This video gives a great demonstration of the worthy winner and highly commendeds in this first Bologna Ragazzi Digital Prize. All three are blindingly wonderful.
Monday, 19 March 2012
warren's bologna prizewinner movie
This video gives a great demonstration of the worthy winner and highly commendeds in this first Bologna Ragazzi Digital Prize. All three are blindingly wonderful.
Sunday, 18 March 2012
bologna ragazzi prize for dreams, numbers & farts
I've at TOC Bologna where I've thoroughly enjoyed being a judge of the
2012 BolognaRagazzi Digital Prize - the first one ever. More on this later but here is our press release announcing: Winners and Honorable Mentions
____________________________________________
March 18, 2012 Bologna Italy. The Bologna Children¹s Book Fair today
announced the results of the first BolognaRagazzi Digital Prize, a global
initiative designed to recognize excellent and innovation in children's
storytelling apps.
An independent jury considered 252 entries by 179 publishers from 25
countries. The overall winner and two finalists will be announced at the end
of the TOC Bologna conference on Sunday March 18th 2012.
It was a difficult choice. Among the 253 entries were many strong titles
that could have made the short list, and there were many very good products
that fell outside the narrative-driven criteria. The jurors were seeking
innovation and interactive features that complemented and extended
storytelling. The jurors hope to consider a wider range of digital platforms
in the future as well as the opportunity to recognize the broad spectrum of
innovation.
After looking at the entire pool of entries, the jurors issued the following
statements. "It is clear that many children's authors and publishers are
starting to catch on to digital techniques. We saw repeated examples clever
and imaginative work. The jurors stated: "these are not books and they
can't really be compared to books." They also stated "we recommend that
future contests consider a wider range of digital platforms, besides just
the iPad in search of a broader spectrum of innovation."
Despite coming from separate continents, the three winners shared a common
attribute. They provided children a rich, engaging experience while not
losing their connection to storytelling, writing and illustration. The
jurors were especially concerned with how the interactive media complement
these elements.
The Winner:
Dans Mon Reve by e-Toiles Editions from France
This is a surreal and poetic app, updating the traditional heads bodies and
legs format in a way that can only work on multi-screen. It leaves space for
a child¹s imagination and provides a setting for collaborative play, all
while breaking away from the page-by-page way of thinking.
Honorable Mentions:
The Numberlys by Moonbot Studios LA LLC, USA
Anyone who doubts that power of the multi-touch screen for storytelling
should see this hugely impressive feat of design. Despite providing a
critique of totalitarianism; it somehow manages to provide a rich language
experience in a way that promotes social play by offering games that two
children can enjoy together.
Quem Soltou o Pum? (Who Let the Fart Out?) by Atendimento Editora Schwarcz
Jurors said: This a wonderful example of using basic interactive techniques
with wit and intelligence, while telling a story that any child knows very
well: how to deal with a messy dog. Many apps feature children as narrators
with varying success -- here it works beautifully.
The jurors were Warren Buckleitner from Flemington, NJ USA Editor of
Children's Technology Review, André Letria from Lisbon, Portugal; an
Illustrator and Publisher; Chris Meade of London, England Director of
if:book UK, a think and do tank exploring the future of the book, and
Cristina Mussinelli, Milan, Italy of the Italian Publishers Association.
bolognathoughts
At the Bologna Bookfair Tools of Change
conference today I chaired the session When
Worlds Collide: The Intersection of Book, Games and Online Communities for Kids
A
conversation exploring theory, technology and tools behind interactive stories
and online communities for kids.
with two co-founders of companies doing
fascinating work.
ERIK
HOFTUN runs SNOWCASTLE
INTERACTIVE
Wired wrote about one of their games that ”…big developers
of eBooks should take a look and see what they can learn from this story — it
is more than touch points. The inter- activity is woven into the plot, making
it a real adventure.”
CHRISTIAN
DORFFER co-founder of MINDSHAPES is creating an ambitious
community for pre-school children called MAGIC TOWN based on providing a safe
online environment where children can encounter stories by the world's best
(and most popular) writers. They've raised big money and done deals with the
major publishers. Christian's focus on the developmental needs of young people
and how best to provide these and Erik's skills and experience of shaping
the elements of a game are hugely relevant to the need to find a grammar for
new kinds of storytelling.
How do we identify literary, book-related
quality in apps and multimedia without falling back o old assumptions of what
is 'booklike'?This was a big issue in judging the prize where, for instance,
the amazing UN JEU, based on a groundbreaking abstract picture book for very small children,
was deemed a game not a book app, yet it has a creative spirit that feels
playful in a children's book-like way. No apologies for focusing this year on narrative based work, but we need the opportunity to celebrate the category-busting work - and not forgetting literature made directly by writers and published free on the web. This is why if:book UK has decided to support and promote the International New Media Writing Prize, working with Bournemouth University.
I think we're
moving towards a completely different way of defining what we do across
different forms and media, in relation to the quality and style of engagement
generated by what might be a book, film, game, story, community or...
whatever.
These worlds
don't need to be on a collision course; they are beginning to notice each
other, learn from each other and create together.
The start up business brain walks into an
established sector and aim to think of a product that hits the spot. Likewise
the writers of tomorrow and today can begin to explore a theme or story - and
do that publicly if their wish - before deciding what form or business model
will suit the final work once it's fully cooked....which leads to the big
question of whether the traditional narrative arc of beginning middle and end
is really appropriate for the way we lead our lives now, or for the platforms
that now exist for distributing our thoughts and stories. The tedium of so many
movie plots with formative years leading to car chase and happy ending makes
one wonder if we've used up all the permutations of the seven stories long
ago.
Let stories, games and communities intermingle, innovate and thrive!
Thursday, 15 March 2012
big sky and the space between us
Back in the UK I recently interviewed a cluster of emerging British writers about their perspective on the transformation in publishing that’s taken place over the past few years ago and was shocked at how immersed they still were in a view of literary culture that’s constrained by the technology of printing on paper.
Creative writing courses and community workshops take on a whole new power in the digital age in which no arbiter can decide from on high who does and doesn’t deserve a wider readership. We can all gain from learning to write better, and while I understand concerns about quality and the pressure for work being rushed into the public domain before its fully cooked, it’s time to embrace at a fundamental level a model for our writing lives which focuses on what the web can do rather than clinging to doing things the way they had to be when a published book was the only vessel for words on offer.
The Literature Sector should be at the vanguard of change, but despite the best efforts of some, many of whom are speaking on March 27/28th at the NALD conference THE SPACE BETWEEN US, the commercial publishing sector feel they own the discussion about the literature of tomorrow, failing to recognise or acknowledge how utterly the space between our words has been transformed.
This year if:book UK will be working closely with the New Media Writing Prize, launched two years ago by Bournemouth University, a spur to encourage more writers to experiment with the new palette of digital possibilities for literature. We don’t need publishers or bookshops or digital start ups to start making work that is genuinely inspired by new means of communication and community. We can find collaborators and tools and business models for ourselves and get stuck in to the really exciting bit: creating compelling, illuminated fiction and poetry, made in the light of how we read, write, see, hear and share now.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
new media writing forum
if:book UK is working with Bournemouth University to promote and develop the New Media Writing Prize, now in its third year. The Prize will be a central element of our work to explore digital possibilities for literature.
More on this soon, but I'm delighted that Andy Campbell has launched The New Media Writing Forum (http://
Friday, 9 March 2012
leaplings
Article written for www.theliteraryplatform.com
LEAP, The International 24 Hour Book, was a project produced by Sarah Butler - the author who recently signed a two book deal with Picador - and Ben Payne, Co-Director of the wonderful Ministry of Stories. It was commissioned by Spread The Word, the literature development agency for London, collaborating with groups of writers and editors in London, Kuala Lumpur, Vancouver and Delhi, co-ordinated by the British Council in Malaysia, the German Book Office in Delhi and W2 Community Media Centre in Vancouver.
The 29 writers involved worked together on a novel called LEAP, which was both written and set on the leap day of the 29th February 2012. It was published as e-book, designed by Alistair Hall of We Made This (www.wemadethis.org.uk) the next day, World Book Day. It’s available as an e-book now for free at www.spreadtheword.org.uk. You can also visit the Facebook page to see how the day itself went.
As well as writing a few pages of it, my role was to run workshops with each cluster where we got to grips with how to share the creative process using the simple tool of Google docs, free to use and available to all, which makes it possible to work together on one document. It was astounding and beautiful to watch writers in India as they composed, seeing a sentence being stretched and kneaded, words appearing and disappearing, growing slowly like yeast, like friendship cake, but tastier, expanding across the page.
We made the first 24 hour book a couple of years ago with some of the same people and it can be read still at http://www.completelynovel.
Plotting had to be agreed on together before individuals and pairs picked different sections to focus on, with Sarah and others providing a final write through, before handing over to Juliette Mitchell, our editor in chief, and her team who edited the final work. During the day Alistair Hall, who also designed the book, travelled on the Number 4 bus route tweeting in the identity of the lead London character, sending photos of his journey to inspire us.
You can read the results at www.spreadtheword.org.uk
Next up if:book Australia is organising its own 24 Hour Book on the 11th June with some exciting writers including some I met when in Brisbane working with Arts Queensland on consultation towards a Writers' Strategy for Queensland.
Friday, 2 March 2012
24 hour book...
...was a pleasure to work on with writers in KL, Delhi, Vancouver and London.
Thanks to Ben Payne, Sarah Butler and all involved.
Go to www.spreadtheword.org.uk
to download ePub of
LEAP
London writers eat their way to inspiration
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