We are pleased to announce that during the Larpocracy Pan-project symposium award-winning game designer, author, researcher, teacher, curator, and artist, Celia Pearce will not only be part of our advisory board but will be sharing her new book as part of her book tour.

We are pleased to announce the public launch of the Horizon Europe project Larpocracy. On March 24th, the event—Larpocracy in an Age of Stressed Democracies, Privilege and Participation—will take place at the Humanities Theatre, Uppsala University.

The event is open to the public, colleagues, and students interested in exploring the dynamic relationship between live-action role-play (larp) and contemporary democratic challenges. It will begin with a brief presentation of the Larpocracy project, followed by two engaging panel discussions among project participants and advisors.

Details:

• Date: March 24th 2025, 16:00–17:30

• Location: Humanities Theatre, Tunbergsvägen 3, Uppsala

• Type: Seminar

• Organiser: Department of Informatics and Media

• Contact person: Annika Waern or send us a message for her contact information

Johanna Koljonen will moderate the event, which will include Annika Waern's introduction to Larpocracy and panels on “Larp in an Age of Stressed Democracies” and “Privilege and Participation.”

We hope to see you there.

Brainstorm with us about larp and democracy in the past, present, and future! Jon Back and Sarah Lynne Bowman from Uppsala University will run a Larpocracy-themed design workshop on Sunday at Knutepunkt 2025, the annual Nordic larp conference in Oslo, Norway.

Designing Democracy - Past, Present, and Future: An Explorative Workshop about Democracy as Theme and Topic for Larp.

In this workshop, we will explore democracy as a theme and topic. We will together gather examples of larps that have been run with themes around democracy, and the skills the group thinks were developed, as well as any larps or skills you wish would be developed in the future. We will then start turning this into ideas for future larps to foster democratic skills through play.

In the workshop we will touch upon questions such as 'what is democracy (in larp)?', 'how has it been addressed in the past?', 'what kind of democratic testing/prototyping could be done at larps?', and 'can democratic skills – whatever they are – be taught through larp?

The workshop is a part of the new three year Horizon Europe project 'Larpocracy', and the workshop will begin with an introduction to the project, and a first look at what will happen over the upcoming three years.

Upcoming event about larp festivals! Jaakko Stenros and Johanna Koljonen from Tampere University will be presenting about Larpocracy on Friday at the Knutepuunkt 2025 conference in Oslo, Norway!

Human Interaction as a Designable Surface: A Reflective Talk about Larp Festivals and Design for Participation.

The EU-funded research project Larpocracy started at the beginning of the year. One of the key areas of research in the project is approaching the social human encounter as a designable surface. Our part of the project will study festivals, conventions, and other larp-adjacent spaces to explore how our community designs for participation. What are some values, habits, reflexes, traditions, and design practices that larpers take for granted, but that we might reflect on, refine, and share?

Our project aims to produce theoretical models and practical tools that can help the larp community make our meeting spaces even better – and help other communities to design human experiences with greater intention.

The program should suit especially people who organize larp festivals and conventions. The program is hosted by Jaakko Stenros and Johanna Koljonen.

Larpocracy was presented briefly at the Edu-Larp Conference in Norway.

Held this year at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (Aho), the Edu-Larp Conference rotates between the Nordic countries in connection with the annual Knutepunkt/Solmukohta conference.

Alessandro Giovannucci from Chaos Leagure (@chaosleaguelarp) and Sarah Lynne Bowman from Uppsala University (@uppsalauniversity) are co-organising the conference with an international team. Larpocracy will be featured alongside several current edu-larp related projects in the EU.