Physical playspace

Today, at State of Play at the New York Law School, I am presenting over the work from my gamer's space project for the first time. I am however not using the quantitative data, which I haven't had a chance to look through yet. I am using pictures from The Gathering, both mine and those belonging to Luca Rossi and a couple of the pictures that my wonderful respondents sent me.

I am contrasting these with pictures of "rånere" - a very loosely organised subculture which is centered around tinkering with, using and playing with cars. There's an interesting article (in Norwegian) on "rånere" in the journal Samtiden, written by an ex-råner now academic. This inspired me to (loosely) compare these groups, showing how there are certain practices of technology use which are fairly independent of technology.

For those who might be particularly interested, comparing these two groups might fit in very interesting ways with Jessica Enevold's argument about mobility in games.

I don't know if my quick 10 minutes presentation will be available online, but State of Play have been publishing video streams in earlier years,and may still do so. If you're really curious, check the website in a few weeks - if it is to appear it should be up by then.

Thank you to the Gathering!

It's a while ago now (feels like an eternity, here back in the land of mundanity), but I interviewed a very nice group of people at the gathering, 8th of April. Sadly I did not find all I was looking for. Some had not arrived, some were absent each time I came looking for them, and some were in rows where the music was so loud it was impossible to ask people about anything at all! Thanks to all who participated though, and thanks to those I never found, for being willing to be part.

I have just written out the interviews - short, as I just wanted to find out a few things - and now the work starts with sorting pictures. This will be an interesting experience, as The Gathering is such a rich arena for creativity. Luca Rossi from the University of Urbino was there as well, and I will use some of his pictures for this part of the process.

The survey will be available out this month, then I'll start processing the data I have received. So far the most data comes from the survey, which has had a decent amount of respondents, and from pictures at the Gathering. The emailed pictures are rare, as I suspected they would be, and I made a limited amount of interviews. However: the pictures and the interviews have some of the most interesting data!

So thank you all again, to the organisers who let me have access, to the people who wanted to participate, to the ones who did take part, to all who have answered by email or on the survey, and to those who will be doing that in the next few weeks.

Gamers at The Gathering

Part of this project includes a visit to one of the largest LAN parties in the world, The Gathering. This takes place each year during Easter, in Hamar, Norway.

Wednesday 8th of April I'll be at The Gathering in the afternoon, together with the Italian researcher Luca Rossi. I'll be looking for gamer groups, guilds and individuals, in order to interview them and take pictures of their computers and their presentations of their own spaces.

The reason for this is to see what gamers consider important when they are together with other gamers and computer users in an event where the computer, the network and the digital culture is in focus. This is the space where the machine, the play and the use of computers is more important than any other considerations, where the conflicts are not about whether there should be technology or potted plants, but about whose technology needs more space and power.

I hope to meet many nice and eager gamers there, to be permitted to take pictures and have some answers to my questions. Feel free to contact me if you see me walking around, as I will be looking to talk to people.