science fiction & fantasy – Page 5

iPad unpacking

iPad unpacking, originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Here are the very first impressions: yes, Apple has created a very cool and smart device in iPad. I want one for myself (typing this with our gamelab iPad), even while I am not sure what I would be really using it for. Yet. The real power of this thing is in the user experience; it it so futuristic it feels like entering into sci-fi — and for me that is not a bad thing.

The UI logic is pretty much that of iPhone, the size makes huge difference though. The bright window into media, combined with the intuitiveness of touch, plus the fact that iPad is very fast, makes common tasks feel a bit magical.

There are the obvious downsides, too. Not having flash makes no sense to me at all. This thing would be the killer Facebook gaming device. Now, apparently Apple is trying to kill flash and make eveyone develop native iPhone OS apps. Shame on them. Also, the virtual keyboard is pretty ok, but it is not something that is intended for serious typing tasks. This is mostly a rich media plaything.

Together with rest of the UTA Gamelab folks we will continue to test iPad, but currently there is the technical limitation that there appears to be no way to get paid iPad apps (games, nor books, or movies) for testing. iPad apps are not yet available in the Finnish iTunes, and you need a US credit card or bank account to be able to buy from the US iTunes/App Store. Damn. Need to continue testing the free sample apps then.

Avatar: The Second Nature?

Planet Pandora in Avatar (2009)

I just saw Avatar (dir. & written by James Cameron), in 3D, and I must say I am impressed. Not necessarily deeply moved like some other great films I have seen, but impressed as in made to think about cinema and the role it will have for us in the future.

Many people who have written about Avatar have started by dropping a long list of other movies it has borrowed from; my take would be Avatar is “Aliens meets Dances with Wolves meets Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” style of movie. But there is enough originality in this particular blend that the intertextual or -medial reference listings do not make justice to its real essence.

Looking at the film through the thick and rather dark 3D goggles, I felt the basic scenario built around the avatar technology of the movie was sort of metaphor for my own situation Continue reading “Avatar: The Second Nature?”

Where the Wild Things Are

Everyone seems to be talking about Cameron’s Avatar these days, but I am actually waiting even more this film to get over here: Continue reading “Where the Wild Things Are”

Finncon 2009

Please note: Finncon 2009 program is now online:

http://2009.finncon.org/ohjelma.php

I will be a commentator in Friday’s SF researcher meeting, plus participating in a games panel in Saturday — see you around!

Microsoft envisions the future

It is always (well, almost always) fun to see how people illustrate the future; and usually we can learn a lot by studying the past future visions. Microsoft has a bit more money than most of us, and can thus create rather fancy futuristic videos:

Some of these things appear rather likely, incremental evolutions from the present paradigms of interactive and augmented computing. Some were a bit unclear to me — what was the point, how that was supposed to work. And in general, the feeling was a bit similar to after watching Minority Report — fascinated, but also a bit put off, in classic dystopian style.

Reading Excession

There has been a curious gap in my reading of the Culture series by Iain M. Banks so far, but this Christmas I did put some of my free time (night times, actually) aside to finally read Excession (1996). This is a highly entertaining and thought-provoking science fiction novel, written about a process where the different factions inside the Special Circumstances (the shadowy super-organisation dealing with external and internal security in the anarchist utopia called the Culture) need to deal with both the potential confrontation of a highly more evolved culture, coming outside of this universe, and at the same time deal with the ethical and moral issues embodied in the Affront, a race whose identity is based on inequality, slavery and systematic sadism. Is it allowed to go to war agaist the Affront to stop their evil, or is evil in the eye of the beholder? There is much good old fashioned interstellar intrigue, space fighting and megamachines marching to the stage, but also an attempt to deal with issues like gender, identity and free will. The novel is perhaps not at its strongest on the human characters, but the real protagonists are the Minds, godly powerful Articifial Intelligences, and the heady entertainment Excession is capable of offering is dealing with the interesting problems very highly powered beings and societies will possibly have to face at some point of their evolution. Allegorical readings of the Culture novels are also possible (interpreting the scienti-fictional framework as a dramatisation of certain ideologies), but not particularly inviting. These books are just so good head-trips.

Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book video tour

Another excellent example of the expanding field of old-media — new media synergy, and art of storytelling making use of the new opportunities of Internet video: Neil Gaiman putting online his reading of the entire new young readers’ novel (whoever and whatever age we, those readers, indeed are) The Graveyard Book. Go to: http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx

Edit: this appears to be the note number 600 of my blog, by the way. Cheers!

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!)

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

view presentation (tags: finncon08 finncon2008 finncon)

PS. You can follow the Finncon photo stream in Flickr from here.

SF researcher meeting, Finncon08

The SF/fantasy researcher meeting takes place again in Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately I can only take part in one paper session (or so it now seems), but here is the latest program (in Finnish):

Torstai
11-13 Tutustumiskierros ja käydään läpi 2 paperia (Kokkinen: “Who Gets to Enter the Sacred Center? Mircea Eliade´s Utopia Visualized in Mythic Art” & Ylimartimo: “A Beautiful Girl, Devilish Woman or Cosmic Power: The Fantastic Essence of the Snow Queen Interpreted by Fairy Tale Illustrators”)
13-14 Lounas
14-15 Käydään 2 paperia (Korpua: “Atlantis-myth in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Legendarium”, Pelkonen: “Images of Women in Power in the Dystopic World of Battlestar Galactica (2003)”)
15-16 Pyöreän pöydän jutustelu, pohjana M Polvisen paperi (“Course Outline: Proseminar for Teacher Trainees – ”Harry Potter and the Rest: Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature”)

Perjantai
11-13 Käydään 3 paperia (Kuusniemi: ““The Golden Path”: the Dynamic Dystopia in Frank Herbert’s Dune Chronicles”, Soikkonen: “Nothing Will Change? Dystopia and Social Commentary in C.L. Moore’s ‘Vintage Season'” & Miettinen: “Superheroes and the Question of Utopia”)
13-14 Lounas
14-15 Farah Mendlesohnin luento
15-15:30 Siirtyminen kirjoittajatapaamiseen: Tampereen yliopisto, Linna, Kalevantie 5, ls K103
15.40-17 Farah Mendlesohn & John M. Harrison: In conversation