Football, emails, pirate enlightenment, hubs filled with humanity and family photos from France. What more may a person need?
Last game you played? Despelote! Like actual football, I suck at moving a ball in time and space with my foot in this game, but that, due to the game’s brilliant athmospheric and narrative design, this is not all important for making me belief I care deeply about the Ecuadorian national football spirit in 2002. A heritage and play game of the best kind.
A task you’ll finally get around to this week? Emails…
Quote from a reading you’d recommend? “If nothing else, what I’d like this little experiment in historical writing to bring home is that existing history is not just deeply flawed and Eurocentric, it’s also unnecessarily tedious and boring.” ~ from the foreword of David Graeber’s Pirate Enlightenment.
“What’s something you’ve done, written, or helped create that you’re proud of?” Great question! As I sit in my office writing emails, I hear people having fun, talking, and sharing knowledge in the Digital Lab and Livestream and Podcast Recording Studio, I am pretty proud of having helped create these and other spaces in the Humanities Hub at the Huizinga. If you’re around Leiden and haven’t yet, come and visit!
What’s one of your favorite albums? I have an album filled with photos of a family vacation in France when I was six that is still among my favorites ever. Sorry, is this not what you meant?
What gadget would you like to try or already have and can recommend? The Switch 2! It’s coming to a home near me on June 5 (okay, I admit, it is my home, I preordered it). Can’t wait to tell you if this is indeed a step forward for Nintendo or not an actual switch from what they have going on.
What is the best thing about spring? The lengthening days and the ultimately tiny sliver of dark in between. There’s always one night a year that I see the sun set and rise. So far it has always been fun and it has always been in spring.
What’s something you used to be good at but can’t do now? Listening to my father play the piano. I could do that for hours. Here’s to hoping my daughter has picked up my late dad’s skill at summoning forth magic from this wonderful instrument.
What question should be swapped out for another?
Let’s retire the “A task you’ll finally get around to this week?” and go with “What activity that most others see as a task or chore, is something that you actually enjoy?“
From ancient boardgames to the hopeful future of fun, Angus Mol has been blending past and play since at least 10,000 BCE. A completely healthy childhood fervour for Nintendo and, later, PlayStation and PC gaming was discontinued in favour of a career in Caribbean archaeology, a decision that still left plenty of need for game-based escapism. Some entanglement studies at Stanford and a stint at the Prince Claus Fund for development and culture later, Angus has found his way to play as a co-founder of the VALUE foundation, director of the LUCDH, and as the Principal Investigator of PlayTime where he combines heritage and game studies with Digital Humanities tools — talk about lucking out in the long game.
