had lots of humouristic remarks and who probed me gently to think more carefully about aspects of my work where I had been too unclear or imprecise. Most of the questions they gave me were related to form, manner of presentation, argument, methodology and fuzzy concepts. All relevant and pertinent. But it seemed also that they had no major objections against or severe criticism of the content of the thesis as such and they recommended me to think about publishing it after some revision :). Hence the "examination" after the presentation felt more like what I think it should be like; a fruitful dialogue with very clever people who want to help you improve your work and thoughts.
After the defense and the examination which all in all lasted a little more than 3 hours (approx 50 mins presentation and 100 mins questions), it did not take the commitee too long to come back to me and present me with the final paper recommending I be awarded the degree of Ph.D. This happened at the reception next door to the room where the defense had taken place. A colleague videofilmed this precious moment (some 6 MB).
Oh, and I think the best comment I got regarding my presentation was from my older sister, who exclaimed: "Now I finally understand what you are doing!".
Finally, in all modesty I'm rather proud to be the first female Ph.D. graduating from the IT University (three males, so far). I believe this fact in particular would have pleased my mother, who was one of the very first female veterinarians to graduate from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen in the early 1950's. It's a good family tradition we have going, I think ;).
Going offline for a bit of relaxation and a coffee with Susana and Torill. It feels a bit like someone ran me over with a steam engine during the night.
Bugs
*grin* - I dreamt of bugs tonight, wonder what that means?
Blog entries and emails from all over the world wishing me good luck. It is cool. Thank you all :)
*grin* - I dreamt of bugs tonight, wonder what that means?
Blog entries and emails from all over the world wishing me good luck. It is cool. Thank you all :)
Count-down
Less than 24 hours to go. After some days of slight panic, I'm feeling relatively at ease today. The presentation is as good as done and I have decided that if I try to do my best when I go "on stage" tomorrow, I do not need to expect more of myself than standing by the work I have done and presenting it in the way I see most fit.
I don't know how other people who have been in the same situation as me feels it/felt it - perhaps it is just me, or a particularly female characteristics - but at heart most of the unease and nervousness affiliated with the defense has to do with the same old fear I have been harbouring for years: that some day someone will discover that I'm really just faking to be an academic and really I don't know a lot (etc etc ad infinitum). Well, trying to face this fear for the last few days have made me realise that I am actually ok with what I do as an academic. I will never write a Cybertext II or the ulmitative narrative theory, because it is not here my strength lies as an academic. Rather it lies in the ability to make intelligent analysis of phenomena, to put them into context and to make connections (some better than others) between them. And doing that I sometimes come up with some original thoughts and ideas.
There are people out there who would always make me come out as the looser if it came to a battle of having read all the important philosophers, or french poststructuralists, or critical thinkers or game theorists etc and quoting them in your work, but at least I am not afraid to sit down and write about thoughts and experiences that are mostly my own and not someone elses. I'm OK with that. And if I'm OK with that, I should be ok with tomorrow, too.
Less than 24 hours to go. After some days of slight panic, I'm feeling relatively at ease today. The presentation is as good as done and I have decided that if I try to do my best when I go "on stage" tomorrow, I do not need to expect more of myself than standing by the work I have done and presenting it in the way I see most fit.
I don't know how other people who have been in the same situation as me feels it/felt it - perhaps it is just me, or a particularly female characteristics - but at heart most of the unease and nervousness affiliated with the defense has to do with the same old fear I have been harbouring for years: that some day someone will discover that I'm really just faking to be an academic and really I don't know a lot (etc etc ad infinitum). Well, trying to face this fear for the last few days have made me realise that I am actually ok with what I do as an academic. I will never write a Cybertext II or the ulmitative narrative theory, because it is not here my strength lies as an academic. Rather it lies in the ability to make intelligent analysis of phenomena, to put them into context and to make connections (some better than others) between them. And doing that I sometimes come up with some original thoughts and ideas.
There are people out there who would always make me come out as the looser if it came to a battle of having read all the important philosophers, or french poststructuralists, or critical thinkers or game theorists etc and quoting them in your work, but at least I am not afraid to sit down and write about thoughts and experiences that are mostly my own and not someone elses. I'm OK with that. And if I'm OK with that, I should be ok with tomorrow, too.
Klastrup commercial
For a long time I have wanted to point to YoYo, the website of my older brother's small consulting compagny which he runs alongside his dayjob at Odense Theatre. So here goes. He designs light and scenography for theatre productions and he has done some pretty cool stuff.
For a long time I have wanted to point to YoYo, the website of my older brother's small consulting compagny which he runs alongside his dayjob at Odense Theatre. So here goes. He designs light and scenography for theatre productions and he has done some pretty cool stuff.
AI in Austin
There is a Game Developers Workshop on Artificial Intelligence in Games at the end of August at University of Texas, Austin. Says the blurb: "The workshop will demonstrate emerging applications of innovative game play and examine new trends in digital game research, applied research and development." If I was a person who knew a little bit more about AI and computing, I think this workshop could be great fun.
There is a Game Developers Workshop on Artificial Intelligence in Games at the end of August at University of Texas, Austin. Says the blurb: "The workshop will demonstrate emerging applications of innovative game play and examine new trends in digital game research, applied research and development." If I was a person who knew a little bit more about AI and computing, I think this workshop could be great fun.
Anxiety attack
Within my first 30 minutes at ITU today, I had bumped into several people who all commented on my up-coming defense. "So how is preparations coming along?", "Not much time to go?" etc. The defense have been announced on the frontpage of the ITU website and in the internal newsletter which goes out to all employees and students. So now Everybody knows and there is no turning back. And in the weekend, I talked to more people from the outside who would be coming to listen to me too, and even Torill has announced her presence. Even if I'm looking forward to her visit and to see old and new colleagues and friends amongst the audience, overall I'm starting to feel just a wee bit intimated, because friday is suddenly so very much JUST AROUND THE CORNER, and it seems there will be quite a full house and I still have to sit down and find out exactly what I need to say, a perspective that can communicate the most important aspects of my research to both the laymen and the experts in the committee. I need a muse, and I need her badly, now!
Within my first 30 minutes at ITU today, I had bumped into several people who all commented on my up-coming defense. "So how is preparations coming along?", "Not much time to go?" etc. The defense have been announced on the frontpage of the ITU website and in the internal newsletter which goes out to all employees and students. So now Everybody knows and there is no turning back. And in the weekend, I talked to more people from the outside who would be coming to listen to me too, and even Torill has announced her presence. Even if I'm looking forward to her visit and to see old and new colleagues and friends amongst the audience, overall I'm starting to feel just a wee bit intimated, because friday is suddenly so very much JUST AROUND THE CORNER, and it seems there will be quite a full house and I still have to sit down and find out exactly what I need to say, a perspective that can communicate the most important aspects of my research to both the laymen and the experts in the committee. I need a muse, and I need her badly, now!
Blender Entertainment
So here is what inspired Marco Evaristtis to do that "goldfish in a blender art installation" at Trapholt Art museum back in 2000 which caused so much fuss in the Danish media and had The Commitee for the Protection of the Rights of Animals drag the museum to court (you can find the final verdict with lots of witness' statements here).
Go try Frog Bender 2000. Of course I had to go to 10. But no harm done, because you are only hurting a virtual frog, right?
So here is what inspired Marco Evaristtis to do that "goldfish in a blender art installation" at Trapholt Art museum back in 2000 which caused so much fuss in the Danish media and had The Commitee for the Protection of the Rights of Animals drag the museum to court (you can find the final verdict with lots of witness' statements here).
Go try Frog Bender 2000. Of course I had to go to 10. But no harm done, because you are only hurting a virtual frog, right?
Visionday: Games, Middleware and Simulations.
My purple poster and I went to the Visiondays seminar today and it was a rather interesting morning, where I got to hear presentations from The Three Serious Danish Game Developers: IO Interactive, ITE and Deadline. Both ITE and Deadline talked about using middleware (or parts of middleware) for their game developments and even if the focus here was on graphics middleware, it gave some interesting insights into the middleware products and the processes of using middleware in game production. Thomas Jacobsen of IO Interactive talked about physically-based simulations and even if I couldn't understand the algorithms, I could see it was cool :). It was interesting also, that he emphasised that as game producers you dont have to go for complete physical realism, but just for believability (Henry James, hear that?), i.e. if a character gets shot, the animation of the body being hit by the bullet must look somewhat natural, but it doesn't have to be an absolute simulation of "real death" (rather the opposite, I would actually surmise, if people being shot by Hitman died a too natural death, it would be too gory). Following in the morning break, I talked to a senior researcher at FORCE Technology which is a private institute which specialises in maritime simulations and have an awesome "sea simulator" where you can actually have cano races (or so I have been told by a friend who works there). Anyway, he pointed out at FORCE all their simulations of physic behaviours (water, wind, currents) needs to be minutely realistic in order not to enforce "negative learning" situations, where people learn something in the simulator, which they would never be able to do in real life..(go the website and check out the point "Realism" under Maritime Products and you will get the full explanation...).But apart from that, he didn't see the simulations they did as something completely incompatible with game simulations and I later learned at lunch that he was an eager PS2 player. Wonder what kind of games you could come up with, if you had that kind of simulator at hand?
Lunch also provided me with the opportunity to listen in on a discussion of how it is to be a game developing compagny in Denmark and I learnt a little more aboutwhat kind of abilities and skills, Danish game developers are actually looking for in future employees. So in all in all, not a bad day, despite the fact that I didn't understanding approx 90% of the papers given. I really should take a course in algoritmic reading one day soon...well, *grin*, on the other hand, when you are the ONLY female researcher present in an all male conference, it is much easier to get people to talk to you, the value of that shouldn't be underestimated either.
My purple poster and I went to the Visiondays seminar today and it was a rather interesting morning, where I got to hear presentations from The Three Serious Danish Game Developers: IO Interactive, ITE and Deadline. Both ITE and Deadline talked about using middleware (or parts of middleware) for their game developments and even if the focus here was on graphics middleware, it gave some interesting insights into the middleware products and the processes of using middleware in game production. Thomas Jacobsen of IO Interactive talked about physically-based simulations and even if I couldn't understand the algorithms, I could see it was cool :). It was interesting also, that he emphasised that as game producers you dont have to go for complete physical realism, but just for believability (Henry James, hear that?), i.e. if a character gets shot, the animation of the body being hit by the bullet must look somewhat natural, but it doesn't have to be an absolute simulation of "real death" (rather the opposite, I would actually surmise, if people being shot by Hitman died a too natural death, it would be too gory). Following in the morning break, I talked to a senior researcher at FORCE Technology which is a private institute which specialises in maritime simulations and have an awesome "sea simulator" where you can actually have cano races (or so I have been told by a friend who works there). Anyway, he pointed out at FORCE all their simulations of physic behaviours (water, wind, currents) needs to be minutely realistic in order not to enforce "negative learning" situations, where people learn something in the simulator, which they would never be able to do in real life..(go the website and check out the point "Realism" under Maritime Products and you will get the full explanation...).But apart from that, he didn't see the simulations they did as something completely incompatible with game simulations and I later learned at lunch that he was an eager PS2 player. Wonder what kind of games you could come up with, if you had that kind of simulator at hand?
Lunch also provided me with the opportunity to listen in on a discussion of how it is to be a game developing compagny in Denmark and I learnt a little more aboutwhat kind of abilities and skills, Danish game developers are actually looking for in future employees. So in all in all, not a bad day, despite the fact that I didn't understanding approx 90% of the papers given. I really should take a course in algoritmic reading one day soon...well, *grin*, on the other hand, when you are the ONLY female researcher present in an all male conference, it is much easier to get people to talk to you, the value of that shouldn't be underestimated either.
Let your webcam play Tetris!
Ok, so if you don't want to play Tetris yourself, there are lot of gadgets around you which can do it, just download and install the code for: Tetris AI
Ok, so if you don't want to play Tetris yourself, there are lot of gadgets around you which can do it, just download and install the code for: Tetris AI
Poster Girl
Aaaargh! Today I had planned to spend quietly working at home, going over the thesis and thinking about what to say at the defense. Instead, I found myself running franticly around after the first print of the poster, I have prepared for the computer graphics and computer game day at the Visiondays Seminar at The Danish University of Technology (DTU) tomorrow, turned out to be an absolute disaster. I had already spent much more energy than planned for on writing up the post, trying to make the research of the Game Center look sexy to engineers and game developers. And as it now turned out, finding a printing house who could print a second version in a nicer layout with very short notice, was not that easy. I had several conversations with M at Vester Kopi, before everything was sorted out (for instance, for a while it looked like the poster printer had crashed) and I could rush to place 5 min to closing time to pick it up. Once my poster presentation is done tomorrow, there will be no more game center stuff for a while, that's for sure!!
Aaaargh! Today I had planned to spend quietly working at home, going over the thesis and thinking about what to say at the defense. Instead, I found myself running franticly around after the first print of the poster, I have prepared for the computer graphics and computer game day at the Visiondays Seminar at The Danish University of Technology (DTU) tomorrow, turned out to be an absolute disaster. I had already spent much more energy than planned for on writing up the post, trying to make the research of the Game Center look sexy to engineers and game developers. And as it now turned out, finding a printing house who could print a second version in a nicer layout with very short notice, was not that easy. I had several conversations with M at Vester Kopi, before everything was sorted out (for instance, for a while it looked like the poster printer had crashed) and I could rush to place 5 min to closing time to pick it up. Once my poster presentation is done tomorrow, there will be no more game center stuff for a while, that's for sure!!
Gamers being filmed
BBC News runs a story on the popularity of a student documentary on online gamers (of first person shooters). It includes links to this documentary (which have been downloaded 10.000 times after having been slashdotted) and also links to other documentaries on online gaming, including one exclusively on EverQuest.
Gaming film shoots to thrill
The EverQuest Documentary is actually quite interesting, and it features Nick Yee, whose website and studies all researchers working with EverQuest will almost inevitably come across. And there are some nice links on the documentary site too.
Quote (as said by player Frank Dellario on the subject of playing as an escape from real life): "It's a way of being in a story that isn't real life right now".
BBC News runs a story on the popularity of a student documentary on online gamers (of first person shooters). It includes links to this documentary (which have been downloaded 10.000 times after having been slashdotted) and also links to other documentaries on online gaming, including one exclusively on EverQuest.
Gaming film shoots to thrill
The EverQuest Documentary is actually quite interesting, and it features Nick Yee, whose website and studies all researchers working with EverQuest will almost inevitably come across. And there are some nice links on the documentary site too.
Quote (as said by player Frank Dellario on the subject of playing as an escape from real life): "It's a way of being in a story that isn't real life right now".
The Webby Awards has just been announced and interesting choices have been made. Orisinal, a beautifal (flash?) game site deservedly won in the games category - as far as I remember it contains only single user games, not multi-player games, notably.
Netart winner was Listening Post which is in fact a mixed reality installation which has been on display at the Whitney museum. The concept sounds impressive, but somehow netart which is not available on the net, does not really fall into my personal definition of what netart is. Here "netart" apparently includes art which "mediates" the net as communication form. Hmmh.
Finally Nobodyhere won in the personal website category and it is indeed a real cool personal website in Dutch, Japanese and English which creatively uses a lot of visuals and horisontal scrolling and text fragments. It bears no time markers and is, not the least. noticable, because it is NOT a blog...
Netart winner was Listening Post which is in fact a mixed reality installation which has been on display at the Whitney museum. The concept sounds impressive, but somehow netart which is not available on the net, does not really fall into my personal definition of what netart is. Here "netart" apparently includes art which "mediates" the net as communication form. Hmmh.
Finally Nobodyhere won in the personal website category and it is indeed a real cool personal website in Dutch, Japanese and English which creatively uses a lot of visuals and horisontal scrolling and text fragments. It bears no time markers and is, not the least. noticable, because it is NOT a blog...
Which industry earns the most? Games or film?
I'm trying to examine the claim that the computer game industry earns more than the film industry these days, such as this one. I'm not sure it is in fact true, but my brief research indicates that at least they appear to be on the same billion dollar level.
This factsheet claims that the annual global box office revenue for films amount to 21.4 billion $ (if you take home rentals, dvds and videos into account the number is of course much higher)
This press release announcing a "Worldwide Market Forecasts for the Video Game and Interactive Entertainment Industry" lists the global markets sales (??) for this sector in 2002 as being 20.7 billion $.
So currently the score seems to be 1-1 (21.4 versus 20.7 billion). I'd love to see some more precise figures taken from some available reports. Furthermore, ff these numbers tentatively measure the number of sold tickets and game boxes, it gives us no clue as what gets to be used the most, films or games, if we include pirate copies, privately borrowed films and games etc. The last statistics would be very interesting to get hold of, if one such, however hypothetic it may be, exists.
If you are reading this and have access to any form of reliable numbers, please contact me :)
I'm trying to examine the claim that the computer game industry earns more than the film industry these days, such as this one. I'm not sure it is in fact true, but my brief research indicates that at least they appear to be on the same billion dollar level.
This factsheet claims that the annual global box office revenue for films amount to 21.4 billion $ (if you take home rentals, dvds and videos into account the number is of course much higher)
This press release announcing a "Worldwide Market Forecasts for the Video Game and Interactive Entertainment Industry" lists the global markets sales (??) for this sector in 2002 as being 20.7 billion $.
So currently the score seems to be 1-1 (21.4 versus 20.7 billion). I'd love to see some more precise figures taken from some available reports. Furthermore, ff these numbers tentatively measure the number of sold tickets and game boxes, it gives us no clue as what gets to be used the most, films or games, if we include pirate copies, privately borrowed films and games etc. The last statistics would be very interesting to get hold of, if one such, however hypothetic it may be, exists.
If you are reading this and have access to any form of reliable numbers, please contact me :)
MMOGW Building Projects (MMOGW= Massively Multi-Player Online Game World)
Susana sends word of a free world building project: PlaneShift. This project reminds me of another one I came across some time ago: the WorldForge Project. With projects like this and the complimentary toolkits offered by the producers of Neverwinter Nights or Morrowind, and finally the commercial MMOG middleware offered by various compagnies, such as Zona, Butterfly.net or even Renderware, it suddenly seems likely that building (parts of) a massively multi-player world is actually feasible even if you are "just" some researchers and students and not a big compagny. It would be interesting to run a course focusing on building a world at the same time as you teach people to think about game worlds or to find some other researchers who would be interesting exploring some of this software with me!
Susana sends word of a free world building project: PlaneShift. This project reminds me of another one I came across some time ago: the WorldForge Project. With projects like this and the complimentary toolkits offered by the producers of Neverwinter Nights or Morrowind, and finally the commercial MMOG middleware offered by various compagnies, such as Zona, Butterfly.net or even Renderware, it suddenly seems likely that building (parts of) a massively multi-player world is actually feasible even if you are "just" some researchers and students and not a big compagny. It would be interesting to run a course focusing on building a world at the same time as you teach people to think about game worlds or to find some other researchers who would be interesting exploring some of this software with me!
Welcome S!
Even if a national holiday, I thought that this monday would be a work day (the abstract long due), but then I was called for in the middle of the night to babysit my goddaughter while her parents went to the hospital to have her babysister brought into the world - as I had long ago promised to stand by if and when need arose. Turned out to be a more complicated birth than hoped for, so I have just returned home now after a visit to the hospital introducing the now older sister to the younger. First time I have seen a baby only 8 hours old, and she is absolutely perfect. Amazing. Choosing between work and experiences like this is not difficult, even if you end up somewhat sleep deprived...
Even if a national holiday, I thought that this monday would be a work day (the abstract long due), but then I was called for in the middle of the night to babysit my goddaughter while her parents went to the hospital to have her babysister brought into the world - as I had long ago promised to stand by if and when need arose. Turned out to be a more complicated birth than hoped for, so I have just returned home now after a visit to the hospital introducing the now older sister to the younger. First time I have seen a baby only 8 hours old, and she is absolutely perfect. Amazing. Choosing between work and experiences like this is not difficult, even if you end up somewhat sleep deprived...
Summer outing...
Of to the countryside for the weekend. Had hoped to complete my abstract of the thesis before then, but looks like I will be uploading it sometime monday.
Of to the countryside for the weekend. Had hoped to complete my abstract of the thesis before then, but looks like I will be uploading it sometime monday.
Go Girl!
Last term, I functioned as supervisor for a Master thesis project on how to make girls use the computer more in after-school institutions [DK: klubber og fritidshjem]. The student doing the Masters, Camilla, came up with a workshop concept meant to help girls approx age 10-13 tell personal, digital stories on the pc via "simple" programs such as paint, word and powerpoint. She did several workshops and her concept turned out to be a huge succes, the girls she taught made some pretty impressive stories, considering the short time they had to learn to use the tools. Following the completition of her Master's, she has now been interviewed for one of the biggest Danish journals on Children and Pedagogy. Here is the article about her project: Pigepower på PC (In Danish. UK: Girlpower on PC). She has also been asked to participate in a research project for Lego, together with Carsten Jessen, Associate Professor at the Danish University of Pedagogics (DPU). So a real succes story, I'm really proud of her!
Last term, I functioned as supervisor for a Master thesis project on how to make girls use the computer more in after-school institutions [DK: klubber og fritidshjem]. The student doing the Masters, Camilla, came up with a workshop concept meant to help girls approx age 10-13 tell personal, digital stories on the pc via "simple" programs such as paint, word and powerpoint. She did several workshops and her concept turned out to be a huge succes, the girls she taught made some pretty impressive stories, considering the short time they had to learn to use the tools. Following the completition of her Master's, she has now been interviewed for one of the biggest Danish journals on Children and Pedagogy. Here is the article about her project: Pigepower på PC (In Danish. UK: Girlpower on PC). She has also been asked to participate in a research project for Lego, together with Carsten Jessen, Associate Professor at the Danish University of Pedagogics (DPU). So a real succes story, I'm really proud of her!
Exploring Myst's Brave New World, Wired article on the online persistent world version of Myst. They've just sent out mails to news subscribers that the world is now open for a limited amount of beta testers...
2nd International Conference on Virtual Storytelling 2003 takes place in Toulouse, France, November 20-21 this year. To them, "virtual storytelling" seem to be synonomous to virtual reality storytelling from a tech perspective, but nevertheless there are some interesting topics ligned up in the call for papers. Could be interesting to see if they would accept a paper from me...
DEFENSE!!
Finally got my evaluation commitee's first version of the evaluation of the thesis, including an unianimous vote in favour of admitting the thesis for defense. A good part of justified criticism too, mainly in regard to methodology and formal criteria, a critique which I was deservedly prepared for. But generally they seem to like the work which is a huge relief.
So all is set now:
DEFENSE WILL TAKE PLACE FRIDAY JUNE 20TH FROM 13.00 - 16.00
in room 0.19 AT THE IT UNIVERSITY IN COPENHAGEN
The defense is open to the public. Afterwards ITU will host a reception in either room 0.19 or 0.15.
Phew. Wauw. Help!
Finally got my evaluation commitee's first version of the evaluation of the thesis, including an unianimous vote in favour of admitting the thesis for defense. A good part of justified criticism too, mainly in regard to methodology and formal criteria, a critique which I was deservedly prepared for. But generally they seem to like the work which is a huge relief.
So all is set now:
DEFENSE WILL TAKE PLACE FRIDAY JUNE 20TH FROM 13.00 - 16.00
in room 0.19 AT THE IT UNIVERSITY IN COPENHAGEN
The defense is open to the public. Afterwards ITU will host a reception in either room 0.19 or 0.15.
Phew. Wauw. Help!
Check out the discussion in the comments on Noah's review of Narrative as Virtual Reality at grandtextauto. The author, Marie-Laure Ryan, has chimed in as well, all in all this is one of the most interesting uses of the comments section I have seen so far :).
Watch that space!
What else, after the recent debate at DAC 2003, could Jesper (Juul) do but start a blog and name it The Ludologist? Note the official "apology" ;).
The ludology stuff apart (or included), the blog looks promising, which is almost inevitable, Jesper being an acute observer, strong theorist and often sharp and precise as a razor blade with words when he uses these faculties in writing.
What else, after the recent debate at DAC 2003, could Jesper (Juul) do but start a blog and name it The Ludologist? Note the official "apology" ;).
The ludology stuff apart (or included), the blog looks promising, which is almost inevitable, Jesper being an acute observer, strong theorist and often sharp and precise as a razor blade with words when he uses these faculties in writing.
Baghdad bloggers Salam Pax in the Guardian. See the Guardian's own story at:Salam's story. Jill has also posted some links :)
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.