Book collage

I've been making these from scrap paper to try and capture the physicality of books as obviously they are composed entirely of paper. I have been trying to explore this in terms of texture and meaning, for example being made of paper means they last a long time if looked after, but also that they can be recycled.

What if I was to make similar stack of 'books' using digital imagery and textures?

Books vs. The Internet

After realising Books vs. Technology was a misleading title I have been thinking a lot about how recent technology is able to improve literature. I have researched the ways the Internet may be destroying literary environments and even books themselves, but maybe I can prove this idea (and myself) wrong.

The main advantage the Internet gives books (and most things) is accessibility. I don't just mean ability to discover and locate titles online but rather, ability to understand them. The Internet has proved useful for study support (games on BBC Bitesize would be a good example) and makes difficult texts less intimidating through sites like Sparknotes, and even Wikipedia.

A student daunted by a huge book they have to read (and understand) might go to one of these sites for a plot summary before they begin. Twenty years ago this would not have been possible. 

However, I feel like what these sites are missing (as you can see from above) are images. Many people learn visually, and for them, a wordy online study guide might be almost as scary as a big book. The Internet floods our brain with images daily (popular sites like Facebook and Youtube are obvious examples) whereas, like I discussed before, websites full of texts are boring and repellant.


It seems odd that online study guides don't utilise the obvious visual potential of the Internet!

Literature and technology timeline

I made this rough timeline from my research. If it continues to be relevant I'll make a more detailed version.

Books vs. Technology

This would be a terrible title as it's very misleading; we forget that books themselves are the product of technology.

A childrens' book about the invention of the Gutenberg press

In the 15th Century, the printing press would have been the height of technology, causing similar controversy to new technology today. People mourned the loss of the beautiful illustrations and calligraphy that filled the handmade books previously used. As books were more widely available, reading aloud became much less prevalent. Some were worried that reading the Bible (the first book to be published on the Gutenberg press) alone would allow then to interpret it their own way - very dangerous! 

Kindle fail: a book never runs out of battery

A better title might be Books vs. NEW Technology, as I have been researching Kindles (and other e-readers) 

A list I made from my research on forums and articles

As you can see, on paper Kindles look like a vast improvement. But a lot of the reasons why people prefer real books are difficult to describe. It's more to do with the experience of handling them, or the atmosphere of a bookshop or library; these things are very important to some, myself included.

J.K.Rowling hates e-books, Carol Ann Duffy loves texts

I've been reading about how the bestselling author won't release any Harry Potter books as e-books; as her (rarely used) Twitter says: she prefers 'pen and paper'.

This rejection of new technology seems to be in keeping with my thoughts, but other famous authors disagree.

Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, compares texts to poems:

"The poem is a form of texting...it's the original text"

read the full article here

She explains that poetry is now more accessible than ever because of its brevity; we are used to sitting in front of a computer screen in front of Twitter or Facebook and communicating in short statements. Poetry is a way of saying more with less, perfecting a feeling, like texting.

Perhaps there could be a study-guide system which uses texts to reinforce key facts to students of the 'Facebook generation'. I tried this out to see what it would look like

Twitterature

I have been reading 'Twitterature', which on the outside looks like any Penguin classic. However, the inside is a little different...

The blurb claims it has 'distilled' 60 great works of literature, 'relieving you of the burdensome task of reading' them. They have disregarded proper English for language typical of Twitter: capital letters for emphasis, extreme punctuation, short statements, swearing.

Some highlights were Oedipus (MY EYES MY FUCKING EYES AGGGGHHGHGHGHGHHH!!!!! I was totally not expecting that to hurt so much') and my favourite book The Odyssey ('Finally home. Everything good! Wait, who the fuck are these dudes hitting on Penelope?')

I was interested in how bizarre it seems for books to be rewritten in an internet format... and then put back into a book. But it works; it's funny.

I looked at the Twitter pages of present-day authors, like Neil Gaiman (above) but these are simply to update and communicate with fans, rather than a medium for writing. I wonder if I could use Twitter for my idea.

Shakespeare's Twitter

Someone has been regurgitating the entire works of Shakespeare, one play at a time, via Twitter.

What does this do to the works?

It certainly puts emphasis on certain words as often sentences have to be broken up to fit into the '140 character or less' format. The context is interesting, as people are most likely to read the posts amongst the other posts on their Twitter feed rather than all together.

It's amusing that the person doing this claims to be Shakespeare himself "tweeting from the grave". It leads us to imagine how great writers would cope if they were alive now; would they adapt to our fixation on social networking sites?

Amazon vs. real bookshops

I made some images on photoshop juxtaposing images of book shelves with the obvious modern alternative; Amazon. I imagined that I could hack into Amazon.co.uk and replace the homepage with this image to remind people what they were missing.

I could add a statistic, like 'The volume of books being bought is in decline. In 2010 a total of 229.3 million books were sold in Britain, a 1.7 per cent decrease on 2009, according to research company Nielsen Bookscan.'


I tried this in the quick animation i made below. It would be great if I was a computer genius and could actually hack into the Amazon website to change the homepage! I would like to try out more animation, like making bookshelves pop up one at a time.

I'm really interested in this idea of hacking/terrorism with good and harmless intentions.

Shakespeare & Company

Me at Shakespeare & Co.

Last April I visited this famous book shop in Paris. Their eclectic scrapbook-style homepage brilliantly encapsulates their aesthetic and promotes instore events, and they use their mailing list to email information to people all over the world. But despite embracing (not fighting) the internet, it is a huge threat to them and other independent book shops.

Clip from Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die by Your Side) by Spike Jonze 

Full version on Vimeo

This animation by Spike Jonze was made in the shop. I think it effectively uses (the internet and animation) technology to present the old fashioned world of the book shop as an exciting place.


This is useful in thinking about how I can adapt books so they translate into an online language which improves rather than destroys or cheapens literature.

Tutorial

I talked to Jason about where my ideas are going. For my next steps I am going to summarise my research on book shops and libraries closing, and add it to my blog. I am going to compare online and analog environments, for example a real life book shop vs. Amazon, and record them photographically. I will look at the differences in experience and consider if anything is lost or gained.

I will also be looking more at the aesthetic experience of books vs. kindles and similar book 'replacements', remembering of course that books are technology themselves.

Links for investigation:

Interesting bookstores

The canny little library

Telegraph article on Internet killing book shops

Forbes article: are Hollywood and the Internet killing reading?

1 star Kindle reviews on Amazon.com (dissapointed users)

Kindles and their kin are the evil spawn of satan (forum)

USA Today: JK Rowling refuses e-books

I need to do lots of thinking and mind maps.