For several years I have known that a close friend of mine participates in Live Action Role Playing (LARP) as a hobby. It was initially my friend’s sheer dedication to LARPing that fueled my fascination. But, I never had an opportunity to genuinely discuss LARPing with him. Also, he had never really “opened up” to me about LARPing. Therefore, as an outsider who had such a friend that could let me document the world of LARPing, I did not hesitate at the opportunity to do so. Through that opportunity, I discovered that LARPing is much more than just a hobby.

My close friend, posing with his LARPing attire and weapons

In general, role playing games are defined as intellectual entertainment for a group of people, reproducing hypothetical situations in the form of scenarios (Vorobyeva 69). What makes LARPing different from tabletop or electronic roleplaying games, like Dungeons and Dragons or Skyrim, is that LARPing requires physical interaction with a real-world environment. This means that LARPing demands a much larger mental, emotional, and physical investment than other role-playing games. This is because the environment is entirely user generated. A LARPer doesn’t just sit back and allow a game on a screen or piece of cardboard to say what is going on. They use their imagination, creativity, and willpower to live action role play. My close friend describes LARPing as full-contact fighting using foam weapons, period costume, and staying “in-character”. This differed a great deal from what I thought LARPing was. To me, LARPing was as simple as people playing dress-up and hitting each other with foam weapons. Apparently I’m not the only one who had that opinion. In regards to my own and other outsiders’ opinions, my friend said, “They aren’t wrong. We dress up and hit each other with foam. But, I was actually the same way before I actually tried it. Once you get past the stigma and give it a shot, it’s the most fun you’ll ever have.”

Two LARPers engage in a duel

Why would someone participate in LARPing? This is one of the main questions I sought to answer in my documentation of LARPing. As it turns out, it is quite striking that so many people can come together to participate in an event. Some people treat LARPing as a sport, frequently training and working on team tactics. Others do it because they love the combative aspect of LARP. A large number of people participate because they feel like it is the only time they can really be themselves and take on a completely different identity. There’s even a group of veterans that participate because LARPing helps them overcome their PTSD. For my friend, it is a combination of several factors. Initially, he began to participate because he found the combative aspect appealing. This made sense to me, because I knew my friend liked to do mixed martial arts, but I wasn’t sure how he got into all the other “stuff” that LARPing requires. For him, it has evolved to the point where he participates not only because he enjoys the battling, but because he also loves the character development and comradery that comes with LARPing. With this comes a large time dedication required outside of the main LARPing events. For example, he spends several hours practicing, sometimes on his own. Also, he builds new weapons and attire for his character.

Practicing fighting technique, alone

 Getting into the LARPing community was one of the first steps I took to being able to discover, and authentically document the world of LARPing. Through my close friend, I was able to gain access to several local community LARPers. I was able to witness firsthand, the way the LARPers interacted with each other. It was clear that a common bond between them was present. They talked about building new weapons, fighting techniques, and the next major event they would be attending.

Preparing for battle

The event that they were talking about was Winter War, where over 500 LARPers gather to do battle over a weekend. Preparing for such an event requires practice and planning among the small LARPing communities that will attend. During the course of the gathering, I discovered that within the larger community of LARPing, there is smaller sub-communities. Such sub-communities include groups that focus more on role playing and groups that focus more on battling, for example.

“Skulls are important in the community, they represent sacrifice”

The power to change the traits of the alternate character, the way they perceive their alternate world, and what they do is entirely up to the creator. The way LARPers uses that power varies greatly. Some LARPers participate as a character that already existed within them, LARPing just empowers them to bring that character out. Other LARPers use their power to live an experience that helps them overcome depression. One of the LARPers I met was happy to describe his characters and why he created them. His main character was an assassin, which was known for not being polite, not of nobility, and not proper. This character represented the rebellious side of the LARPer. That LARPer had given the character the name, Shirako, which was an online name for a character the LARPer already had. To some, naming the character is a big deal. By giving the character a separate name, it means the player can fully abandon their “real” life and be enveloped by their new persona. It gives a distinction between when LARPers can and cannot bring out their characters. The name also provides another example of an aspect of the LARP world that individual players have total control over. My friend goes by the name of Gano Al’Snow. When I asked Gano to describe the meaning behind the name, he did not hesitate to go into detail. He said, “Gano is Argentine slang for the trickster. Al’ is from a book series called Wheel of Time that stands for royalty, and Snow is from Game of Thrones meaning bastard. So, I’m the bastard of a royal line.”

At one point, when asking about characters, I was reminded by a LARPer I met through my friend that I am still an outsider to LARPing. I had asked what his character’s name was to which he responded, “I’m known by my reputation alone”.

 “I’m known by my reputation alone”

Artist’s Statement

I decided early on that I wanted to keep the people depicted in the photos anonymous. Therefore, I decided that no faces would be displayed in the photographs. I liked the heightened level of vagueness that my decision added. Also, the people depicted in the photos were happy that I decided to leave their faces out. I tried to do a mix of candid action shots and posed shots. I believed that variety would allow for a real documentation of LARPing, because it is not just the action I was focusing on. Due to time constraints, it was difficult to get more photographs. Pictures such as the making of the LARPing weapons would have been good to include. I had to choose from a much smaller selection of photos for this project than I would have liked to. Also, I did not have the chance to photograph any larger, group events which I think would have been great to include in the photo narrative. I used a DSLR camera to take the photographs, which I think turned out well given my lack of experience. I used the program GIMP to edit the photos. Increasing contrast was the main editing I did for the photos. Increasing the contrast created a much bolder and high intensity level in the colors. I thought that increasing the intensity of the colors would also increase the intensity of the photographs themselves. Finally, I was able to interview several LARPers about their experiences, but I ran out of room and decided to limit the amount of that material I include. One way I could’ve included it would have been to change the direction of the photo narrative so that it was more focused on the interviews I did, instead of just the overall theme of LARPing.

Help Received:

Interviews with LARPers, professor and peer feedback, works cited

Works Cited

“Leaving Mundania Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Role Playing Games.” Kirkus Reviews. 80.6 (2012). Print.

What is my relationship with technology? In order to answer this question for myself, I unplugged from technology for 24 hours. In this post you’ll find an inventory of the technology I use (and disconnected from), a timeline of the technology I use, and my experience from unplugging!

Technology inventory:

• iPhone 5s (Used for about 3 hours per day)
  • Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Yik Yak), email, phone calls, texts, games, camera, internet access, listening to music
  • Frequented apps: Snapchat, Facebook messenger
• Lenovo Laptop (Used for about 4 hours per day)
  • Games, internet access, school work (MS Word), email, social media, watching tv/movies, listening to music
  • Frequented websites: outlook.com, facebook.com, Steam, Microsoft word
• Xbox 360 (Used for about 3 hours per week)
  • Games, movies

Technology Inventory Timeline:

http://timeglider.com/t/b6d611cd2750deba3347

The Experience:

Sometimes it takes a bit of a shock to show us just how much something means to us. This was especially true for my experience during my 24 hour “unplugged” time. Before the 24 hour experience, I considered myself far removed from my peers that cannot function without technology. Unplugging forced me to take notice of the ways in which technology envelopes my daily life. After the experience, I had to seriously rethink and question the role of technology. Through this, I discovered that technology has changed behavior, social interaction, and our reality. But, it has done this in ways similar to pre-technology mediums.

Thursday, September 8^th, 2016 at 5 p.m.; the day and time I picked to initiate my 24 hour unplugged experience. I picked to initiate it then because most of the unplugged time would take place on a Friday, which are my busiest days. I figured that if I am busy, my mind will stay off the fact that I can’t use technology. But, even before starting my 24 hours without technology, I ran into problems. I found it difficult to disconnect. I had to send the last text, the last email, the last Snapchat, and so on. The idea of sending the “last” form of communication seemed to be a never ending cycle that I couldn’t possibly put a stop to. I thought this as I laid in bed at 11 p.m. on Thursday, September 8^th, still not disconnected from my technology. So, I decided that the next morning after I woke up, I would check my phone one time, and then disconnect.

It was 7 a.m. on Friday, September 9^th, and I had initiated my 24 hours of being unplugged. My first hour was uneventful, as I had a busy breakfast and class right after. But, after my class ended I returned to my room and approached my computer so I could surf the internet. Suddenly, I remembered that there would be no internet surfing happening. So, I opted to stare out the window to procrastinate doing homework since my usual habit was off-limits. It only took me a few minutes to realize how much time I was wasting and actually begin doing homework. At about 10 a.m., 3 hours in, I was waiting for the professor to arrive for my second class of the day. As I waited, I looked around and saw the rest of the class was on their phones. So, I instinctively reached for mine and sadly realized it was not there. After class ended, I walked to my room to prepare for the day’s physical training. Part of my preparation ritual is listening to music while I get dressed for physical training. But, on that day, I couldn’t prepare as usual because using my computer to listen to music would violate my unplugged time. This made me feel less prepared than usual. Following physical training, around noon, I went to lunch. On my way to lunch, one of my roommates asked me about an important email that was sent to me. I had to respond by telling him about my no technology period, for which he laughed at me. This made me frustrated not only because of the taunting, but also because there was an important email just sitting in my inbox, waiting to be read. The next few hours of my day were full of classes and uneventful. But, after my classes ended, I realized a major problem in the way of my unplugged experience. My weekend plans were to ride home on Friday evening, which would require me to use a computer in order to sign out and leave. I thought to myself; is this a violation of my 24 hours without technology? The answer to that was yes, obviously. I considered scratching my plans and not going home at all. However, I ultimately decided that I would use my friend’s computer, log into the website, click sign out, and that would be it. No big deal. So, when 5:45 p.m. came around, I did exactly that. As I departed my room, I slid my phone into my pocket. In this act, I entrusted myself with resisting the temptation of using my phone during my three hour car ride. By the time I arrived home, it was later than I had anticipated. I opened the door not to the happy greeting of my mother, but to her chastising me for not answering her calls or calling to tell her I would be home late. I explained to her the unplugged experience I was undergoing, to which she, like my roommate earlier, replied with a laugh. At this point, I was 16 hours into being unplugged and totally wanted it to be over with. I decided to sleep the rest of the time away. Saturday, September 10^th, 2016, at 10 a.m. I woke up and paused to reflect on what I learned from being unplugged. After a few seconds of reflection, I realized I could be doing more productive things, so I reached for my phone and once again, I was plugged in.

Jokes aside, I learned a great deal from being unplugged. It opened my eyes to the way that technology can eat up my time. For example, I was more productive with doing my homework when I did not have a phone or computer screen in front of my face. This has made me more conscious about my relationship with technology as it pertains to enabling procrastination. Also, through my mother’s reaction to my late arrival home, I realized that nowadays human to human interaction is based on the assumption that communication can always be carried out in a non-face to face manner, i.e. with technology. My mother assumed that I could be reached because I have a cell phone.  This connects to Sherry Turkle’s statement, “if we can be continually in touch, needing to be continually in touch does not seem a problem or pathology but an accommodation to what technology affords. It becomes a norm.” (Turkle 177) Being laughed at for disconnecting was an interesting experience. It made me understand that it is frowned upon to be unplugged. To not be “with” the technology of the day is a bad thing, something that is associated with older generations. I came to understand the urges to use technology I had throughout my 24 hours of being unplugged.  Whenever I have technology, I constantly spend long periods of time accessing information online, through social media, online articles, or forms of communication. The simple availability and easy access to information bred a behavior within me where I feel like I always need to know information. The urges I felt were a result of this behavior of mine. So, it seems that technology has, at least on me, created a certain set of behaviors. But, that’s not to say that others don’t have the same urges when it comes to reading a book.  Finally, I took notice to the way that technology can affect a social environment. I was able to spend more time to observe social situations without the distraction of technology. I noticed that on many occasions people would rather sit back and look at their phones than make conversation with other classmates. Did technology make people completely disconnect from social situations? From my observations, no. Technology can be was used to make social situations a little less awkward, but if need be I could engage with someone without them being completely distracted by technology. Again, the same could be said for reading a book.

I believe my reality in 2016 and what my reality would have been in 1996 is not that different. In 1996, computers, television, video games, and cell phones all existed. As Alison Gopnik says, “each new generation rapidly acquires all the accumulated innovations of the past.” (Gopnik 2) So, everything we have in 2016 is just an extension of technology from 1996. I believe this will be the same for 2036. The technology in 2036 will just be an extension of what already exists in 2016. However, in the process of these innovations, my generation will continue to age. As my generation ages, forming the habits and knowledge required to use new technology will be more difficult. I believe the key to keeping up with technology will be to actively make use of it. By doing this, it is hard to fall behind and become technologically illiterate. But, at the rate technology is surrounding our lives, we may have no choice but to conform to whatever new technology comes about in the next 20 years.

Listen to me talk about my unplugged experience:

My notes during the experience:

Help Received: Peer review, teacher feedback, Wikipedia for timeline information

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together : Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York :Basic Books, 2011. Print.

Gopnik, Alison. “Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together: Will the Digital Revolution Really Change Us?” Slate Magazine. N.p., 07 Feb. 2011. Web.

It seems that the only examples of my use of deep attention that I can recall are related to school assignments. This goes all the way back to grade school, where the majority of assignments are long readings, tests, or projects. Now, in college most assignments are long readings and papers. Sometimes, I have to carve out large blocks of time to sit down and work on a single paper. This relates back to Hayles’ example of using deep attention to solve complex problems. Writing an argumentative essay could be an example of a complex problem. The problem being in effectively using pertinent research to formulate a strong argument, requiring several hours of attention of the deep mode to solve. The benefit in this lines in training a long attention span and ability to solve complex problems, which in this case is the paper.  A major limitation to this type of attention is that it is very attention draining. This is because I have to divert almost all of my cognitive resources to solving a single problem and end up ignoring the outside environment and other tasks. During the course of any given day, I can easily find myself constantly using hyper attention. During my free time, I listen to music and surf the web at the same time. All the while switching between several phone apps. A benefit to this is that I can make my way through several online articles, videos, and social media postings in an expedited manner. However, a drawback is that after conducting the given session of hyper attention, I find it hard to switch back to deep attention in order to read a longer article or book.

Many parallels can be drawn between the advent of new technologies in previous generations and today. The show Downtown Abbey helps its audience understand this by creating an episode representing the advent of the telephone. But, what would the modern day authors Turkle and Gopnik say if they were suddenly placed in the same era as that Downtown Abbey episode?

Turkle would begin by pointing out that the use of the telephone on a mass scale will change the course of human nature and interaction. Turkle would say that face to face contact is a thing of the past and that this will inherently affect humans’ emotional state. Turkle would point out that the telephone would envelope peoples’ lives. Also, she would mention that the telephone does have its uses, but using it comes with a necessary restraint.

Gopnik would draw a similarity between the invention of the telegraph and the telephone. Gopnik would say that the telephone is just this generation’s “generational shift”. Gopnik would be sure to mention that while the telephone is a major innovation, it doesn’t alter much. Finally, Gopnik would talk about the lack of objective evidence saying that the telephone does have major negative effects on our society.