Nordic Larp Talks is a series of short, entertaining, thought-provoking and mind-boggling lectures about projects, ideas and design practice from the Nordic and collaborative traditions of live action roleplaying.
In this talk, the editor-in-chief of this year’s Solmukohta book, Liminal Encounters: Evolving Discourse in Nordic and Nordic-inspired Larp. In this talk, she tells you why you should read the book.
Kaisa Kangas is the editor-in-chief of this year’s Solmukohta book, Liminal Encounters, and the 2016 book Larp Politics. Currently, she is writing a non-fiction book about larp for a general audience. Kaisa is also a larp creator with nearly 30 years of experience. She is most known for the larps Halat hisar and Seaside Prison. Kaisa is presently working together with the Amos Rex art museum in Helsinki to create the larp Hyvät museovieraat (Dear Museum Visitors) that will be run in May. She is also the artistic producer of the upcoming Immersion Larp Festival that will be held in Turku in August. She holds a PhD in mathematics and a MA in East Asian Studies.
The international larp scene has gone more and more to the direction where players are in control of their character’s fate and story arc. In her talk, Kaisa Kangas argues that this does not always lead to the best larp experience. She talks about the aesthetics that random outcomes can bring to larp, drawing on the experience of running Seaside Prison several times a row.
Kaisa Kangas is a Finnish larp designer who has been making larps for more than 20 years; her best-known larps are probably Halat hisar and Seaside Prison. Kaisa is also a regular contributor in KP books and has edited the book Larp Politics. She will also be the editor in chief for the 2024 Solmubook. She is currently writing a non-fiction book about larp for a general audience.
There are two basic tools to structure a larp: scheduling pre-determined content and designing for emergent content. In her talk, Kaisa Kangas gives some insight on how to use them.
Kaisa Kangas is a Finnish larp designer with more than 20 years of experience with making and playing larps. Her most known work is the Palestinian-Finnish larp Halat hisar (2013, 2016). She is also an editor for the Solmukohta 2016 books, Larp Politics and Larp Realia, and a contributor in many KP books. Kaisa is currently employed as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Helsinki. She also holds a BA in Japanese Studies.
Editors Kaisa Kangas and Jukka Särkijärvi present the two 2016 Solmukohta (Knutepunkt) books: Larp Realia, and Larp Politics (both available as free pdf downloads).
Jukka highlights the varied content of Larp Realia – ranging from an article about a larp buit around actual fistfighting to the first food recipe in the long history of the Knute-books!
Kaisa talks about the new volume – subtitled “Systems, Theory and Gender in Action” – on the political dimension of larp. Among the topics are themes like refugees, fascism, experiences of larping as gay or trans, larp as labour, viewing larps with political science tools, and so on. A big section of the book is about political larps (including educational larps) from a range of countries. To the editor’s surprise, no articles about internal larp community politics were submitted. This is probably a sign of health!
Kaisa Kangas is a Finnish larp designer who has been playing and making larps for 20 years. She is the fiction lead for the Palestinian-Finnish political larp Halat hisar (State of Siege) that will be run again in June 2016. She is also involved with designing and running educational larps for University of Arts Helsinki. Her other works include Ghost Express (2001-2002, together with Dare Talvitie), a pioneer of pervasive larp. She holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and a BA in Japanese Studies.
Jukka Särkijärvi is a writer, editor, translator, game designer, conrunner and Pathfinder Society Venture-Captain Emeritus from Espoo, Finland. He is currently working on his master’s thesis in English language and literature at the University of Tampere. His previous work include translations of the Stalker and Whispering Road role-playing games, game design on Vihan lapset, a great deal of role-playing game journalism for a variety of publications both on- and offline, and Roolipelikirja, a nonfiction book about role-playing games.
Can larp be used to test and explore anthropological ideas? In her talk, Kaisa Kangas takes a look at the question.
Kaisa Kangas is a Finnish larp designer. She has been making and playing larps since 1995. Her latest work was creating the fictional world for the Palestinian-Finnish larp Halat hisar, where she was in charge of fiction and character design related to Finland. Kaisa is currently involved with designing educational larps for University of the Arts Helsinki. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Japanese studies and a Licentiate’s degree in mathematics, and will defend her Ph.D. thesis in mathematical logic this year.
How is life under occupation? A team of Finnish and Palestinian organizers created the larp Halat hisar, which took place in a modern day Finland under a fictional occupation.
Halat hisar (State of Siege in English, Piiritystila in Finnish) was held near Parkano, a small town in southern Finland, the 15th – 17th of November 2013. About 70 people participated, coming from Finland, Palestine, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany and the U.K.
The story took place in at the university of Helsinki, in a Finland occupied by the fictional nation of Uralia. At the university there was student council elections and preparations for the Great Literature and Humanities Conference. This as well as other events caused sparks among the students.
Kaisa Kangas is a Finnish larpwright. Her most recent game is Ha- lat hisar (2013) in which she was in charge of the fiction. Earlier works include Ghost Express (with Dare Talvitie, 2001-2002), a campaign that pioneered pervasive larp in Finland. She holds a M.Sc. in mathematics and a BA in East Asian Studies, and is currently working on her Ph.D. in mathematical logic.
