Day 3 – Design Design, Scopes, Von Krahl’s and Texas Honky Tonk Cantina

Today’s workshop was going to be about game design and interactive things. Adam held the lecture and most of it I had heard before but what I really want to get from his are his notes on non-linearity in games, which is something I want to know more about. The funny thing that Philip wrote in his notes that I am going to quote now is that “You know you are not in Visby when Adam has to explain what Zelda,Tetris and Wii is…”. This was indeed true, I am aware that people might not have heard of or played any of this but it was really surprising to learn. We come from a place where everyone knows what we are learning and talking about so it is sort of like a culture shock coming here where a lot of the other participants have no idea what games really are.

The other lecture that we had were about different kinds of scopes, with that I mean like different kinds of ways to portrait still pictures into moving ones. It was sort of interesting because I had no idea what these different things were called. However, he just showered us with difficult words like the first slide was of all the different scopes that he was going to go through and I felt that it was an overwhelming  way to start. It was interesting with the interactive part, making things so that it becomes interactive. An interesting example was Katerina Cizek’s project “Out My Window”. Feel free to check it out here: http://highrise.nfb.ca/

So the task for the day was to make something interactive with a narrative. Maybe something that used the youtube innotations so that you could choose how a story would end, it was all up to you. But first… lunch!

We went to this really nice place, I think it was like a theater bar or something called Von Krahl’s and it was a cozy place with writings on the wall and you could almost feel the theater in the air. I had the Von Krahl Burger which was alright but it became too much in the end and I had to stop eating, I think it was the cheese that did it 😛 During lunch we discussed different ideas on how we wanted to do this task. I got to express my idea of changing between people’s perspective. Like you follow one person, they see another person and suddenly the perspective is changed to the other person and the story takes another turn and continues on that other journey until it swaps again. We wanted to make it interactive so you the audience could choose which one you wanted to follow but we did not have time so we made the presentation verbally and manually choosing the fitting piece.

After this me and the guys went to the Texas Honky Tonk Cantina, which was really, really nice. First of all the service was amazing, our waitress was super good and was all in all a wonderful person. You would want someone like her in every place. When we exited she dropped what she was doing and walked us out which was a surprise. I had the Lone Star Steak here and it was good 🙂 but the mozzarella sticks was a disappointment but at least I shared that with someone else. The most surprising conversation today was that there were Adam and the other guys were talking about Miley Cyrus’s video wreaking ball and they were praising it. It would have been fun to get that stuck on video but the camera came up too late I am afraid to say.

Tomorrow is going to be about performing memories and augmented reality. I am looking forward to it and hopefully I won’t get disappointed as I was with some of the lecture’s that we’ve had. Until next time!

Day 2 – Error, Noku, sparkly poo and Clayhills

I woke up today feeling really tired but at least now I had a good night’s sleep. Today we knew where we were going so it was not as confusing as yesterday. This day was about technological performance and storytelling, which was kinda interesting in a way but the lecturer was all about showing movies that he had done. I wanted him to talk more about the topic instead of throwing movies in my face. Here’s a movie that he showed that I thought was good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HDaXVxJ6Dw
There was another intriguing thing that he had done and that was sort of like puzzle solving, the audience came to see a show but they were locked in and they had to find the key which was in the room. Our lecturer was chained down and he was the only one who knew where it was, they could either torture him to find out where it was or solve the puzzle to let him loose. This was really interesting because it was a game. I saw a lot of the possibilities that could be achieved with this.

The task that we were given was to find the errors in Tallinn, or define what error could be. With the term error he meant something that was not planned. Like he said, he wanted to make a soundbox but instead he made a radio reciever and that in itself was an error. Something that was not intentional. So when we were assigned groups my group went to a really cozy place called Noku. The strangest thing was that if you did not know that it was there then you would never find it. I found that to be very interesting. My group stayed there the entire time and we discussed different things that could be an error.

We thought that it could be brain errors like deja vu or something that was not meant to happen. However, the discussion took a turn for the worst when the word “Sparkly poo” came up. I thought it was a joke but they were dead serious. It was the most surreal and unlikely discussion that I have ever had. We made a video presentation about it and it was surprising that we actually stayed with the idea but the other two in my group really liked the sparkly poo.  Showing the video was really funny and it was a treat to see people react to it. I wish I had filmed it. It was definitely something that I would NEVER do as a serious workshop presentation. In retrospect it was a fun thing and an odd experience. 😛

After presenting me, Philip and Adam went to the gastropub Clayhills. It was a nice and relaxing evening that rounded up this day in a good way. The food was really good and we actually went for the dessert as well. I had the New York Strip Steak… yummy and then I had a selection of ice cream with berry sauce. It was really nice 😀

It’s going to be nice to sleep now and tomorrow Adam will talk about Non-linearity in game design and another lecturer will talk about Moving image and interactive story. Apparently we are going to be doing movies. It’s going to be interesting 😀 Hope you enjoyed this post! laters

Day 1 – Presentation, Maiasmokk and Hell Hunt

I survived the night! I went to the reception and asked for a blanket because as I said it was really cold. She looked at me in surprise and said “a blanket? no…”. She at least said she would look into it and call us when she knew, we were satisfied with that answer because we had a workshop to go to. Finding the Estonian Academy of Arts was quite easy, Philip and I were there in plenty of time and the one’s in the reception said fourth floor so we went to the fourth floor. I was a bit confused because they did not have any signs or indications on where this workshop would take place. When we looked around it became creepier and creepier because it looked like an old mental hospital. We waited until the time was 10 on the fourth floor then we made our way downstairs to try and figure this out. Adam, our teacher was supposed to meet us as well so we texted him and asked if he was on his way. He answered that he was in the lobby. But we are in the lobby Philip said. As it turned out we were in the wrong department, the right one was about a 15 minute walk in another direction… luckily some fellow workshop people happened to go to this place as well so we walked to the right place together which was nice. So to correct myself, finding the Academy of Arts was easy but finding the right department not that easy. 😛

When we arrived they had already started and we missed the introduction. We were however not late for the presentations 😛 Our fellow latecomers were the ones that did theirs first and after that it was Philip, and then it was me. I was feeling really nervous because the ones before me had done some real interesting observations that I will talk about later. The talk was about Non-linearity, and I compared it with a puzzle that is not built in a consecutive order, bits and pieces are built separately and later connecting to tell the whole story. The thing that caught me off-guard was the question that one of the teachers that put this workshop together asked: “Is there anything that has happened to you recently that has been non-linear?” As per usual my mind went black. I almost thought how would I get out of this one. But according to Philip I managed it pretty well. 😀
The things that I thought was interesting that was argued about was that our mind is linear, but is it really? isn’t it non-linear? it’s quite interesting if you look at it like that. In a sense our mind can be linear but change just as quickly as something directs your thoughts someplace else and make you forget the thing that you were thinking about. There was this one girl that did a really good presentation in a non-linear way. I do wish that I had recorded it but you can’t get everything.

After the presentation people wanted coffee so some of us went to find ourselves a coffee shop. What we found was Maiasmokk which was a really cosy place and Philip said that they had the best coffee he had ever tasted, so we are probably going to go back there soon. We stayed there for an hour or two not sure and we talked mostly about things that interests us. It was a bit awkward because when we got into the subject of games, then some people looked lost and just nodded to agree on things. After this I was starving and we walked to a bar/restaurant. Hell Hunt. This was the restaurant and they had really nice food there. We talked about a whole range of things and it was enjoyable. The plan was to go to an exhibition at the same place that we went this morning, the one where we were in the wrong place. So we knew how to get there now at least.

When we got there it was kinda disappointing because it was a 3D film which only accomplishment was to make my eyes hurt. It was really bad and after watching it and talking about it for a while then we left to go and buy me some blankets because I would not freeze this night! I found some really good ones at Hemtex for a really cheap price and I thought that they would either way, make a good addition to my new apartment when I get back to Gotland. When we got back to the hostel we talked to the nice reception lady again and she said that she did not have our number but that she had found a blanket for me. This made me happy because I am not going to freeze tonight. Tomorrow is a new day and we are going to be doing something related to Technological performance and storytelling.

Tallinn is awesome! the mixture of new and old is quite weird but in a good way 🙂 maybe I should do a post all about Tallinn when I get back with pictures and all that.

I better tie this sack together now and I hope that this was not too long… I am dreading how long it’s going to be tomorrow 😛 but we’ll see if there is anything worth mentioning. Laters!

Traveling to Tallinn

Hello there little bloggy. I am going away on a “Jolly” which apparently is ” a trip, esp one made for pleasure by a public official
or committee at public expense”.
Me and my friend Philip are going to Tallinn where we are going to participate in different kinds of workshops on the subject of Non-linear story telling. I will try and give updates everyday on the different perspectives of Non-linearity but I am unsure how it will be in reality. I will try I promise you 🙂

We are currently sitting at Arlanda Airport waiting for our ride to Helsinki which will then take us to the Capitol of Estonia. Until next time!