We both encourage and enjoy crossover stuff. This fall will see the first issue of Interacting Arts, an unrelenting and literary magazine with the slogan "Fuck passive art".

Scandinavia

Scandinavia already has an annual gathering: Knutpunkt (I think Mr. Pohjola from Finland covered that in a previous issue). I've visited all of them but one, and organized a similar event, Kulturhuset, in Stockholm, back in -97. All these conventions, including my own, have lacked the intimacy that breeds inspiration and makes people relax and make real contact. At Knutpunkt, day time is spent at lectures in classrooms and night time blurred away in the bar.

A Real Meeting

My best memory is from Oslo -97 when a group of twenty left the university one late evening and settled on the upper floor of a big villa. The change of environment made a huge difference. People began to see each other, and talk with one another. We sang folk songs and exchanged memories from our respective Larp cultures. Erlend Hansen, founder of Knutpunkt, told me about an event based on a conflict between Norwegians and Lap-landers. His character was in love with a Norwegian girl and had to sneak by her brothers to meet her. His group actually learned Lappish on a level which they were able to have basic conversations in.

New Stories

The meetings we have seen thus far have not really ignited organizers from different countries to make co-productions. Last Knutpunkt was a disaster. I enjoyed the lectures by the French and Russian visitors but aside from those...? Presentations of upcoming events were given almost no time at all and any serious attempt at developing this "cozy hobby" foundered in a barrel of beer in the basement accompanied by the sweet beats of Britney Spears all the way down to the bottom.

What is your dream project? What can interactive storytelling and theatre really accomplish? Is it time to climb up from the dice-infested dungeons? Are we to leave the forest of pimple-elves with thick glasses behind and enter new landscapes? Let me quote roleplaying guru Andrew Rilstone:

"From the day I first discovered D&D, and was forced to play a shit-boring scenario about killing orcs in a tunnel for no reason, I have been certain of two things.

1. Roleplaying games have the potential to be the most wonderful vehicle for creating and experiencing stories that the human race has yet produced
2. They hardly ever fulfil that potential.

What's more, I think that roleplaying games will carry on failing to fulfil their full potential as long as we limit ourselves to exploring only one type of story."

4-7 October 2001

You have just passed Sturehof's castle; skirted along the hedge of the park and entered the final stretch of road that rolls like a furrow across the fields and disappears under the foliage of a verdant islet in the distance. Your eyes catch a single pennant, waving above a bulging roof of oak, ash and elm. Restless sea birds circle towards the graying skies of October and "journey's end" has finally come within reach. You close in on the wooded hill and pass a tall and haggard tree; forerunner of seasons to come, and are suddenly swallowed, embraced by the brazened greenery. The road makes its last turn by a slope with terraces and a low ruined wall.

Out of the shadows grows a house, a huge summer villa, built by the family who owned Sturehof's castle and the land around it back in 1878.

The waves of Lake Mälaren lap against the shore at the other side of the hill and a bearded writer of supernal beauty, who likes long sentences and tricky words, walks towards you across the lawn. Umbric wonders play across his sage-like features and his stout frame, clad in flowing robes, is bathed in autumnal glories ...

Oops, got a little carried away there. OK, I exaggerated about the cool guy at the end but the rest of the description is actually accurate. The house lies in an area of extreme natural beauty - that's why we picked it!

Program

We will have a program but mandatory activities will be few. You're supposed to do whatever gives you inspiration. You are free to roam the house and the grounds but we expect you to stay in the area from Thursday to Sunday. We might take a break on Saturday morning 'til Saturday afternoon so that you can do sightseeing in Stockholm.

We can arrange sleeping quarters if you want to come to Stockholm before the fourth or wish to stay after the seventh of October.

Scenario making

There will be group sessions where you build new scenarios with complete strangers and old friends or take their help to ignite good ideas that somehow got stuck.

Project presentations, lectures, workshops.

Participants are welcome to present new projects, give lectures or host experimental workshops.

Entertainment

Some friends of mine are into dance, recitation and music. I hope they'll pay us a visit and provide inspiration.

Discussions

I plan to host discussions on topics like: Timing and dynamics. How do you do research? How to portray love and sex? How to treat, and perhaps use, reality in a game? How to prepare and play a character?

Childish abandon

Did you think we would rent a big villa, in the middle of nowhere, without handing out flashlights and embarking on fantastic adventures in the garden? Did you know that smugglers, and perhaps even pirates, have been seen down by the bridge? And what to make of the shadow in the tower and the moaning whispers from beneath the large boulder in the woods?

Economy

The price will hopefully be low. We're looking into different ways of funding it right now. It won't be that expensive though since we're stupid enough to organize a thing like this without demanding any economic compensation for our work. If everything works out well we'll be able to help some of you finance your trip.

One of the places we'll apply money from is the local Stockholm department of Sverok (Sweden's role- and conflict gaming association). They are open-minded and progressive and have supported similar things in the past. Members in Stockholm have, for the past two years, been able to get help planning their Larp-productions. Two experienced guys have aided them in solving logistic problems, applying money from funds, finding places to play in, etc.

Scenario o1 is a convention for organizers and scenario writers. It focuses on the story and what happens inside people when they play. We want organizers to begin to treat every participant as an important human being who has something unique to contribute to his, or her, arrangement.

If you have something to say, if you have a message, a vision, everything suddenly becomes important: setting, characters, background information, visual- and audial effects and, of course; the feelings, dreams, experiences - the inner lives of the participants. Organizers who are not aware of this and don't use it to let their stories become more real and reach a greater depth, shouldn't do the interactive stuff. They'd be better off producing passive art, like writing books or making film.

"But the real voyagers are those who leave
For the sake of leaving...
To plunge into the depths of the gulf, Hell or Heaven,
who cares?
In order find, at the bottom of the unknown,
something new!"
Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), Le voyage

Want to contact us? We've just launched a primitive web site at: free.freespeech.org/interactingarts
Ulf Staflund: Kalliope
ulf@in-box.net