Marilyn Panayi Odense University panayi@nis.sdu.dk

Doors of perception 5: Amsterdam, 26–28 November ’98

Doors 5: PLAY, held at the historic Beurs van Berlage building in Amsterdam, brought together more than 800 participants from all over the world. The attraction was obvious: the event featured the world's leading designers, thinkers, game developers, teachers, publishers, architects, and management educators, and a stimulating programme around the theme of Play. In the words of John Thackara, director of the Netherlands Design Institute and conference chairman:

“Doors 5: PLAY is about the toys, media and places of future play – not just for children, but for us all. Their design will influence the future of learning, the future of school, and the future of work. Doors 5 will be our most important conference so far.”

For me, the most interesting presentations were those that challenged conventional perceptions of play, rather than focusing on the traditional technology – led games industries.

Brenda Laurel presented the work of her company Purple Moon, and made a strong case for more attention to users under the age of 12, and more software targeted at female users. Annemarieke Willensen, a Dutch art historian and archaeologist, gave an excellent presentation that put technology-based play and game efforts into a challenging historical perspective. Points of view particularly relevant for ESE projects were presented by Tony Graham and Toshio Iwai and i3 partners Caroline Nevejan, Stephen Heppell and Marco Susani.

A party in the disused gasworks building saw the launch of IF/Then, a new NDI publication edited by Janet Abrams, with a special issue profiling DOORS 5 and play.

Doors of perception: www.doorsofperception.com

Test Doors5 hypertextual playground at www.doorsofperception.com/doors5/play

Doors of Perception has been nominated for a 1999 Webby Award. The Webby Awards – described as ‘the Oscars of the Internet’ by the San Francisco Chronicle – are the leading honors for digital media. Nomination for this award signifies the highest standard of excellence on the part of a web development team.