Presentation on the Future of the Book,
The Amplified Author and the Local Unlibrary
by Chris Meade,
Director of if:book (London)
the think and do tank exploring the future of the book in the digital age
ISYU TUNGKOL SA SEKSWLADIDA (ISSUE ABOUT SEXUALITY
Presentation Nov 2010
1. if:bookChris Meade
The Future of Reading
The Amplified Author In The Unlibrary
www.futureofthebook.org.uk
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2. > How is reading changing in a digital world?
> How can digital technology boost the appeal of reading for
reluctant readers?
> How can we make the most of the digital technology we have in
school to work creatively in English?
> What free packages and software are out there for us to use?
> What is the future for reading and writing?
3. “if all the sky was paper
and all the sea was ink”
the word set free
4. If:book london, www.futureofthebook.org.uk
A think and do tank exploring the future of the book
as our culture
moves from printed page to networked screen
and the potential of new media
for creative readers and writers
linked to
The Institute
for the Future of the Book
New York,
Founded by Bob Stein
www.futureofthebook.org
5. A Life In Books
bookshops
libraries
poetry society
booktrust…
- but
tv, film,
web & music too
6. Community Arts > Write Back >Opening the Book
CREATIVE READING & WRITING >
IMAGINATION SERVICES
Reader Development > Poetry Society >
Poetry Places > Booktrust > Bookstart >
Everybody Writes…
7. digital solves the problems…
> access for all
> a means to publish and distribute new
voices freely
> text and performance together
> creative reading for real
8. booklovers have been in denial
books have
already been
sent up to bed
we’re all
transliterate
now…
even my mum
9. the book:
an experience
not an object
literature isn’t made of paper
books happen in our heads and hearts
the object is a souvenir of our visit
10. why
have we all spent so much time
promoting the page
when it’s
WORDS
we love
?
17. imagination & digitisation
“Blake was always using new technologies,
often abusing technologies, not for the sake
of an interest in the technology per se, but
what he could use it for. He believed that,
rather like learning a language… if you
speak a different language maybe you ask
different questions. And the language of the
digital age is one that Blake would have
pursued.”
18. digital expectations
• to read and write
• to click through for more
• to collaborate with others
• to mix media
• to reply
• to replay
19. talking moving picture books
for children and adults
wingedchariot.com enhancededitions.com
stories for grey times
• etherbooks.co.uk
PHICTIVE.COM
stories on the move
the lowdown?
the future of the app.
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Story games
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perplexcity..the winter house.. alice re-animated…
www.insearchoflosttim.net
In Search of Lost Tim
A magical, musical,
graphical, digital fiction
21. book things
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booktwo.org
www.
book
futures
.com
25. the research
96% of ‘lower ability’ students found it more interesting than standard
approaches
86% of all students recommended it to other schools
Strong impact on Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills
“The normal way we read can be boring.
However this was interactive
and made my learning enjoyable.”
26. but…
not just a cunning trick
to con non-readers
into looking at books
29. communities
book groups
turned books into
experiences that
take a month
and end in a meal
www.fictional-stimulus.ning.com
a digital reading experience
curation
30. How Power Corrupts
by Ricardo Blaug, Westminster University
Academic publisher, price £50, sales
390
Curated conversation online and at the
Free Word Centre
Between formal education
and ‘just reading’
32. young poets’ network
if:book and the Poetry Society
producing:
Toolkit of digital resources, articles, videos, commissioned poems
Helping young poets (13 - 18yrs) to set targets for their personal
‘poetic licence’
Finding the readership, criticism,
writing, performance
and all kinds of publishing skills
they need to develop their poetry
33. local writers
• can publish to the world from home
• can use networks to find each other,
near and far
• can ‘click’ and
find out more
34. amplified author
in a room with a view
broadcasting words
in conversation
publishing, self publishing,
twitter, blogs, social media
local and global
needing recognition, criticism, readership, income
in control of their writing life
35. join the unlibrary
new kinds of spaces
for bookiness
imagination service
for the writer/readers of transliterature
focal point for writers and readers
safe place to ‘click’ on people
shared dream space
in networked recession
36. in the unlibrary
> Personal profiles
on the shelves
> Wall of messages,
notes, images,
thoughts…
Meet up online
and for real
This is a photo of a man asleep in a library
I found it on flickr and it moved me.
Why?
It sums up the dream space that books create.
Ideas that take off in our heads, that become part of us�
It sums up what I most value about books
What is if:book
I was brought up ‘bookish’ in the sixties
I was good at English,
But also hugely influenced by tv, comics, movies, pop music
My games involved pretending to be James Bond and John Lennon
My education pretended never to have heard of these people
Real learning was in books.
Before I went to university I worked in bookshops as a teenager and loved it – helping people find the next best book for them, learning to talk confidently about books I hadn’t read!
In the recession of the 1980s I worked in community arts, and then for libraries where I ran a literature festival and set up a community publishing project called ‘Write Back’.
We set up book groups, provided noticeboards for local writers to ‘publish; their poetry and stories on.
We talked about creative reading and writing, libraries as a cultural breathing space, providing not just Information but Imagination Services
Then I became Director of the Poetry Society.
Many people found this a very intimidating institution, famed for who it had refused to recognize. We raised some money and set up the Poetry Caf�, so all kinds of people could come to poetry and� just have a coffee if they liked.
We ran readings and residencies too out in the community –
Poetry is a very multimedia form of writing. Poets survive in a webby way by giving readings and workshops,
As Director of Booktrust we ran Bookstart giving books to babies,
Introducing the value of the book habit to new readers – well, pre-readers.
And babies really do love books. But it’s hard to keep them reading.
Then I took an MA in Creative Writing and New Media
I met Bob Stein, Director of the Institute for the Future of the Book
Where did it come from - my journey I grew up on a diet of telly,
books and music,
liked English
wrote poetry - loved bookshops -
libraries as Imagination Service
for Creative Reading
Ran the Poetry Society
Booktrust > Bookstart
Everybody Writes…
THEN… Creative Writing
& New Media
The digital revolution seemed to me a hugely positive thing
It solved many of the problems we were trying to tackle:
Access to literature for all
The means to publish and distribute new voicesTo present poetry – text and performance together
To make new kinds of literature
BUT I found others didn’t see it like that.
Some saw me as a kind of traitor to the cause
展hat about the look and feel of books??�
Readers seemed to be in denial
Pretending they lived in a book lined world whereas
Actually we’ve all lived in a multiculture for decades
Mixing tv, radio, books
I asked my book friends:
How many of them actually read in their front room during the evening?
Don’t most of us read in bed to get to sleep, on journeys when there’s nothing else to do, on holiday to help us switch off.
But aren’t books supposed to switch us on?
Isn’t a book about more than its cover?
Reading a book on screen made me aware that
A book is an experience that happens in my heart and my head
Literature isn’t made of paper.
This year readers have got used to the Kindle and the Sony Reader
They’ve realized that a novel is a novel is a novel.
But now.. we’ve arrived at the iPad moment, and that’s a big change.
The book is back on the mainstage of our culture, in the midst of all the other forms we enjoy
There’s an amazing opportunity to win new readers.
Bookstart is great as a means to introduce children to libraries and the pleasure of bookshops and bookshelves – but wouldn’t it be fantastic to put great words on those devices everyone is looking at already?
BUT we need to define what we value about books and literature without thinking in terms of pages glued together – because now books are another kind of digital ‘stuff’, alongside all the other stuff we can find online.
So what really is the value of a book? What does ‘bookness’ mean to you.
What’s happening now is the reverse of the locking down of literature which happened all those centuries ago,
, let’s go back to the history of the book.
We need to shake off our assumptions, analyse our activites
Look at what are habits, what are essentials.
If:book has done a number of experiments in this area.
AND WHAT REALLLLY MATTERS ABOUT THE BOOK
Songs of imagination & Digitisation used the work of William Blake to explore new ways to illuminate literature�.
Blake was multimedia, published his work
My friend’s daughter Abi was thirteen, always in her room at night on the internet. Her parents were worried – what was she up to?
It turned out she was writing fan fiction, stories about her favourite TV series, uploading them to a forum to be peer reviewed by around 50 readers each time, and read by thousands.
She was part of a rolling writing workshop – without any parental or educational encouragement or even their knowledge.
We are the couch potato generation, who plonk ourselves in front of TV and bury our heads in books – future generations read/write, interact, respond, remix.
TheGoldennotebook.org was a networked version of the nobel prize winner
The 24 hour book was an experiment in collaborative writing
Now we want to develop some new kinds of book places:
HOTBOOK aimed at schools – alarming that teachers aren’t addressing how our culture is changing.
Research by Booktrust at the pilot stage showed it was
Very popular with lower ability children
We had higher abilitiy pupils at the launch talking about how much they’d enjoyed it - less ‘fooled’ by the story
WE think this is for ALL abilities -
Daljit Nagra Sasha Hoare and Ellie and Jo
A fantastic set of teacher’s notes with exciting and testing activites
Around each ‘litch bit’…
THIS ISNT A WAY TO CON PEOPLE INTO BOOKS, IT IS THE FUTURE OF THE BOOK
Fictional Stimulus was inspired by reading groups; we published excerpts over the period of a month, beginning and ending with a live event.
The Unlibrarian and the Future of the Bookshop
The problem with libraries used to be lack of books and
Now we carry content with us
Cultural institutions like galleries, theatres and bookshops
Intimidated many who were fearful to walk through their portals
Now we can access opera or pop, religion or porn, poetry or bockbluster
Equally easily –
We need to take our laptops to places where we can learn how best to use them
to access what we want, places which inspire us to explore and learn
We need compasses other than google to help us find our way to the best next book for us
in our intellectual and emotional journey
And we need to value what really matters about books.
We also need to help creators make some money