Nordic Larp Talks

Documenting the Nordic Larp Scene

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:03:05 +0100

Jaakko Stenros (M.Soc.Sc.) is a game researcher at the Game Research Lab at the University of Tampere, Finland. Currently he is working on a dissertation on the limits of games. Together with Markus Montola, Jaakko has edited three books on larp, Playground Worlds (2008), Beyond Role and Play (2004) Nordic Larp (2010). They are also authors of Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (2009).

Site: Nordic Larp Book
Watch the our special talkshow about the Nordic Larp Book

Photo: Jakob la Cour www.jakoblacour.dk

Can Playing Games Teach Us About War?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:02:05 +0100

Eirik Fatland is a larpwright and interaction designer from Norway and has has since 1994 been involved in the design of around 10-15 larps. He has written several articles for the Knutepunkt books, larp magazines and the Amor Fati website.

Site: The Larpwright

Photo: Jakob la Cour www.jakoblacour.dk

Not Another Story About Boy Meets Girl

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:05 +0100

Tor Kjetil Edland was one of the organizers of the (almost) all female larp Mad about the Boy the summer of 2010. He is an active member of Laivfabrikken Oslo, a network organizing monthly larps in Oslo, and has been part of producing two Knutepunkts, the annual Nordic larp conference. Other larps on his resume include Just a little lovin’, 1942, New Voices in Art, Limbo and Kristianiabohemen. Most of his professional career has involved working on international development projects, and he is currently managing women’s rights projects in Africa and South Asia in the YWCA/YMCA movement.

Photo: Jakob la Cour www.jakoblacour.dk

Horror and Tragedy in Nordic Role-Playing

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:00:05 +0100

Markus Montola (M.Soc.Sc.) has worked as a researcher both at University of Tampere and at Nokia Research Center, with role-playing and pervasive games as main research interests. Together with Jaakko Stenros, Montola has edited three books on larp, Playground Worlds (2008), Beyond Role and Play (2004) Nordic Larp (2010). They are also authors of Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (2009).

Photo: Jakob la Cour www.jakoblacour.dk

Role-Playing as a Teaching Method

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Sanne Harder is a Danish scenario writer, who has more than 15 productions behind her, both LARP and tabletop, among which the most prominent are Agerlund (2009) and Felicia’s Story (2008). Her work has been published several times, both as part of antologies and as stand alone scenarios. Sanne has many year’s experience as a judge at the Danish scenario convention Fastaval. Here she has also been awarded prizes for her work. She has been a contributing writer and editor of several Danish (and international) magazines about roleplaying. In her professional life, Sanne is a teacher. She has studied theory of teaching at the Danish University of Education, where her work has focussed on competencies as an alternative approach to modern teaching. She has worked professionally with roleplaying in education for several years.

Site: The Role-Playing Teacher

Photo: Jakob la Cour www.jakoblacour.dk

Fabricating Madness

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Peter Schønnemann Andreasen was one of the organizers of the larp Delirum in 2010.

Photo: Jakob la Cour www.jakoblacour.dk

Playing With Personal Development

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Bjarke Pedersen runs the Copenhagen based company Odyssé which focuses on interactive storytelling, larping and participatory events. He also works together International artist Brody Condon on interactive performances in Europe and the States. He has played, designed and organised larps since the late nineties. He has made everything from children-larps for the Royal Danish Theatre to an elaborate simulation of life aboard a Soviet submarine.

Site: Odyssé
Twitter: bjarcore

On Games: Painting Life With Rules

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:33:00 +0100

Johanna Koljonen is a writer, Radio and TV host, critic, and a popular lecturer on larp and related topics. Her groundbreaking larp criticism, in essays like “Eye-Witness to the Illusion: The Impossibility of 360° Role-Playing” and “The Dragon Was the Least of it: Larp As Ephemera and Ruin” are widely quoted in the field. She is a co-founder of the TV, radio and web production company Rundfunk Media AB and has a BA in literature. She has hosted several popular radio shows such as “P3 Kultur – Nördorama med Johanna Koljonen” and “Jättestora frågor med Johanna Koljonen” on Swedish national radio and writes columns for Dagens Nyheter and Fokus. She is the scriptwriter of the Oblivion High series of graphic novels and the co-author of the book-length larp autopsy Dragonbane – The Legacy.

Site: johannakoljonen.com
Twitter: jocxy

Thank you for Nordic Larp Talks Copenhagen 2011

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:29:00 +0100

Last night a packed room at Huset in Copenhagen and vibrant a crowd on the live-stream watched Nordic Larp Talks 2011.

Photo: Larson Kasper

We would like to give a final big hand of applause to our fantastic speakers. Your speeches were awesome and we salute you.

Also we are so grateful for the production team from Knudepunkt 2011; Nynne Søs Rasmussen, Anders Berner, Jens Niros, Juliane Mikkelsen, Kristoffer Thurøe, the people at Huset i Magstræde, SocialVideo Production for the live-streaming and all others who made this event possible!

You can watch the stream in full in the player below for now, but in the following weeks will will post the individual speaks here at the Nordic Larp Talks site complete with links and references.

On Games: Painting Life With Rules (starts at 02:15)
Johanna Koljonen

Playing With Personal Development (starts at 12:00)
Bjarke Pedersen

Fabricating Madness (starts at 22:00)
Peter Schønnemann Andreasen

Role-Playing as a Teaching Method (starts at 34:55)
Sanne Harder

Horror and Tragedy in Nordic Role-Playing (starts at 45:55)
Markus Montola

Not Another Story About Boy Meets Girl (starts at 54:15)
Tor Ketil Edland

Can Playing Games Teach Us About War? (starts at 1:05:25)
Eirik Fatland

Documenting the Nordic Larp Scene (starts at 1:20:42)
Panel: Johanna Koljonen & Jaakko Stenros

Nordic Larp Talks Copenhagen, 16 Feb 19.00 at Huset

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:55:00 +0100

Welcome to Nordic Larp Talks Copenhagen 2011 - an evening of entertaining, thought-provoking and mind-boggling lectures about projects and ideas from the Nordic tradition of live action roleplaying games.

The evening is hosted by writer and radio & television host Johanna Koljonen.

Free admission.

19.00-20.30 at Huset i Magstræde, Rådhusstræde 13, Copenhagen
The bar is open after the event.

The event will be streamed live as it happens, on this page:
http://nordiclarp.knudepunkt.org/

Facebook event: Nordic Larp Talks Copenhagen 2011

Press contact: Kristoffer Thurøe k@doodlers.dk +45 2980 8128

Program

Nordic Larp culture
Johanna Koljonen

Fabricating madness
Peter Schønnemann Andreasen

Learning through playing
Sanne Harder Flamant

Playing with personal development
Bjarke Pedersen

Why some games use our real life fears and emotions to create stories
Markus Montola

Not another story of boy meets girl
Tor Kjetil Edland

Can playing games teach us about war?
Eirik Fatland

Documenting the Nordic Larp Scene - the making of the Nordic Larp Book
Panel: Jaakko Stenros & Johanna Koljonen

Watch this space for updated information about the speakers.

Nordic Larp Talks 2011 is organized in cooperation with Rollespilsfabrikken and Bifrost, and supported by DUF and Københavns Kommune. It is a part of the programme the week before larp conference Knudepunkt.

About Nordic Larp Talks:

The first Nordic Larp Talks event took place in Stockholm in 2010, in connection with Nordic larp conference Knutpunkt. All the talks can be seen on this website:

Introduction to Nordic Larp

Transmitting a political vision through larp

The Quest for the Perfect Manifestation of a Dream

Portraying Love and Trying New Genders

Larp as Borderland Festivals

High Resolution Larping

Critical Strategies of Larp

Nordic Larp Book Talkshow

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:40:00 +0100

The Nordic Larp book presents 30 outstanding larps with stories told by designers, players and researchers. It is presented with over 250 photographs and also contains two essays about the history and rhetorics of Nordic larp, and it’s current relation to theatre, art and games. We held a talkshow about the book with critic Johanna Koljonen and book producer Anna Westerling during the release parties held simultaneously in Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki.

The live talkshow was broadcasted on the 22nd December 2010 during the release parties of the Nordic Larp book. Host was writer and critic Johanna ‘Joc’ Koljonen.

Guests:
Jaakko Stenros - Book editor, Finland
Markus Montola - Book editor, Finland
Erlend Eidsem Hansen - Chapter author, Norway
Bjarke Pedersen - Chapter author, Denmark
Anna Westerling - Book producer, Sweden

Buy your copy of the book at the webshop Fealivia.se

And don’t miss out on the Nordic Larp blog & Knudepunkt 2011

The show was produced by Petter Karlsson and SocialVideo Production

What some people have said about the book:

“Nordic Larp is a rare and vivid glimpse into a fascinating gaming tradition. If anyone knows how to imagine better worlds and build a more engaging reality, it’s larpers.”
– Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

“Now evolved far from its roots in genre consumption and modification, the progressive Nordic live roleplaying scene is building the tools for participatory performance that artists internationally will be using for generations to come. Nordic Larp is the first book to put the community’s key pieces in one easily digestible and visually seductive format.”
– Brody Condon, Artist

“The rise of the ars ludorum is not confined to the bombastic power fantasies of the videogame but is manifest all over the globe in diverse ways, from the doujin games of Japan to the passionate intensity of the indie games movement to the rise of the Euro-style board game. Not least among these movements is larp, brought to its apotheosis in the Nordic countries, where vast, imaginative works of enormous artistic ambition receive attention not only from game geeks but from their national cultures as well. This vital phenomenon is now accessible to English speakers through this landmark work, an anthology of articles describing some of the most impressive and compelling works of the form. Anyone seriously interested in role-play, interactive narrative, and the collision between games and theater will find it of enormous interest.”
– Greg Costikyan, Game Designer

We are doing a new round of Nordic Larp Talks in conjunction with the Knudepunkt 2011 conference. Read more about that here.

Nordic Larp Book Release LIVE!

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 09:41:00 +0100

The Nordic Larp book is finally out and release parties will be held in
Helsiniki, Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen.

If you are not able to get to the parties - we invite you to a 30 minute livestreamed show, as a Nordic Larp Talks Special Event, that will give you a good intro to the book and a nifty party-feeling.

Visit the live-page: http://nordiclarp.knudepunkt.org/

The liveshow will air for about 30 minutes and your host for the evening is writer and critic Johanna ‘Joc’ Koljonen.

Wednesday December 22nd
6:30pm - 7:00pm (UTC/GMT London)
7:30pm - 8:00pm (CET Copenhagen/Oslo/Stockholm)
8:30pm - 9:00pm (EET Helsinki)

Get ready for Nordic Larp Talks #2, February 16th in Copenhagen

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 22:33:00 +0100

We are preparing another round of Nordic Larp Talks, in conjunction with Nordic larp conference Knudepunkt.

Nordic Larp Talks #2 takes place on Wednesday ~~February 18th~~ February 16th in Copenhagen, and Johanna Koljonen will be hosting the event.

Mark your calendar, it will be an evening of exciting and approachable talks about Nordic larp, perfect for taking your interested non-larper friends to.

We are planning to live stream the event like last time, so if you can’t make it to Copenhagen we still recommend you mark your calendar and tune your web browser to this page for the live broadcast of the entire event.

More details on the venue, time and other practical matters will come soon (tm).

We are currently preparing to reach out to people we think should give Nordic Larp Talks. You can help!

What we are looking for:

Nordic Larp Talks are inspired by the TED talks format, where experts or people with extraordinary experiences talk about them in such a way that any interested and educated person can enjoy the topic. A Nordic Larp Talk should highlight a project or theme on the Nordic Larp scene to an audience of non-larpers.

Do you think you should give a talk, or do you know of a person or project that should be in a Nordic Larp Talk? Please get in touch with Andie Nordgren and Petter Karlsson.

/The NLT #2 team: Andie Nordgren (production, web), Petter Karlsson (production, documentation), Johanna Koljonen (hosting), Nynne Søs Rasmussen (location)

Critical Strategies of Larp

Mon, 31 May 2010 22:27:00 +0200

Live action roleplaying games are the art of experience. Renowned game researchers Markus Montola and Jaakko Stenros go through a wide range of live action roleplaying games, explaining how the games can be understood as escaping, exposing, exploring or imposing a certain world view.

Markus Montola (M.Soc.Sc.) has worked as a researcher both at University of Tampere and at Nokia Research Center, with role-playing and pervasive games as main research interests. Currently he is a doctoral candidate at the University of Tampere with a 3-year grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Together with Jaakko Stenros, Montola has edited two books on larp, Playground Worlds (2008) and Beyond Role and Play (2004). They are also authors of Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (2009). They are currently editing a coffee table book called Nordic Larp, forthcoming in 2010.

Jaakko Stenros (M.Soc.Sc.) is a game researcher at the Game Research Lab at the University of Tampere, Finland. Currently he studies larps and social games, and is working on a dissertation on games as an activity. Together with Markus Montola, Stenros has edited two books on larp, Playground Worlds (2008) and Beyond Role and Play (2004). They are also authors of Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (2009). They are currently editing a coffee table book called Nordic Larp, forthcoming in 2010.

High Resolution Larping

Mon, 31 May 2010 22:20:00 +0200

Bringing both love and violence into a game can take players to a high resolution game experience. Andie Nordgren talks about ways to give players power to express conflicts and intimacy inside the game fiction rather than simulating them through abstract rules, and shares some of the mechanics used in the tribal larp Totem.

Andie Nordgren produced the Interactive Emmy Award winning game The Truth About Marika and is currently working as a technical producer at CCP Games. She is one of the co-founders of the Geek Girl Meetup, a member of the change-through-participation think tank Interacting Arts, and was recently chosen one of ten people whose advice the next Swedish prime minister should heed by Internetworld magazine.

Larp as Borderland Festivals

Mon, 31 May 2010 22:06:00 +0200

If you don’t party day and night, you get arrested! Massive art project Futuredrome built a Mad Max style city in an old quarry, and invited 1000 people to join the neverending party, live action roleplaying game, festival and movie-in-the-making. Mathias Gullbrandsson talks about lessons from the project and introduces Borderland - a new project in the same vein.

Mathias Gullbrandson is a film-maker and games producer with 13 years of experience in storytelling, game and service design, and innovation processes. He has produced or been highly involved in games like Futuredrome, Knappnålshuvudet, Hamlet and Virtual Galileo. Gullbrandson is co-founder and CEO of The Story Lab.

Portraying Love and Trying New Genders

Sun, 16 May 2010 20:54:00 +0200

The story of a small village marriage on a desert planet was the canvas for an exploration of how to portray gender, relationships and sexuality in roleplaying games. While fighting uses large and bold gestures, love is a glance across the room. Emma Wieslander explains how the game Mellan Himmel och Hav (Between Heaven and Sea) had the ambition to let people out of stereotypes they might not even be aware of.

Emma Wieslander works with development of organizational management and leadership in social economy and non-profit organizations. Much of these theories has evolved from her years as a chair person of Sverok, the Swedish organization for role-playing, LARP, computer-gaming etc. She was the conceptual designer of the multi art production Mellan himmel och Hav (Between heaven and sea) that combined roleplay with light art and modern art music at Swedens national theater. The game was highly political and deconstructed the idea of gender as we know it. She is currently working on a new political vision focusing on environment issues among other things.

The Quest for the Perfect Manifestation of a Dream

Sun, 09 May 2010 18:47:00 +0200

Martin Ericsson explains why live action roleplaying totally beats computer games when it comes to immersion. He goes on to talk about his use of 360° immersive aesthetics in the games Hamlet, a decadent 1930’s version of the Shakespeare play, and Carolus Rex, a Swedish space drama staged in a submarine.

Martin Ericsson is senior designer at games producer The Company P. Over the past fifteen years he has instigated, written and designed more than twenty pieces of participative art ranging from reality games and Shakespeare adaptations to massive sci-fi and fantasy larps. Ericsson’s recent work includes four years of pervasive games research at the Interactive Institute’s Game Studio, culminating in the creation of the Interactive Emmy Award winning The Truth About Marika, the worlds first fully integrated participation drama. Through The Company P, Ericsson has collaborated with some of the world’s most respected showrunners, like Joss Whedon and Tim Kring.

Transmitting a political vision through larp

Sun, 09 May 2010 17:01:00 +0200

Peter Munth-Kaas tells the story of how the game System Danmarc used a cyberpunk setting full of excitements like drugs, violence, gangs, hyperslum and cool parties to make a point about how welfare societies today treat people who have fallen off the ladder of success. Hear how the game makers built a small city from freight containers on a square in central Copenhagen, and how players reacted to the documentary about the situation today for homeless people in Denmark that ended the game.

Peter Munthe-Kaas was one of the creators of the political larp experiment System Danmarc. His educational background is in sociology and performance design and he has participated in the making of several political, cultural and artistic projects in Copenhagen. Munthe-Kaas is currently working with facilitation of creativity and user driven innovation at the Danish Technical University and co-creating a larp about personal and political upheavals called Delirium, forthcoming in 2010.

Introduction to Nordic Larp

Thu, 06 May 2010 20:25:00 +0200

Johanna Koljonen introduces Nordic larp by talking about her bodily experience of a fallout shelter outside Tulsa during an alternate past Cuban Missile Crisis. She explains how you can understand what goes in to creating ambitious larps by comparing the process with a birthday party, and goes on to answer the question of wether these games are games at all. Watch this Nordic Larp Talk for a brief introduction to Nordic Larp and why it’s an art form worth knowing more about.

Nordic Larp Talks

Documenting the Nordic Larp Scene

Can Playing Games Teach Us About War?

Not Another Story About Boy Meets Girl

Horror and Tragedy in Nordic Role-Playing

Role-Playing as a Teaching Method

Fabricating Madness

Playing With Personal Development

On Games: Painting Life With Rules

Thank you for Nordic Larp Talks Copenhagen 2011

Nordic Larp Talks Copenhagen, 16 Feb 19.00 at Huset

Nordic Larp Book Talkshow

Nordic Larp Book Release LIVE!

Get ready for Nordic Larp Talks #2, February 16th in Copenhagen

Critical Strategies of Larp

Further reading

High Resolution Larping

Further reading

Larp as Borderland Festivals

Portraying Love and Trying New Genders

Further reading

The Quest for the Perfect Manifestation of a Dream

Further reading

Transmitting a political vision through larp

Further reading

Introduction to Nordic Larp

Further reading