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.)
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Mediehack
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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
The Days of Procrastination Have Gone
It's not that I don't want to blog - or that I don't have anything say anymore. It's just that life as assistant professor turns out to be pretty busy; teaching, supervision, meetings, co-ordinating, networking, hiring student help, applying for money, and frantic attemtps to produce some research in between the everyday trivialities doesn't leave much room for blogging. Before blogging was (I'll admit it) a nice way of procrastinating in the midst of thesis writing. Now blogging have turned into a luxury activity, done when I have finally have some time to sit down and think about things and surf a bit.
Most important item on my agenda right now is to finish the anthology I'm editing with my ex-colleague Ida Engholm. Gyldendal wants to publish it early next spring, and big deadlines are coming up on October 1st and November 1st. Today we are invited to the bi-annual "presenting authors of books coming out in the following seasons" reception at the publishing house. Ida, who has tried this before, tells me there are lots of famous Danish writers around for this kind of thing, Gyldendal being the largest publishing house in the country. I'm a bit intimidated but also quite exited, it is a bit like a coming-out event...
It's not that I don't want to blog - or that I don't have anything say anymore. It's just that life as assistant professor turns out to be pretty busy; teaching, supervision, meetings, co-ordinating, networking, hiring student help, applying for money, and frantic attemtps to produce some research in between the everyday trivialities doesn't leave much room for blogging. Before blogging was (I'll admit it) a nice way of procrastinating in the midst of thesis writing. Now blogging have turned into a luxury activity, done when I have finally have some time to sit down and think about things and surf a bit.
Most important item on my agenda right now is to finish the anthology I'm editing with my ex-colleague Ida Engholm. Gyldendal wants to publish it early next spring, and big deadlines are coming up on October 1st and November 1st. Today we are invited to the bi-annual "presenting authors of books coming out in the following seasons" reception at the publishing house. Ida, who has tried this before, tells me there are lots of famous Danish writers around for this kind of thing, Gyldendal being the largest publishing house in the country. I'm a bit intimidated but also quite exited, it is a bit like a coming-out event...
Narratology beyond Literary Criticism
is a small colloquium in Hamburg, Germany, November this year. On theconference site, program and abstracts are now available, and several papers look rather interesting. When I saw the call for papers, I was wondering what types of papers it would solicit - I am happy to see that the organisers included a paper on computer games (introducing (?)the notion of an implied creator), one on transmedial narratives (by Marie-Laure Ryan) and also papers discussing visual narrative and metalepsis as a transmedial form.
If I had the money, I would be tempted to go to Hamburg. Unfortunately it looks like it is a very closed affair: registration is not possible, at least not on the site. But at least for future reference, it is nice to know that there are some visionary narratologist in the close vicinity of Denmark!
is a small colloquium in Hamburg, Germany, November this year. On theconference site, program and abstracts are now available, and several papers look rather interesting. When I saw the call for papers, I was wondering what types of papers it would solicit - I am happy to see that the organisers included a paper on computer games (introducing (?)the notion of an implied creator), one on transmedial narratives (by Marie-Laure Ryan) and also papers discussing visual narrative and metalepsis as a transmedial form.
If I had the money, I would be tempted to go to Hamburg. Unfortunately it looks like it is a very closed affair: registration is not possible, at least not on the site. But at least for future reference, it is nice to know that there are some visionary narratologist in the close vicinity of Denmark!
Found at Richard Bartle's website:Morality in Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games by Paul E Schwanz II.
A Morning with Sobig
I've spent most of the morning securing my computer against a vicious attack from the sobig.F virus who is bombarding my klastrup.dk mail account. I opened my klastrup mailbox this morning and had almost 50 infected mails coming into outlook express, luckily Norton Antivirus caught them all so I wasn't actually infected, but still. Downloaded a variety of security patches from Windows Update (a task long overdue), ordered virusscan at the webhotel, notified all my siblings also using klastrup.dk mails about the state of affairs etc. I'm a bit worried, since some of my siblings are not very computer virus literate and not really able to fend off a virus attack if it hits them, and there is only so much you can do from a distance.
It feels like I have been wasting my time, doing all this protection stuff, but thinking about it, I decided that protecting the information, the production of which is a major part of my work, should also count as work. It is some of the more trivial work having to do with being a scientist in the digital era, but nevertheless still work, not just "stuff I do with my computer". Well, now I'm off to "real" work, doing a budget, revising some articles and other "fun" stuff like organising project funding. Just another ordinary Thursday in my life as assistant professor. :(
I've spent most of the morning securing my computer against a vicious attack from the sobig.F virus who is bombarding my klastrup.dk mail account. I opened my klastrup mailbox this morning and had almost 50 infected mails coming into outlook express, luckily Norton Antivirus caught them all so I wasn't actually infected, but still. Downloaded a variety of security patches from Windows Update (a task long overdue), ordered virusscan at the webhotel, notified all my siblings also using klastrup.dk mails about the state of affairs etc. I'm a bit worried, since some of my siblings are not very computer virus literate and not really able to fend off a virus attack if it hits them, and there is only so much you can do from a distance.
It feels like I have been wasting my time, doing all this protection stuff, but thinking about it, I decided that protecting the information, the production of which is a major part of my work, should also count as work. It is some of the more trivial work having to do with being a scientist in the digital era, but nevertheless still work, not just "stuff I do with my computer". Well, now I'm off to "real" work, doing a budget, revising some articles and other "fun" stuff like organising project funding. Just another ordinary Thursday in my life as assistant professor. :(
Another Doctor coming out soon!
Torill of thinking with my fingers is defending her thesis suddenly very soon, on September 12th. Torill flew in from Volda to hear my thesis defense (mainly as a kind of "practice" since we are much in the same field) - and it was really nice to have her around. Her presence gave the somewhat mundane Danish defense act an air of highflying internationalism :). I wish I could go to Volda for Torill's defense, which I would indeed like to hear, but alas, I'm afraid neither my personal or professionel budget allows it at the moment. But my thoughts will be with her on the day - not that she will really need them: I'm confident that Torill will do an absolutely cool, calm and collected intelligent job on the day!
Torill of thinking with my fingers is defending her thesis suddenly very soon, on September 12th. Torill flew in from Volda to hear my thesis defense (mainly as a kind of "practice" since we are much in the same field) - and it was really nice to have her around. Her presence gave the somewhat mundane Danish defense act an air of highflying internationalism :). I wish I could go to Volda for Torill's defense, which I would indeed like to hear, but alas, I'm afraid neither my personal or professionel budget allows it at the moment. But my thoughts will be with her on the day - not that she will really need them: I'm confident that Torill will do an absolutely cool, calm and collected intelligent job on the day!
The Wordcircuits Gallery has a new story by author Milorad Pavic online:The Glass Snail. Pavic has, in my opinion, written some of the more interesting attempts at multi-cursal stories, both offline and online, such as the Dictionary of the Khazars (a print book which comes in both a a male and female version!) and Damascene, "a tale for computer and compasses".
Beauty's Only Skin Deep
Via Frank at Fragment.nl, a link to an online blog Feministe who links to two thought-provoking airbrush make-overs af women. Roll over the image and see the "real" woman behind the smooth surface.
And here is the text for The Temptation's wonderful song
Via Frank at Fragment.nl, a link to an online blog Feministe who links to two thought-provoking airbrush make-overs af women. Roll over the image and see the "real" woman behind the smooth surface.
And here is the text for The Temptation's wonderful song
Eyetoys!
The Eyetoy Games for the Playstation 2 sounds pretty fun - and easy to use even for non-gamers. Interesting what other kind of games will develop with a physical interface in the near future.
The Eyetoy Games for the Playstation 2 sounds pretty fun - and easy to use even for non-gamers. Interesting what other kind of games will develop with a physical interface in the near future.
It is O.N.L.Y Game Clothes
I just saw an add in one of the free papers, you can find almost everywhere in the town these days. The add was put there by clothing compagny O.N.L.Y advertising a game jacket. The wearer of the jacket was flying high in the air (in a jump), partly turning the head away, but I think it was a girl. Now I'm wondering for which occasion one dons a game jacket? When you go on a first date with someone from the game centre? Or when you go to hang out in the nearest netgame cafe with your friends? Does wearing a game jacket encourage you to jump high into the air, while trying to imitate some of the characters of your favourite console games? Or does the name simply refer to the wearer as somebody being "game" - for everything?
Well, I was never much of a fashion person anyway ;). It is probably way cool to wear one.
I just saw an add in one of the free papers, you can find almost everywhere in the town these days. The add was put there by clothing compagny O.N.L.Y advertising a game jacket. The wearer of the jacket was flying high in the air (in a jump), partly turning the head away, but I think it was a girl. Now I'm wondering for which occasion one dons a game jacket? When you go on a first date with someone from the game centre? Or when you go to hang out in the nearest netgame cafe with your friends? Does wearing a game jacket encourage you to jump high into the air, while trying to imitate some of the characters of your favourite console games? Or does the name simply refer to the wearer as somebody being "game" - for everything?
Well, I was never much of a fashion person anyway ;). It is probably way cool to wear one.
The "Bored At ITU Meetings" Game
Danish Newspaper Information presents Informations Bullshit Bingo. They present you with a weekly bingo game board, you bring to some of your favourite boring meetings and see if you can get a row or a full board by crossing out the printed words as they get mentioned. If you are a brave or obnoxious person, they suggest that you actually shout "Bullshit Bingo" when your board is full!
- I don't think that the board comes in an academic version yet, but if we were to have one at ITU, these are some words which should definitely go on the board for our admin and department meetings (feel free to copy for own board):
agenda, STÅ, financiering, projekt, mål, taskforce, arbejdspapir, opdatering, forskningsstrategi, LaCoMoCo, budget, mission, rekruttering, hands on, udkast, Mads Tofte, sysadm, ph.d.studienævnet, dimsekonto, udskyde.
Danish Newspaper Information presents Informations Bullshit Bingo. They present you with a weekly bingo game board, you bring to some of your favourite boring meetings and see if you can get a row or a full board by crossing out the printed words as they get mentioned. If you are a brave or obnoxious person, they suggest that you actually shout "Bullshit Bingo" when your board is full!
- I don't think that the board comes in an academic version yet, but if we were to have one at ITU, these are some words which should definitely go on the board for our admin and department meetings (feel free to copy for own board):
agenda, STÅ, financiering, projekt, mål, taskforce, arbejdspapir, opdatering, forskningsstrategi, LaCoMoCo, budget, mission, rekruttering, hands on, udkast, Mads Tofte, sysadm, ph.d.studienævnet, dimsekonto, udskyde.
Consoling Art
The Third Place Gallery is a place for digital artists to have their work exhibitioned - or chosen for exhibition (they invite works on the theme "emotion" at the moment). It is run and initiated by...Playstation 2.
The Third Place Gallery is a place for digital artists to have their work exhibitioned - or chosen for exhibition (they invite works on the theme "emotion" at the moment). It is run and initiated by...Playstation 2.
Pullman rules, they say.
I was almost verbally abused when - at the wedding - I told some of the fantasy reading guests that I had bought the first volume in the Artemis Fowl series in order to compare it to the Harry Potter series. "Go Read Philip Pullman and his Dark Materials triology", they all shouted at me, "he is fucking brilliant!!!". Following, I did go into all the bookstores I happened to come across in what little time I had left in England not spent in overheated train compartments, but couldn't find it. But it is, also following the linked review, next to buy on my "to order from internet bookstore" list.
I was almost verbally abused when - at the wedding - I told some of the fantasy reading guests that I had bought the first volume in the Artemis Fowl series in order to compare it to the Harry Potter series. "Go Read Philip Pullman and his Dark Materials triology", they all shouted at me, "he is fucking brilliant!!!". Following, I did go into all the bookstores I happened to come across in what little time I had left in England not spent in overheated train compartments, but couldn't find it. But it is, also following the linked review, next to buy on my "to order from internet bookstore" list.
An English Break
Never got around to blogging that I went to UK friday to attend a wedding. Wedding was yesterday, now visiting a Japanese friend at East Anglia University, who turns out to have both a portable computer and internet access from her student lodgings here on campus. Will be back in this space (or at least back at work) Tuesday, I should go to join the japanese sisters in the kitchen and see how they make japanese style burgers in dough!
Never got around to blogging that I went to UK friday to attend a wedding. Wedding was yesterday, now visiting a Japanese friend at East Anglia University, who turns out to have both a portable computer and internet access from her student lodgings here on campus. Will be back in this space (or at least back at work) Tuesday, I should go to join the japanese sisters in the kitchen and see how they make japanese style burgers in dough!
Toss it!
The 4th Annual World Championship in Mobile Phone Tossing takes place in Finland later this month. Says the site: "you can register either in Freestyle or Original (the traditional over the shoulder -style). Alternatively, you can register as a team (max. three persons / team). We also have a Junior category for competitors of under 12 years." They also claim that "Grading in Freestyle is based on style and aesthetics, whereas in Original the grading is purely based on length and style." Apparently, the guy who won the Original competition last year threw his mobile phone more than 66 meters.
The 4th Annual World Championship in Mobile Phone Tossing takes place in Finland later this month. Says the site: "you can register either in Freestyle or Original (the traditional over the shoulder -style). Alternatively, you can register as a team (max. three persons / team). We also have a Junior category for competitors of under 12 years." They also claim that "Grading in Freestyle is based on style and aesthetics, whereas in Original the grading is purely based on length and style." Apparently, the guy who won the Original competition last year threw his mobile phone more than 66 meters.
Via Alex (who got it from Greg): The reading schedule for a course in Ethnography of on-line roleplaying games
A Game of Drums
When I visited Japan and Australia this May, I was amazed by the advanced music and dance game machines you could find in the arcades, especially in Melbourne's Asian neighbourhood. Now I found a online shop that actually sells these Music-Dance Machines ; they cost from 1500 to almost 8000 $, if you want to invest in one...
I saw a Malysian girl in a Melbourne arcade, she was an absolutely amazing drum player and for that reason also attracted quite an audience. She mastered several drums, two highhats and even a floor drum (controlled by her right foot) and played precisely along to an Asian popsong following the on-screen instructions, telling her when to hit the various drums. Today, I was discussing with a colleague of mine, whose husband is a professional drummer, whether a girl like her, a really good (game) player would also be a good drummer if she was put in front of a real drum kit. Her timing and rhytm would be good, surely, but would she be able to produce her own music?
When I visited Japan and Australia this May, I was amazed by the advanced music and dance game machines you could find in the arcades, especially in Melbourne's Asian neighbourhood. Now I found a online shop that actually sells these Music-Dance Machines ; they cost from 1500 to almost 8000 $, if you want to invest in one...
I saw a Malysian girl in a Melbourne arcade, she was an absolutely amazing drum player and for that reason also attracted quite an audience. She mastered several drums, two highhats and even a floor drum (controlled by her right foot) and played precisely along to an Asian popsong following the on-screen instructions, telling her when to hit the various drums. Today, I was discussing with a colleague of mine, whose husband is a professional drummer, whether a girl like her, a really good (game) player would also be a good drummer if she was put in front of a real drum kit. Her timing and rhytm would be good, surely, but would she be able to produce her own music?
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.