We've been very busy during summer organising a number of weddings, bachelor(ette)'s, and funerals. But we're back on track now!
Thus, this newsletter has a lot of content. It contains mainly general updates about the organising progress: location, program and books.
As you probably already know: The Solmukohta Cruise will take place on a Tallink Silja cruise ship from Wednesday the 9th to Monday the 14th of March.
The cruise ship takes off from Helsinki on the Wednesday afternoon 9th of March and hosts the last night of a Week in Finland.
Solmukohta 2016 will start Thursday afternoon as the cruise ship sails from Stockholm. The event ends on Sunday afternoon in Helsinki.
Read more about the cruise dates here: http://solmukohta.org/index.php/Main/About
We are in the last phase of negotiations with the cruise company and will have the final agreement in our hands during this month. With that information, and news from more funding applications, we can work towards publishing the ticket prices and the sign up dates and deadlines.
We will cruise between Helsinki and Stockholm on the Tallink Silja cruise ship. The cruise ship sails between the two Nordic capitals from late afternoon to early morning and docks in the harbour in Helsinki or Stockholm during the day.
The cruise ship accommodates more than 2000 passengers in almost 1000 cabins, with bathrooms in every cabin. There is plenty of room for Solmukohta. Especially the conference deck is well equipped and used to service bigger conferences than Solmukohta.
The ship has cabins available for special needs, e.g., for participants in wheelchairs.
Read a bit more about the cruise ship here: http://solmukohta.org/index.php/Main/About
Pictures of the cruise ship: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8rdhu0migorrf7k/AADbyuO5hyKmcvOdJtYVjOHLa?dl=0
Here's a brief list of upcoming deadlines you might want to keep an eye on, please read more about them below.
The call for program will be released in early October 2015.
Solmukohta 2016 will offer program in 5 different program tracks:
Deadline for program submissions will be after the sign up for the event itself, probably at the end of 2015 or very early 2016.
You can preliminarily submit your program ideas by using this form: http://goo.gl/forms/h98mr02Mft
It can be program you want to host yourself, want someone else to host, or general ideas concerning the program. We will contact you when the call for program is released.
Read more about the theme of the program and practicalities from our website: http://solmukohta.org/index.php/Main/Program
The Call for Articles (CfA) for the two Solmukohta books will be in early September. If you have any questions or comments on the books, we would love your input. Our editorial team (Kaisa Kangas, Mika Loponen, and Jukka Särkijärvi) can be reached at solmubook2016@gmail.com
The themes for the books have already been chosen and the editorial process agreed on:
Larp Politics -- Politics have always gone hand in hand with larp. Whether games portray politics, or internal politics have defined the deep structures of larps, there have always been games that have discussed and been shaped by political thoughts and realities. The political Solmubook will contain articles that discuss theories, instances, and the implementation of interfaces between politics and games.
Larp Realia -- Each year, the Knutebooks have been in discussion with their earlier reincarnations. New games have sparked new thoughts and theories, and new interpretations of old games have helped us reflect on the development of the scene. Examining and re-examining our theories and interpretations of games have led to a vivid evolution of larp. The general Solmubook will proudly continue the tradition and join the discourse of reimagining the scene.
More information and the Call for Articles will be posted closer to the CfA date to: http://solmukohta.org/index.php/Main/Books
Due to multiple concerned, yet anonymous, inquiries in the style of "what happens if somebody falls of the boat?", we're proudly announcing:
The A Week in Finland Swimming School!
AWiF Swimming School will take place in a yet to be undisclosed but mainland location.
The one-day course will include subtopics like "Swim towards the light" and "Island Profile Recognition", wherein we learn the importance of shortest path first routing. Both courses feature darktime environments and use, for example, cutout shapes of deserted islands in the Finnish-Swedish archipelago.
More about AWiF and it's call for program, program and schedules will be published during the autumn.
You can contact us at info@solmukohta.org or via other channels:
Solmu-greetings,
The Solmukohta crew