I haven’t written much this year about what I’ve been working on.
Books
What could a digital literature showcase look like?
I’m currently working with Ceri Gorton on a project for Writers’ Centre Norwich (WCN). We’re exploring literature, digital / technology, and collaboration.
Remaking the LightBook: Fairy Tales
This is the latest iteration of the LightBook, made as a present for a friend.
Moving of the book controls the tiny lights on the front cover. When the book is picked up, the blue lights on the cover fade up to full. When the book lies flat, the lights turn out.
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Modifying Treasure Island
One weekend in the middle of February, we ran a hack session to make a first useable prototype of our book for the Library of Lost Books – a talking, gesture-responsive book.
Our aim was to put together the elements we’ve each been working on: story and audio; Lilypad Arduino; gesture detection; getting iPhone and Arduino talking to each other to share data – and to combine them in a physical book.
How do you make a talking book?
This is an early prototype of the project I’m making for The Library of Lost Books: a book that tells a story by responding to gestures and movement when taken off a bookshelf.
A cricket’s chirp and the human kiss
“There are almost a million feet of sound effects film in the sound library of the First National studios. This library covers a multitude of sins– as well as joys, sorrows and train effects…
“But in the library there is not one record of the human kiss.”
– A Library of Sound Effects, The Picturegoer’s Who’s Who and Encyclopaedia of The Screen To-Day, 1933.
Found: How the lost book returned
Sometimes things aren’t lost, just misplaced.
Last month, I wrote about how my book for the Library of Lost books project – a 1933 copy of The Picturegoer’s Who’s Who and Encyclopaedia – had been posted out but had never turned up.
Lost: Has anyone seen this book?
Three weeks ago, a book was carefully packaged up and sent from The Library of Lost Books to my home.
It never turned up. The lost book is even more lost.
Gestural Language and The Library of Lost Books
Last week I heard my application to be part of The Library of Lost Books project had been accepted.
The project aims to take old, discarded books from the Birmingham Library and rework them to create an exhibition of books for the opening of the new Library of Birmingham in 2013.
LightBook: a movement-sensing book
This project is to create a bedside light that can switched on or off by moving a book. It uses an accelerometer sewn into the book to measure the book’s movement.
When the book lies flat, the LED lights are off. When the book is tipped up above a 20 degree angle in any direction, the lights fade up to full. To keep the lights on, stand the book upright, or prop up on an angle. To turn the lights off, lie the book flat.
