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
...
His fear is not behind him but beside him
On either hand to make his course perhaps
A crooked straightness yet no less a straightness.
...
(from Robert Frost's poem Escapist - Never)
Yesterday, I functioned as stand-in examinator at an oral exam discussing a project on metaphor theory in relation to computer media. I haven't been thinking about metaphors for a long time; they are more part of my old 'trade' (comparative literature) than my 'new' trade (digital media stuff). But it was nice to think about metaphors again; how elements from different worlds come together to make new meaning; how incompatible expressions nevertheless become compatible in the context of a metaphor. The small wonders of experience constellations of words can create.
Perhaps it is mere chance, or perhaps it is because there is a secret meaning behind everything, but the last couple of nights (also before the exam) I have felt an urge to digest a few poems, before I went to bed. And it had to be Robert Frost (hear him), whose Selected Poems I read for a course some years ago. And I came across the Escapist poem which I couldn't remember. And the image of "crooked straightness" has just stayed with me since I read it. It's a bloody brilliant metaphor. Perhaps a good psychoanalyst can tell me why I'm so attracted to it. But, really, I believe it sticks, because it just works very well. I don't care in which form they come to me, print or digital, but words...in rare moments words continue to work their magic on me.
His fear is not behind him but beside him
On either hand to make his course perhaps
A crooked straightness yet no less a straightness.
...
(from Robert Frost's poem Escapist - Never)
Yesterday, I functioned as stand-in examinator at an oral exam discussing a project on metaphor theory in relation to computer media. I haven't been thinking about metaphors for a long time; they are more part of my old 'trade' (comparative literature) than my 'new' trade (digital media stuff). But it was nice to think about metaphors again; how elements from different worlds come together to make new meaning; how incompatible expressions nevertheless become compatible in the context of a metaphor. The small wonders of experience constellations of words can create.
Perhaps it is mere chance, or perhaps it is because there is a secret meaning behind everything, but the last couple of nights (also before the exam) I have felt an urge to digest a few poems, before I went to bed. And it had to be Robert Frost (hear him), whose Selected Poems I read for a course some years ago. And I came across the Escapist poem which I couldn't remember. And the image of "crooked straightness" has just stayed with me since I read it. It's a bloody brilliant metaphor. Perhaps a good psychoanalyst can tell me why I'm so attracted to it. But, really, I believe it sticks, because it just works very well. I don't care in which form they come to me, print or digital, but words...in rare moments words continue to work their magic on me.
You know how you sometimes get weird "invitations" in your mail from people that want you to go to their website and/or link to it. Just got one such, and in this case: 3fox.net seems to be the real thing. An art site/forum which looks quite professional.
Some musings on what happens with a website or a blog, after a person is dead: Can you live online after death?. Towards the end of the article, the writer mentions a few web-services you can use, if you want to send the last email. At a price, of course. I guess it is the natural solution for digital media to come up with: changing the last email seems much easier than changing that traditional will, doesn't it? Brrrr.
Via Torill, who posted about the Death Clock, I came across this site:
Find A Death, with a lot of entries on how a number of famous people (primarily American) died. Linked to this site, is a form of companion site: Find a Grave, where you can look for pictures of the grave sites of even more famous people. 41 graves listed for Denmark, including H.C. Andersen, Kierkegaard, Bohr etc.
Find a Death is almost scary in its meticously detailing of everything, down to pictures of the inside of the house where Sharon Tate was killed. What kind of fasciniation is it that leads us to pursue the death of others to the point where people travel around the world to photograph graveyards and murder sites?
The culture of death and the way it is mediated online in western culture is indeed something which calls for study.
Find A Death, with a lot of entries on how a number of famous people (primarily American) died. Linked to this site, is a form of companion site: Find a Grave, where you can look for pictures of the grave sites of even more famous people. 41 graves listed for Denmark, including H.C. Andersen, Kierkegaard, Bohr etc.
Find a Death is almost scary in its meticously detailing of everything, down to pictures of the inside of the house where Sharon Tate was killed. What kind of fasciniation is it that leads us to pursue the death of others to the point where people travel around the world to photograph graveyards and murder sites?
The culture of death and the way it is mediated online in western culture is indeed something which calls for study.
A spiralling reader adventure: The Neverending Tale
Via Tommy (on Messenger): The Neverending Tale - I've never come across this before. Perhaps mostly for a younger audience, but there seems to be lots of paths in there, so it works!
...and now down with a cold. Cannot recommend large campus conferences - you can get really wet, when it takes you 15-20 min. to walk from the residence hall to the presentation site and you have no umbrella. Cold and damp and freezing my way through the first track-session; personal experience tells me that added to a stressed schedule, this is all it takes to bring me down. On top of this, it is _really_ annoying when you then have to walk another 5-10 minutes from the presentation room to the place where the hot tea is. - Believe me, social networking will not happen when you have 200+ researchers constantly running around campus like disturbed ants in an anthill.
Don't have the energy to write much about the conference, which were on average fine, with many OK papers, only a few bad ones, and one session which was amazing: a group of Japanese and Korean doing a really interesting panel-session on the social psychology of Lineage II gamers - impressively well-coordinated and with people and papers really talking to each others. The only time it really happened in the sessions, I were in.
There are some photo impressions & brief comments in my photoblog.
Don't have the energy to write much about the conference, which were on average fine, with many OK papers, only a few bad ones, and one session which was amazing: a group of Japanese and Korean doing a really interesting panel-session on the social psychology of Lineage II gamers - impressively well-coordinated and with people and papers really talking to each others. The only time it really happened in the sessions, I were in.
There are some photo impressions & brief comments in my photoblog.
Oh, my, I really made a fool of myself by believing in this post over at Dalager's. I defintely should learn to pay attention to post-categories!
And now off to the A.o.I.R. 5.0 conference - will be in Brighton until wednesday.
And now off to the A.o.I.R. 5.0 conference - will be in Brighton until wednesday.
The nominees for the first price in the annual VideoMarathon 2004 has been announced online. The competitors had 48 hours to record and edit a movie on the pre-decided theme, this year "Terror". More than 200 people submitted a video. Watch the nominated movies here and vote. Fyi, most films are 3-4 min. long (and seem to be in English).
I like the idea of giving people a chance to be known as directors, even if they dont get a price. And btw, a friend of a friend made film no. A041, so I recommend that (it is actually ok!).
I like the idea of giving people a chance to be known as directors, even if they dont get a price. And btw, a friend of a friend made film no. A041, so I recommend that (it is actually ok!).
Via Jill's notes somewhere on the web:Message Quests: "allowing you to send personalized interactive adventures to any number of web users".
I'm quite sure that Alex Mayhew, who is behind the site, is also the Alex Mayhew involved in the Ceremony of Innocence game/narrative production.
I'm quite sure that Alex Mayhew, who is behind the site, is also the Alex Mayhew involved in the Ceremony of Innocence game/narrative production.
Feeding!
Procrastinating - and I think that I finally got the atom feed to work for this blog.
There is a site feed link on the right side menu.
Turns out(as I have experienced before) that the "old" Blogger templates made before the big Blogger rehaul earlier this year missed some of what I think is the basic code that needs to be in the template to make the new functions (like feeds and comments) to work. The thing to do is to copy-paste the code from one of the "new" templates, made after the great change. Until I did that, Blogger insisted on syndicating my photoblog, not this one ;).
[Update. The blogfeed tool and the explanation on this page seems to be the most useful pointer/tool for producing a rss-feed document with blogger-tags included]
There is a site feed link on the right side menu.
Turns out(as I have experienced before) that the "old" Blogger templates made before the big Blogger rehaul earlier this year missed some of what I think is the basic code that needs to be in the template to make the new functions (like feeds and comments) to work. The thing to do is to copy-paste the code from one of the "new" templates, made after the great change. Until I did that, Blogger insisted on syndicating my photoblog, not this one ;).
[Update. The blogfeed tool and the explanation on this page seems to be the most useful pointer/tool for producing a rss-feed document with blogger-tags included]
15 men, 1 woman and 1 famous blogger
In the midst of the fury of tasks overwhelming me as temp head currently, the last three days have provided some very interesting experiences and meetings with journalists and bloggers.
Wednesday evening, I actually meet up with 15 male bloggers and Dan Gillmor - and at least most of these 15 Danish bloggers were famous to me :) - many of them I have been reading, or appearing with in the media, but it was the first time I saw them in real life. It also turned out that several people were involved with the ITU - or were considering some form of involvement. Small world.
At my end of the table, we had some interesting discussions about blogs and blogreading, RSS feeds, corporate blogging (or not). I had great fun - a bunch of very nice guys. And - I should add- it is not particularly representative of the Danish blogosphere, that I was the only women present - there is quite a few female bloggers around (such as Tinka of Distant Sun, Tantologi, Emme, Many, Randises, Hende, Frk. Andersen and Yin).
See Morten's pictures from the event. And Knut's. Pollas' moblog entry. Dalager also blogged it briefly. Thomas's (the initiator) list of the partipants.
And via Gøtzespace (also a ITU lecturer!), the corporate weblog manifesto.
Tuesday, Dan Gillmor, author of We the Media who also spoke at the Fagfestival, gave a speak at the IT University which I had organised in collaboration with DONA. He started by presenting - via his blog - a little video from the ITU and the auditorium in which he was speaking - a shrewd example of how instant instant webpublishing can be. Thomas Madsen-Mygdal liveblogged his talk - and people also have some discussions in the comment-list to the video-post on Gillmor's own blog, E-Journal. One of Gillmors more interesting points (which I think was a quote from someone else) was that "in the (web?)future people will not be famous in 15 seconds, but to 15 people".
[update: Jonas of Verture net has blogged him taking a photo of Gillmore who is videofilming Jonas - oh, we are indeed living in a world of simulacra. He also took a snapshot of Gillmor and me (desperately trying to fix the projector). Thanks, Jonas...]
Monday, with Christian Badse from the Skum-community on DR, I spoke on the Danish Journalists annual fair Fagfestival 2004, about mediaforms where the "audience" take action.
About 50 journalists showed up and we had a good discussion after our presentations. Not a lot of Danish journalists have bought into weblogs yet, and I'm not sure I convinced them that they should do it. However, I hope that a few more of them at least now knows more about the opportunities for direct dialogue with readers that the weblog provides.
Here are the slides from my speak.
Wednesday evening, I actually meet up with 15 male bloggers and Dan Gillmor - and at least most of these 15 Danish bloggers were famous to me :) - many of them I have been reading, or appearing with in the media, but it was the first time I saw them in real life. It also turned out that several people were involved with the ITU - or were considering some form of involvement. Small world.
At my end of the table, we had some interesting discussions about blogs and blogreading, RSS feeds, corporate blogging (or not). I had great fun - a bunch of very nice guys. And - I should add- it is not particularly representative of the Danish blogosphere, that I was the only women present - there is quite a few female bloggers around (such as Tinka of Distant Sun, Tantologi, Emme, Many, Randises, Hende, Frk. Andersen and Yin).
See Morten's pictures from the event. And Knut's. Pollas' moblog entry. Dalager also blogged it briefly. Thomas's (the initiator) list of the partipants.
And via Gøtzespace (also a ITU lecturer!), the corporate weblog manifesto.
Tuesday, Dan Gillmor, author of We the Media who also spoke at the Fagfestival, gave a speak at the IT University which I had organised in collaboration with DONA. He started by presenting - via his blog - a little video from the ITU and the auditorium in which he was speaking - a shrewd example of how instant instant webpublishing can be. Thomas Madsen-Mygdal liveblogged his talk - and people also have some discussions in the comment-list to the video-post on Gillmor's own blog, E-Journal. One of Gillmors more interesting points (which I think was a quote from someone else) was that "in the (web?)future people will not be famous in 15 seconds, but to 15 people".
[update: Jonas of Verture net has blogged him taking a photo of Gillmore who is videofilming Jonas - oh, we are indeed living in a world of simulacra. He also took a snapshot of Gillmor and me (desperately trying to fix the projector). Thanks, Jonas...]
Monday, with Christian Badse from the Skum-community on DR, I spoke on the Danish Journalists annual fair Fagfestival 2004, about mediaforms where the "audience" take action.
About 50 journalists showed up and we had a good discussion after our presentations. Not a lot of Danish journalists have bought into weblogs yet, and I'm not sure I convinced them that they should do it. However, I hope that a few more of them at least now knows more about the opportunities for direct dialogue with readers that the weblog provides.
Here are the slides from my speak.
ELSPA's white paper on women and gaming Chicks & Joysticks has just been launched - in connection with the Austin conference on Women in Gaming. TL has been at the conference, undoubtedly as always a very good representativ for the game center.
MMOG players wanted for death tales!
I'm happy to present: www.death-stories.org!
Finally, the death-stories project I have been working on for a long time, has gone online in betaversion 2 (almost a-version). The website death-stories.org is a site where players can submit stories about their character's death experiences in massive multiplayer online gameworlds (MMOGS)- and additional provide me with a bit of information on their playing habits and their point of view on death in MMOGs in general. The site is part of a bigger project, which examines how players think about online gameworlds and on how we can use their thoughts for creating more interesting player-driven worlds. See the ODDPAW project site.
If you know of any good places to announce this site/survey/submission point, let me know!
Finally, the death-stories project I have been working on for a long time, has gone online in betaversion 2 (almost a-version). The website death-stories.org is a site where players can submit stories about their character's death experiences in massive multiplayer online gameworlds (MMOGS)- and additional provide me with a bit of information on their playing habits and their point of view on death in MMOGs in general. The site is part of a bigger project, which examines how players think about online gameworlds and on how we can use their thoughts for creating more interesting player-driven worlds. See the ODDPAW project site.
If you know of any good places to announce this site/survey/submission point, let me know!
Read Part I first.
Actually, the first thing the royal prince asked me about when I was introduced to him as the Head of the Department of Digital Aesthetics & Communication, was: "I understand what digital communication means, but what does digital aesthetics mean?". Not a bad question, so we talked a bit about that, and I said that it could also mean the aesthetics of computer games (because he had mentioned games in his opening speech), and then we talked a lot about computer games and the SMMOG project (Students Massive Multiplayer Game)which he was really impressed by and which was also pitched by Mads Tofte, our dean who was an interested bystander to the entire conversation.
Somehow we just never got around to the weblog question, but next time...if there is any....I'll be ready to give this long talk about the relation between digital aesthetics, digital communication, weblogs and...basically everything else. Lesson learned: it requires a quick-thinking woman to keep up with a professional conversation-maker.
Actually, the first thing the royal prince asked me about when I was introduced to him as the Head of the Department of Digital Aesthetics & Communication, was: "I understand what digital communication means, but what does digital aesthetics mean?". Not a bad question, so we talked a bit about that, and I said that it could also mean the aesthetics of computer games (because he had mentioned games in his opening speech), and then we talked a lot about computer games and the SMMOG project (Students Massive Multiplayer Game)which he was really impressed by and which was also pitched by Mads Tofte, our dean who was an interested bystander to the entire conversation.
Somehow we just never got around to the weblog question, but next time...if there is any....I'll be ready to give this long talk about the relation between digital aesthetics, digital communication, weblogs and...basically everything else. Lesson learned: it requires a quick-thinking woman to keep up with a professional conversation-maker.
There will be museums or "curated sites" for everything. So here goes: The Internet Advertising Resource Guide with the "biggest and best banner ad gallery on the web".
Respect: the Guardian are really in the forefront when it comes to using weblogs as part of their online journalism/content production. Here is: Guardian Unlimited Gamesblog.
One of the writers, Aleks Krotoski, has studied women's use of computer games. Read her paper preview in this webpost: Chicks and Joysticks. It's presented in the very upcoming conference on Women in Games - full paper will published afterwards.
One of the writers, Aleks Krotoski, has studied women's use of computer games. Read her paper preview in this webpost: Chicks and Joysticks. It's presented in the very upcoming conference on Women in Games - full paper will published afterwards.
Tomorrow (friday) the big offical opening of the new IT University takes place. Together with a number of other ITU people I have been selected to be a "stand-by conversation VIP" during the buffet which follows the inauguration speeches. We are supposed to stand by for possible conversations with the RoyalPrince Joachim and the Minister of Research, Helge Sander.
Some people have proposed that, if I get to talk to him, I could introduce weblogs to the Royal Prince. Perhaps I will - though I doubt there is much time in his busy schedule to write one himself. As is, I think the Danish Royal Family has a quite impressive presence on the web already.
Some people have proposed that, if I get to talk to him, I could introduce weblogs to the Royal Prince. Perhaps I will - though I doubt there is much time in his busy schedule to write one himself. As is, I think the Danish Royal Family has a quite impressive presence on the web already.
Massive Browser Games
This german site, calling itself Massive Browser Games has a substantial game database, keeping track of A LOT of current Massive Multiplayer Online Games.
A Blogging Questionnaire: The psychology of writing online
Via Adrian on the aoir-list: A Blogging Questionnaire. An Australian honours students is examining people's writing habits. What is the difference between writing online and writing a traditional diary?
[I had two students who did a similar study based on four qualitative interviews with Danish bloggers this spring. One of them have continued blogging on their blog Sunblock]
[I had two students who did a similar study based on four qualitative interviews with Danish bloggers this spring. One of them have continued blogging on their blog Sunblock]
Sigh - I SO should have more time to be online. Over at Terra Nova, prompted by Ted Castranova's course suggestion, they are discussing what a Virtual Worlds Syllabus should contain.
Ahem...I did my first Virtual Worlds course back in 2000. And number two (jointly with colleague Troels Degn Johansson) in spring 2002. Unfortunately, they are only available in Danish (but everybody should be able to understand the course readings) - and the courses were put together before much of the current almost already canonical literature (like Bartle's book) had been published. Also I didn't focus exclusively on gameworlds. However, some people might find some interesting stuff in them:
My Virtual worlds 2000 course
Troels' and I's Virtual Worlds & Spaces Spring 2002 course.
Ahem...I did my first Virtual Worlds course back in 2000. And number two (jointly with colleague Troels Degn Johansson) in spring 2002. Unfortunately, they are only available in Danish (but everybody should be able to understand the course readings) - and the courses were put together before much of the current almost already canonical literature (like Bartle's book) had been published. Also I didn't focus exclusively on gameworlds. However, some people might find some interesting stuff in them:
My Virtual worlds 2000 course
Troels' and I's Virtual Worlds & Spaces Spring 2002 course.
Death Stories project
Walgblog (DK)
DK forskerblogs (DK)
klast at del.icio.us
Site feed Link (Atom)
Klastrup family?
****************
Buy our book
****************
Conferences
ACE 2007
Mobile Media 2007
MobileCHI 07
Perth DAC 2007
DIGRA 2007
AOIR 8.0/2007
****************
My Ph.D. thesis website:
Towards a Poetics of Virtual Worlds
****************
Misc
I also used to host & work in a world called StoryMOO.