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2012 Helsinki Talks

Larpification – Claus Raasted

The term gamification has been a buzzword the latest years in the sense that games are slowly making their way into new parts of society. That is now happening with larp and Claus calls it larpification.

Claus Raasted has been a professional larper for a decade, is the author of 8 books on larp and splits his time between being editor-in-chief of the national Danish roleplaying magazine ROLLE|SPIL and doing larp stuff for a variety of different institutions and people. He also has his own weapons factory, but who hasn’t, these days?

Site: clausraasted.dk

Photo: Jakob la Cour www.jakoblacour.dk

Claus Raasted

Categories
2012 Helsinki Talks

From preforming arts to larp – Jamie MacDonald

Jamie MacDonald is a transnational Finnish-Canadian artist in theatre, performance art, stand-up comedy, drag performance, punk music, writing, video, and larp. He started out in Toronto with a fairly traditional education in drama-based theatre as an actor and director, but then moved to Finland, where he couldn’t make heads or tails of the language. This move catalyzed an interest in physical theatre and dance, which is where Jamie focused intensively for the next half-decade, training in about half a dozen well-known theatrical methodologies from butoh to biomechanics. Together with Aarni Korpela, Jamie is the creator of Walkabout, a long-term crossover project between larp, theatre, and performance art. Their latest project, The Lovers’ Matchmaking Agency, ran in Oslo, Copenhagen, and Helsinki in the summer of 2012.

Site: walkabout.happeningfish.com
Twitter: @happeningfish

Photo: Jakob la Cour www.jakoblacour.dk

Categories
2012 Helsinki Talks

How to become a god – Mike Pohjola

Mike Pohjola is a writer, a game designer, an entrepeneur and an activist. He has written two novels, three table-top roleplaying games, a manifesto, several theatre plays, larps at art festivals and for fun, some short films, digital games, interactive projects, and lots of other stuff. He has founded two award-winning companies, that together have won an International Emmy Award for Best Interactive TV Service (The Truth About Marika), two Interactive Rockies (Conspiracy For Good) and a Prix Europa (The Forest of Babel). He’s currently working on his third novel 1827 – Inferno about the Great Fire of Turku.

Site: mikepohjola.com
Blog: mikepohjola.wordpress.com
Twitter: @mikepohjola

My presentation, How To Become A God, deals with the history of drama from Dionysian rituals to reality television, and beyond, and how all of this relates to roleplaying. While doing that, I’ll also answer a puzzling point in Aristotle’s Poetics that’s been bugging theatre scholars for three thousand years.
Nordic Larp Talks and State of Play 

Photo: Jakob la Cour www.jakoblacour.dk

Categories
2011 Copenhagen Talks

Playing With Personal Development

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

Categories
2011 Copenhagen Talks

On Games: Painting Life With Rules

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

Photo by: Jacob la Cour

Categories
News

Thank you for Nordic Larp Talks Copenhagen 2011

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

Categories
News

Nordic Larp Talks Copenhagen, 16 Feb 19.00 at Huset

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