On the road again (Espoo, Kuhmo)
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
This week will be mostly spend in dear Tampere, but today I am talking in Helsinki University of Technology (games as learning environments), and the entire weekend, Friday-Sunday I will be in Kuhmo, talking and discussing (and enjoying art) during ‘Ihminen ja Kosmos’ seminar (see: www.aka.fi/ihminenjakosmos).
The Inauguration Day, March 9th, 2007
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
Friday was when the inauguration lecture to the new professorship took place, followed by a great party in the Hypermedia Laboratory. Million thanks for everyone involved, this was a really memorable day. Photo shows some of the gifts (the other one is an axe, something every professor needs, but who recognizes the other, round object? 😉
More photos in: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fransmayra/tags/inauguration/
Tomorrow will be the day when I’ll have my inauguration day, with all its rituals, as I officially step to the chair of hypermedia professor, digital culture and game studies as my defined field. I think this is the first time game studies (pelitutkimus in Finnish) is part of the definition of a full professorship in Finland — a symbolic moment. See: http://www.uta.fi/ajankohtaista/tapahtumakalenteri/ilmoitus.php?v=2007&kk=3&id=9279
I noticed a few days ago that the special issue of Pelit Magazine is now out; it includes the long brainstorm discussion between me, Tony Manninen and Sonja Kangas on the future, including the next 15 years of development in game technology, design and culture. It was fun and intensive discussion, and runs several pages in the magazine — hope you enjoy it, too. See: Pelit.fi
There are various “rough edges” in our house still, and I am currently testing the power of social media in getting help in fixing them. If you are a professional in the hardware aspect of home IT cable connections, check out my ad in Urakkamestari service.
It would of course be nice to be able to dedicate weekends just for resting, but since there are always various deadlines that require an academic to work also during weekends, you might as well dedicate all mornings and late evenings to house repair or building projects — logical, isn’t it?
I have been spending some hours lately downstairs doing my “media cave”. This is essentially just a small home theatre room, located at cellar level, but it should offer us rich opportunities for enjoying that DVD or HD movie in the dark, or playing games in the big screen. Looking some high resolution digital photos in this scale would be nice to try out, too.
The starting point was to build a tech centre at the back of the room; this is still half-finished, but I aim for a sturdy table fixed to the back wall, and on top of that there will the ‘equipment tower’: a rotating cabin filled with amplifiers, media players, computers and game decks. It is build for rotation and to such a height since I am too fed up to plugging and unplugging cables that lie among piles of dust somewhere at the back of some heavy piece of furniture. This time, every connection is planned to be accessible at the comfortable, working height. And since I am building it on top of large, round bearing, it rotates easily to show all those connectors and cables (the bearing is one I got from Isku’s “Multiplan” tv furniture, it claims to be able to handle max 100 kg mass). Near the ceiling there is the new video projector, Sanyo PLV-Z5; a nice, moderately priced thing with sharp and colourful image. (I wanted mine in black, and ordered it from Germany where prices are a bit lower.)
The actual projection surface has taken most of work so far: the front wall was uneven fibreglass wallpaper which needed to be whet, dusted and then covered with another, special wallpaper (a smoothing wallpaper, ‘tasoitustapetti’, made by Sandudd; see the link: http://www.sandudd.fi/fileadmin/kuvituskuvat/Tasoitetapettiohje.pdf).
Now I am having a break after one round of painting. The entire back wall will be painted several times with Tikkurila’s Harmony indoor paint, hue H499. It has non-reflective matta surface and as light grey it will give better dark levels on LCD projectors than an entirely white wall would had done. More on its use: http://www.tikkurila.fi/kotimaalarit/index.jsp?cid=valkokangas_edullise&hid=01.01.06.01.
There are still several steps remaining on this, and there are half-a-dozen rooms (and the garden, the courtyard and the garage) with several other projects waiting after this, but — you need to start with the essentials, after all! 😉
Finncon ry established
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
It has been said that Finland is the promised land of associations — there are thousands and thousands of non-profits here, established by individuals on enormous range of serious or more light-hearted subjects. Today yet another association was created, but one could claim that this one has been in actual demand for some time. FinnCon is the major Finnish — and international — science fiction event that has been regularly organised since 1986. This is thus a historical image: the representatives from local science fiction associations signing the founding documents for the national umbrella association, Finncon ry, which will run this line of events from now on. Follow the news in http://www.finncon.org — this is a really great showcase of fandom activities, useful for academics and general audience alike. (Posted from Kaupinojan Sauna.)
New experiences in Helsinki
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
I will be visiting two very different kinds of events in Helsinki today. The first is the FinNet seminar, which is focused on educational games in the context of Finnish language learning. I gave a short talk that tried to discuss the educational and cultural framework for games in rather general terms, and the rest of the seminar has more detailed experiences coming from participants of Minerva project who have been doing SanatOn the language game. Really interesting and much new stuff for me. Later in the evening I’ll participate in Pelit Magazine’s “KyöPelit Gaala”, the semi-official “game oscars” of Finland — first time of this experience for me, too. The day is otherwise exiting but since me and Laura were moving my stuff to wee hours last night, I have to battle keeping awake, which is a shame. (The shot shows how advanced city Helsinki is: they have a skating rink next to the railway station, in the city centre!)
frans goes blog 