Positive news today: our collaboration with the games & digital culture studies centres in University of Jyväskylä and Turku gained fresh power as Academy of Finland decided to grant funding for our consortium “Creation of Game Cultures: the Case of Finland)”; see: http://gamelab.uta.fi/Gamelab/creation-of-games-cultures-consortium-gains-academy-funding/
Category: digital culture
digital cultures, digital lifestyles – you name it
Kauhajoki school shootings
Less than a year ago I wrote about the Tuusula/Jokela school shootings; today, the same seems to repeat in Kauhajoki, another peaceful small town. I can only feel sorrow, and repeat what I have said earlier: there appears to be deep lack of dialogue and contact in our society, particularly between generations. If there is no real contact and wellbeing constructed daily in close human relationships, then the road is open for self-destruction. And one should never forget that these incidents are, after all, suicides. The child of media age will be drawn to a media spectacle, rather than the quiet and lonely death of previous generations… Another grim day, indeed.
Imaginary Japan Conference
Today I am again in Helsinki, this time participating in the Imaginary Japan Conference; see: http://sets.wordpress.com/category/imaginary-japan-conference/
Much really interesting talk about Japan, its role in the world of new media and media culture. My talk is titled “Japanese Fantasy and the East-West Dialectic”. (Pictured is Ateneum, where they have a Hokusai exhibition — much of Japan going around today!)
D&D Tiny Adventures: Low-Interactivity Gaming
I admit, I am probably in the target group for these ones: I have been looking recently in the convergence of games and media and the emergence of “low interactivity” games (games that allow also other gameplay modalities on top of the classic “immersed gamer” one”). These are not exactly the same as “zero player games” that play automatically themselves, but pretty close: you can enjoy the adventure with only minimal input coming from player in key points. One of the most recent fun ones has been Dungeons&Dragons Tiny Adventures, which is a very stripped-down version of D&D that still brings back those memories of true old-school RPG adventures. Very much recommended.
AVEK Award to Pia Lindman
It looks like this will be one of those 13-hour work days. But lets not complain when everything you work on is so interesting and challenging. The late-night part of today’s agenda was acting the part of award jury and handing the 2008 AVEK media art award to Pia Lindman (pictured). She is really interesting contemporary artist, with work that explores topical yet timeless themes like emotions and universal/inter-cultural communication with wit and intelligence. Congratulations! (And shame on me for not remembering to thank fellow juries Minna Tarkka and Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén for their crucial expertise in my short speech — my only apology is that I saw the program and realized that I would be speaking only half-an-hour before I was on the LUME main stage…) More on the event e.g. in Helsingin Sanomat and in the AVEK info bulletin.
Contextual Gaming in IR9.0
I think I have managed to successfully submit the full paper into the Internet Research 9.0 conference system (no confirmation messages, so I cannot be really sure). Here is the revised short abstract — see you all in Copenhagen!
Play in the Mobile Internet: Towards Contextual Gaming
Frans MäyräAbstract
As use of Internet from broadband-enabled mobile devices is becoming more common, studying the particular characteristics of mobile usage gains new importance. This paper discusses the role of services like Flickr and Facebook from the perspective of “contextual gaming” – the appropriation of mobile and networked media for playful purposes in a social context. Applying Roger Caillois’ distinction between paidia and ludus, the paper will introduce both free-form and improvised, as well as more rule-bound and competitive developments into playful, social media. The paper will conclude with both some criticism of the increasingly pervasive and continuous entanglement in socially charged technologies, while also welcoming the empowering and liberating potentials in this process.
Art & Science Goes Kapakka
Just a quick note: I will be speaking in Helsinki, in 16th August (Saturday) in Art Goes Kapakka, science talks session, about our relationship to technology and discussing social media. For more, go to http://www.artgoeskapakka.fi/ and click “Tiede on Taidetta – Science Is Art”.
Finncon lecture on the futures of living
I have shared my Finncon lecture about the science and fiction (fiction mostly) of houses and living in Slideshare (in Finnish only):
Mayra Tulevaisuuden Talo
PS. You can follow the Finncon photo stream in Flickr from here.
Mass Effect
Summer and games: not really football or Olympic field sports to my taste, but every now and then I cannot resist a proper RPG adventure. This summer it is Mass Effect from Bioware. I am not so much a fan of first person shooters, but occasional action sequences are ok when they are integrated as parts of a larger, fascinating universe as in Mass Effect. The game is very cinematic, and that sometimes means gameplay locked on rails, but when the outcome works fine as a science fiction movie, I do not complain. Problem is really that as we need to do other things during daytime, it is only nights that are available for gaming… Also fine voice acting, by the way (from Mark Meer/Jennifer Hale for the protagonist, and likes of Martina Sitris, Lance Henriksen and Seth Green in other roles).
Slow Computing
This is concept I have been playing around lately, becoming gradually more and more serious about its potentials. Hopefully it would be caught up by discussion.
- Slow computing: conceptualise it as an oppositional and revolutionary concept, like ‘slow food’ is in opposition to ‘fast food’.
- Slow computing is not necessary about slow processors or weak technology. It is about computing that is used emphatically to pay attention to the quality and content, rather than to the quantity (be it mega- or gigahertz, mega-, giga-, tera-, or pentabyte, or what ever billions of polygons the technology pundits usually point our attention towards).
- Slow computing is information and communication technology (ICT) that is put to the service of people, paying attention to the sustainability of lifestyle and preservation of our planet.
- Slow computing may e.g. be a choice to use a slow, cheap laptop, running long on batteries, rather than investing into over-efficient hulking monster, unnecessary for everything else except the most graphically intensive games.
- Slow computing may take the form of passive displays, slow on screen refresh times, but able to serve text and images while sitting outside, reading while thinking, paying attention. e-paper that is able to display and keep its contents without any further use of energy is slow computing technology. Energy efficient, small devices that take all their power from solar energy are slow computing.
- Slow computing is all about how ‘less is more’.
- Slow computing may take the form of applications that reduce and filter junk, so that the really important things are only ones that are there left, for your time and thought.
- Slow computing may be a service that helps you to join forces with other people in organising your efforts collectively, reducing waste of human energy and effort.
- Slow computing may be attitude, or cultural shift, rather than any single technology in itself. It is part of movement that says: ‘Wait, stop – did you say we need that to do this?’ It is about thinking alternatives.
- Slow computing is not luddite ideology. For example, if it is possible to use rich media and teleconferencing rather than jet planes across the ocean to organise a meeting, then ICT has fulfilled the requirement of slow computing: allowing people to stay put, save time and energy, and concentrate on the actual matter at hand.
- What is your view on slow computing?
frans goes blog 
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