Understockholm

Swedish Understockholm is a larp campaign inspired by Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.

– We aim to tell a dark and urban fairy tale about the part of Stockholm that lives in the shadows, the tunnels, the forgotten alleys and beneath, above, around our everyday Stockholm, says organizer Sofia Stenler.



It’s possible to play groups from other cities, eg the Danish East Indian Company, as well as English speaking groups from Understockholm.

Web: Understockholm (In Swedish, English with Google Translate).
Photo: Niclas Lundborg

Article by Ole Peder Giæver

The Avatar Condition – An invitation to being controlled

There is no audience.
There are no actors.
The Avatar Condition is something else.
Discover who you become when someone else makes your decisions.

Gabriel Widing from Interacting arts writes about his latest project The Avatar Condition (Avatarvaro in Swedish) which will be running at Turteatern in Stockholm December 8-11. Is neither larp or traditional theatre. It explores the position of the avatar as “an invitation to being controlled”.

The Avatar Condition is made by Albin Werle, Ebba Petrén, Elize Arvefjord, Gabriel Widing, Kerstin Weimers, Klara Backman, Moa Backman and Tova Gerge.

Web: The Avatar Condition
Photo: Gabriel Widing

Update 9/12: Blog post about the testrun: Read it here (English Google translate).

Article by Petter Karlsson

What’s new in transmedia? A Swedish Bardo

Martin Ericsson has left The Company P to establish Bardo AB.



– We will be writing, designing, mentoring and producing hard-to-define, live, pervasive or transmedial games. Preferably stuff that makes people want to cry, fuck or blow shit up, says Ericsson. 



Bardo is Martin Ericsson (a.k.a. Elricsson) and Adriana Skarped (a.k.a Daggenfelt), the creative couple behind International Emmy Award winning participation drama “The Truth About Marika” (produced by SVT). Martin has worked as a creative director and designer with Christopher Sandberg’s The Company P for almost five years, writing, designing and running game-like projects.

 Bardo has been contracted to produce and run “quality participation” (including a documented larp, some live events and an online mystery) for The Artists (see Playground #2).

Also check out this interview with Martin about The Conspiracy for Good which ran during the summer of 2010 in London.



Web: Bardo

Article by Ole Peder Giæver

Building a space ship

Swedish Project Horizon (projektet Horisont) aims to create an immersive and believable spaceship-interior for use in larps.
 


– Apart from the technical construction-part of the project (building a spaceship), we are making a number of larps in the module, which take place in a post-apocalyptic, gritty, low-tech and dark sci-fi-setting, says Joakim Andersson

.

The module will be constructed in Stockholm, Sweden, but is planned to be deconstructable and movable, to run larps and games in on other locations in the future.

Web: immersionisterna (In Swedish, English with Google Translate).
Illustration: Spaceship interior concept design by Projekt Horisont

Article by Ole Peder Giæver

Can I Be With You?




Sweden-based artist Oak Wattanai Chanakot is performing a «participatory process work where individuals are invited to experience a close relationship of their choice with me for a short period of time». 



– The participants, who answer an advertisement posted in public forums, describe the plot and the character that I play. The setting of the performance can be in personal private or public places, the artist says.



– I have done several roles since June 2011. For 2 hours to a weekend, I had been a brother, a friend, a boyfriend and something in-between!

– The goal of the performance is to be together as in a close relationship. After each performance, my participant and I would discuss and reflect on our experience.

The picture is from one of his performances.

Web: Can I be with You?
Photo: Oak Wattanai Chanakot

Article by Ole Peder Giæver

A Swedish Prologue

This weekend, 300 hundred larpers take off to one of the key nodal points of Swedish larp, the city of Västerås.

Västerås is known for both the 1000 player fantasy games of Eleria (previously organized by Enhörningen), edu-larping company LajvVerkstaden and a history of larping stretching back to the late 80’s.

Now, in the first weekend of April, the all-larp-convention Prolog (Prologue) takes place in Västerås for the third year with a three days packed with live-roleplaying. Participants are mainly Swedes but are also coming from Norway, Denmark and Finland.

Prolog is an annual larp convention that aims to connect Swedish larpers from all different styles and cultures. Through meeting new people, attending great workshops and of course by playing all kinds of larps, attendees will be exchanging experiences and cross-polinate.

We aim to go as deep as possible in every aspect of larping, from classic fantasy to jeep-form avantgardism. To do this we create a program ranging from workshops in reenactment handicraft to creating and playing small yet intriguing free-from roleplaying scenarios. Our goal is to unify the Swedish larp society and to create a big sandbox for trying new things and evolving the whole movement.

Web: Prolog – Ett svensk lajvkonvent (In Swedish, English with Google Translate).

Article by Petter Karlsson

Educational larping




Education Larpers’ in Sweden (ELIS) is a network of people and organizations utilizing larp for educational purposes. One of the network’s members, LajvVerkstaden, is a commercial society working with larp as a cultural form and a pedagogical tool. They organize everything from serious role playing games about democracy and oppression to playful larps in fantasy settings.

“We’ve worked with thousands of kids and youths where we together have created strong stories, unique to every group and in which everyone has been a co-author”, the group writes on their webpage.

Web: ELIS (In Swedish, English with Google Translate).

Article by Ole Peder Giæver