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Too late for Papercamp

Yesterday I wrote about the upcomimg Pitch Up & Publish which is on the topic of augmented reading, then, researching similar and related work I came across Papercamp which was first held in London in January 2009 with a second event happening in New York in February the same year.

My first thought was that I wish I had been there! From this write-up of the London Papercamp by Jeremy Keith it seems the day was a mix of presentations of inspirational projects and making things.


(Photo from this blogpost describing the genesis of Papercamp: http://magicalnihilism.com/2008/10/29/papercamp/)

My next thought was what an amazing array of topics they covered. So many of the projects presented at Papercamp fall into my definition of Augmented Reading – which sets me asking – what do I hope to add to the ongoing discussion around paper and technologies with the Augmented Reading Pitch Up & Publish workshop?

For me, I guess, it is the focus on reading rather than paper, or even books. Reading implies a relationship, or perhaps a number of relationships. There is the relationship between author and reader where the author hopes the reader will understand the meaning they are trying to convey in their particular combination of words.. or of words and pictures.. or words and 3-D paper forms.. or words and multimedia files triggered by QR codes..

Then there is also the relationship between the reader and the book-as-object. This can include the sensory quality of the book – have you ever bought a book because it was printed on beautiful paper, or because of its smell when you first opened it? Talking about paper and technologies doesn’t have to address these issues.. talking about reading does..