Just a little reminder that we’re running Pitch Up & Publish 10: Augmented Reading tomorrow afternoon between 2 and 5pm.
We already have some great people signed up and there is still room for a few more so do drop us a line if you’d like to come along. You can reach us at bookleteer at bookleteer.com
The PU&P session will explore the many different experiences of making books that augment reading. Through conversation and hands-on making we aim to discover how digital technologies might inform the design of future reading experiences.
Our next Pitch Up & Publish – No. 10 – will focus on the challenges and opportunities of using bookleteer.com for making and sharing books that go beyond text to call on form, movement and interaction to add to the reader’s experience. Designers, paper artists, augmented reality researchers, architects and others are invited to take part in a hands-on exchange of knowledge, ideas and techniques of how the eBook format (and other forms of online sharing) can enrich or subvert the experience of augmented reading.
What do we mean by augmented reading?
Over the last month I’ve explored the world of books as objects and I’ve begun to realise that these projects share the common theme of seeking to augment the experience of reading. Whether the augmentation is through the interplay of graphics and text as in Carmen’s Black on Black or Dusk or through movement as in Rainbow In Your Hand or 3-dimensional form – either in the physical sense like the pop-ups of Robert Sabuda or the digital world of the Magic Book – all of these books engage with the readers’ senses alongside their reading of the content.
Currently, these books tend to exist as one-offs or limited editions and this limits their audience to a small number of people. My experiments with the pop-up eBook began to explore how these books might be shared more widely using the Internet, and in a form where readers are actively involved in the construction of the books. How might sharing in this way alter the nature of these books which seem such precious objects due to their frailty and uniqueness? How does this change the relationship between author/maker and reader? What are the technical challenges of sharing augmented books in this way when the eBooks have such a specific form?
The PU&P session will explore the many different experiences of making books that augment reading. Through conversation and hands-on making we aim to discover how digital technologies might inform the design of future reading experiences.
If you would like to take part then email us on bookleteer at bookleteer.com and tell us a little bit about your interest in the topic. This will help us with our preparations for the workshop.
Over the past few weeks we’ve been imagining more uses of Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes, partly inspired by the family and personal eBooks created by our two Future Jobs Fund placements, Karine and Shalene, and partly with the help of Niharika Hariharan, a designer from Delhi (and former intern at Proboscis) who’s been in London recently. Last year Niharika designed a series of bilingual eBooks for a schools workshop in Delhi, Articulating Futures, which Proboscis co-designed and supported.
Earlier this year, in a Pitch Up & Publish event with We Are Words + Pictures, the eBooks were used by a couple of writers to create simple portfolios of their work to show prospective clients/commissioners. Over the years Proboscis has also used both the eBook and StoryCubes formats to create publications that present our work in a similar way. We’ve now come up with two ideas for using bookleteer to create highly personal eBooks about who people are and what they do, Pocketfolios and MeBooks.
Pocketfolios
We began by thinking about how we remember work by art, design and architecture students at graduate shows (often by collecting business or postcards) and how, looking back, sometimes it can be hard recalling why we might have collected someone’s details without a connection to what caught our interest in the first place. But what if there was a way for the students to give away something like a mini portfolio of their work? What if they could use bookleteer to create simple, yet beautiful, ‘pocketfolios’ with more details about them and their work?
Niharika has designed posters which we’re sending out to colleges to invite students to test out bookleteer for creating highly personal ‘pocketfolios’ – we’re also offering a 10% discount (using the discount codes on the physical posters) for students who want their pocketfolio(s) printed via our PPOD service. We have also developed another set of posters which we’ll be sending out to studios to invite makers of all descriptions to explore bookleteer and the Diffusion eBooks as a way to create personal or product-based pocketfolios.
MeBooks
A couple of weeks ago I took part in a meeting at Islington Council for employers participating in the Future Jobs Fund where there was very positive feedback about the young participants gaining in skills and confidence. However the mentoring and follow-on advice being offered seemed to lack inspiration for much else beyond CV writing skills.
It occurred to me that bookleteer could offer something quite different – an adaptation of the Pocketfolio idea that could be made relevant to people from all walks of life and in different job types and sectors than the arts or design. A personal narrative about them – their story, or MeBook – that could act as a portfolio of their skills, experiences, ambitions, hobbies and interests, what they’ve achieved and what inspires them. Something that helps them describe and share what they feel is the best of themselves that a CV simply couldn’t cover.
We’ve been brainstorming how we might do this (also with input from Karen Martin, resident bookleteer and Proboscis associate) and hope to have a workshop piloted in the next few weeks. I’ve recently met with staff from Islington Council as well as Judith Hunt and her team from Get More Local to hear their feedback on how this could benefit other young people on the Future Jobs Fund and other schemes. Watch this space for further announcements!
We would love to hear from anyone else involved in similar schemes who’d like to offer the MeBook idea to their placements/interns/trainees. Please get in touch to find out more.
Come along between 1-5pm if you’d in the area and would like to know more about making eBooks and StoryCubes, and to see samples of the gorgeous new PPOD eBooks!
We will be running a Pitch Up & Publish event with Artists & Makers in Coventry on Friday 26th March 2010, from 12noon until 4pm as part of the Empty Shops Tour.
Come and join us to publish your stories, pictures and ideas as Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes.
Date : Friday 26th March 2010
Time : 12pm to 4pm
Venue : 11 City Arcade, Coventry
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We will be running a Pitch Up & Publish event with Artists & Makers in Carlisle on Friday 19th March 2010, from 12noon until 4pm as part of the Empty Shops Tour.
Come and join us to publish your stories, pictures and ideas as Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes.
Date : Friday 19th March 2010
Time : 12pm to 4pm
Venue : 17 Lowther Arcade, Lowther Street, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 8LX, UK
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We will be running a Pitch Up & Publish event with Artists & Makers in Shoreham-by-Sea on Friday 12th March 2010, from 12noon until 4pm as part of the Empty Shops Tour.
Come and join us to publish your stories, pictures and ideas as Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes.
Date : Friday 12th March 2010
Time : 2pm to 4pm
Venue : 1a New Road, Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex BN43 6RA
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Hot on the heels of PU&P5, we will be heading down to Brixton’s Granville Arcade and the Spacemaker’sBrixton Village project to run another special PU&P with the BrixVill tenants. The aim is to introduce bookleteer to the tenants to begin to record and document some of their experiences, stories, photos and artwork using Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes.
The event will be free to attend – participants are encouraged to bring a laptop or device with mobile internet access and some text/images/digital artwork etc to begin creating your own eBooks & StoryCubes.
Date : Wednesday 10th February 2010
Time : 2pm to 4.30pm
Venue : Etta’s Place, Unit 85-86, Brixton Village / Grandville Arcade, Brixton
Location : http://spacemakers.org.uk/brixton/location/
RSVP – we will only have limited internet access on site so it is important to send a request for a bookleteer account to bookleteer at proboscis.org.ukbefore Wednesday 10th (mentioning spacemakers or Brixton Village)
Our next Pitch Up & Publish – No. 5 – will focus on using http://bookleteer.com in learning and schools contexts. The evening is aimed at teachers/educationalists and others who work in schools and formal/informal learning contexts – exploring ideas for and uses of Diffusion eBooks and StoryCubes as learning and teaching resources.
The evening will be co-hosted by Giles Lane (Proboscis) and Kati Rynne (writer and digital producer at Teachers TV) – Proboscis will provide test bookleteer accounts to attendees in advance, just bring a laptop and some content/ideas for content to make some eBooks or StoryCubes live in our studio.
