seminars, conferences, other events
Talks in MindTrek, Lab’s 15th Anniversary
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
Zak Greant from FOO Associates is here presenting a talk in MindTrek conference, drawing broad lines into the history of communication. There is an entire track dedicated to the transformation of games from products into services. Our department, Hypermedia Laboratory is also celebrating today its 15th anniversary. A long career in new media studies. Cheers!
Yesterday evening the third international Digital Games Research Conference closed in Tokyo. Professor Baba, the conference chair, presented some interesting figures; if I got them right from the translation, there had been 178 presentations in the conference, and 355 conference participants. Impressive figures for a conference of an emerging field, organised in (what to a Western-dominated researcher community is) a far-away Japan. There were much discussion about how to improve the conference and about various issues that could have gone a bit better, but the overall impression was that the conference was an obvious success. Continue reading “DiGRA 2007 over”
DiGRA 2007 underway
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
In her opening speech Tanya Krzywinska, DiGRA President (speaking in Tokyo University Yasuda Auditorium, pictured) described this year’s games research conference as “Godzilla” — which it in a sense is; even the proceedings book is almost 900 pages! The week is well underway, and today, in one of Thursday’s last sessions I have also my own paper presentation. Continue reading “DiGRA 2007 underway”
They start it small
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
This year’s Tokyo Game Show (TGS) was bigger than ever; with its expected 180 000 visitors, 1 550 booths and 54 000 square meters of show-floor space, this is certainly as loud as games cultures get today. No moment of rest for a gamer, even if personally I’d prefer to sit down in somewhere more quiet and focus in only a game or two, rather than drifting inside a torrent of visitors past hundreds screens, demos, show sessions, all shouting over each other. But, hey — quickly taken, it was fun!
More pictures among my Flickr travel photos, see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fransmayra/1426977592/
Edit: I did read later (from The Asahi Shimbun, 29-30 Sept. weekend edition) that the total number of exhibitors was 217 and number of visitors 193 040 — wow!
Tokyo morning 1: into TGS
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
After having slept for c. 11 hours, it feels good to wake up in Tokyo. My hotel is Sheraton Miyako, a slightly older establishment that is located quite far away from the DiGRA conference location in the Shirogane district. There are a few embassies in the area and with its temples and parks, the area looks rather nice; the photo is taken from my hotel window. Today I was planning on visiting the Tokyo Game Show, if I can handle the complexities of Japanese transportation system. There are several private and state metro and railway lines in Tokyo, so getting from place to place can be some sort of challenge. But I have no other obligations today, so: off we go!
To Tokyo and Stars
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
On the road again — via Arlanda (Sweden) and Copenhagen in two jumps to the long haul, arriving (jet-lagged) in Tokyo, and new, bright day. Even if it was hard to leave Laura and our sweet little baby, I cannot really skip a DiGRA conference. Making best of it, I will take a quick course in Japanese travellers’ lore (from Lonely Planet) and spend the night/day on plane reading science fiction (The Algebraist by Ian M. banks). Here we go — jump!
I updated my travel schedule and listed also the web pages for those conferences and seminars:
Note that the dates are my travel dates, and thus not necessarily those of the entire conference or seminar duration. See you somewhere around this globe this fall!
As the DiGRA Japan team just announced, they have just released the full program for DiGRA 2007 conference. Quickly glancing through, the very first impression: looks promising! Take a look at: http://www.digra2007.jp/Program.html.
Edit: The second look: there seems to be some timing conflicts in this version, though. E.g. in Friday at 16:30 one is forced to choose between MMORPG symposium and the panel session of RPGs (“Character, Player, Game”). The audience for both is pretty much the same, though. There are overlaps also in game design research presentations (Aki Järvinen and Jesper Juul having their sessions at the same time in Saturday), but I suppose it is impossible to avoid totally such overlaps in a conference that is so tightly focused on game studies as DiGRA conferences are. Hope there will be some finetuning of the program yet, though.
Thursday to Jyväskylä: I think this is eight time we have a national science fiction and fantasy researcher meeting at Finncon (starting from year 2000, if I remember correctly). This year’s program is below, with the names of the paper authors and commentators:
UNIEMME ULKOPUOLELLA
SEARCHING THE OUTSIDERS OF THE FANTASTIC
VIII SCIFI- JA FANTASIATUTKIJATAPAAMINEN
12.-13.7. 2007 Jyväskylän yliopistossa
A-rakennuksen seminaarihuone, 3 krs
TORSTAINA 11:30-13:00
1 Paavo Toivanen FRANS
Keskiaika, alluusiot ja Narnia
2 Jyrki Korpua FRANS & MARKKU
Ulkopuolisuus Tolkienin legendaariossa
14:30-16:00
3 Päivi Väätänen LIISA
Afroamerikkalainen tieteiskirjallisuus, erit. Delany
4 Anni Nupponen FRANS
Tove Jansson ja Toiseus
5 Eliisa Pitkäsalo, MARKKU
Traaginen sankari Sinisalon romaanissa Sankarit
PERJANTAINA
10:15 – 11:30
6 Sanna Lehtonen MARKKU
“Discourses of Femininity and Power in Children’s Fantasy”
7 Saara Fraktman LIISA
Feministiset utopiat
13:00 – 14:00
8 Leila Soikkonen LIISA
Empowerment, Female other & C.L. Moore
MUUTA TIEDEPERJANTAIN OHJELMAA:
14.30 -15.15 Joe Haldeman ja Cheryl Morgan: Revealing sociological
science fiction
15.15 – 16.30 Elizabeth Hand ja John Clute: Technology as a monster:
hard core sf
PYÖREÄN PÖYDÄN KESKUSTELU 17-18
A-rakennuksen seminaarihuone, 3 krs
Keskustelun pohjana Frans Mäyrän väitöskirjan kappale scifin ja kauhukulttuurin kosketuskohdista
Graveyard walk
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
The Kalevankangas Cemetery is a beautiful and peaceful place in Tampere, but it is also filled with sad and tragic memories of war. Timo Malmi (an author and expert of local history) talks here at the grave of Lauri Viita, one of the most famous Finnish modernists, whose work was also rooted in worker-class culture and folk traditions. A quiet moment was also spent in front of the mass graves from the 1918 civil war. The walk was organised by the local professors’ association.
frans goes blog 
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