Archive
Strategies for exploring books.
On Italy, ebooks and Open Bookmarks
Art, design and inspiration.
I’ve been playing with glanceables and synecdoches for a while now, until I came up with something that had to be got out of my head, and into the world. So here it is: Romance has lived too long upon this river; a single-serving web page that tells you how high the tide is at London Bridge: explicitly close up, but also, roughly, at a glance. (It works very well on the iPad (although better if it were wrapped in an app), OK on the iPhone, and it works particularly well on big screens, particularly... Read the rest of this post →
BBC7 is currently doing Gibson’s Pattern Recognition as this week’s Sci-Fi serial. If you’re in the UK you can listen via iPlayer. It’s being read by Lorelei King, “one of the most successful and accomplished American actresses working in the UK today.” She’s good at voices but (and, Lorelei, this is no criticism if you’re idly googling yourself) her standard one has a strange, disembodied quality, which makes it sound like Text-to-Speech. As David pointed out, it feels like there should be a choice for voices for a text like this, and there’s some assemblage... Read the rest of this post →
There it is, just sitting on a shelf, in a little electronics store in the corner of Khan Market, in New Delhi. Like it’s a totally normal thing. An ebook reader. In a shop. In India. It’s only a little over four years since I wrote Birth pangs of a new literature. Publishing then didn’t believe in eBooks (or a number of other things mentioned therein, like Amazon becoming a publisher, but there you go.) Four years. And there’s an ereader in a shop in a market in New Delhi. … Which is not to make any... Read the rest of this post →
Back from India. It was amazing, as ever. Couple of things to talk about. First: If we’ve ever talked about India and books, you’ll know I’m slightly obsessed with One Night @ The Call Center by Chetan Bhagat. I first read it and wrote about it when I was in India last year, and it’s stayed in my head ever since. One Night @ The Call Center is about a bunch of young, over-educated kids working in a call center in Gurgaon (which is, trying desperately not to deviate, the new Chiba). Over the course of a... Read the rest of this post →
I’ve just launched a blog and a wiki over at Open Bookmarks – if you missed the original post about the project, it’s here. The blog’s for keeping up to date with the project: subscribe to the RSS to keep up-to-date. The wiki is where the discussion will happen. At the moment, it’s read-only, but it will be opened up to registered users at the end of November. In the mean time, it contains some short pieces of introduction: Project aims Project terminology Basic use cases First challenges Partners Please have a read... Read the rest of this post →
I’ve noticed some really nice Google Earth / maps things recently. Starting with today’s Big Picture, on Florida developments and the Human-made landscape: There’s these satellite prints by Jenny Odell, such as: Approximately 1,326 Grain Silos, Water Towers, and Other Cylindrical-Industrial Buildings and Empty Carparks: You’ve probably seen Globe Genie, it’s been around for a bit, but it’s lovely (we haven’t seen even the beginning of what’s possible with Street View. Although that Arcade Fire video was a nice idea): Meanwhile, Google Earth just released a whole bunch of new historical layers,... Read the rest of this post →
I recently spoke at Web Directions South in Sydney, which was a lot of fun. I was invited to talk about the future of the book, and I did… sort of. In this post, I want to expand on some of the thoughts in that talk, which tied together a common thread from several previous discussions, and see if I can do some old-fashioned lit crit too. It’s going to be a bit hand-wavey, but I wanted to put something out there. Here goes. Link to original talk at the end. I recently read William Gibson’s new novel... Read the rest of this post →
Today sees the launch of Fiction Uncovered, a new UK literary promotion for writers who deserve recognition but have yet to receive a major literary prize or media attention, or be picked for retailer promotions. The brainchild of Sophie Rochester, who is also behind the excellent Literary Platform site, Fiction Uncovered places itself squarely where it can be of most help to writers and readers: at the intersection of publishers and retailers, encouraging the former to promote their lesser-known authors and titles, and giving the latter a strong incentive to support and promote them. I... Read the rest of this post →
Saturday was the second Papercamp. There are some write-ups appearing online already, such as these from Ben and Roo, as well as photos on Flickr. I couldn’t make it unfortunately, but Matt suggested I create some briefs to get people going, and so I did. Apparently, there weren’t many formal responses to them (with this glorious exception), which is all to the good, but I hope they added something to character of the day, and might inspire some more responses… 5 Briefs for Papercamp ONE: FOLDING Create a new fold or codex type. A... Read the rest of this post →
I spoke earlier today at Tools of Change in Frankfurt. The short version is that many of the things we think about ebooks are wrong: but they are very interesting. The future of the book lies in its aura not in its copies, and that’s why I’m launching Open Bookmarks. For the longer version, read on… (As ever, far more was said on stage than these notes, but there you go). 4 things: introductions and what I do; the form of the ebook; bookmarks etc.; and an announcement. Regular readers will know my history. CompSci / AI... Read the rest of this post →
Ever since I took the above photo from a boardroom high above the Euston Road, I’ve had this image in my head of what London looks like at 300 feet (~ 100 metres). So, as usual, I got it out of my head by making something, while also using it as an excuse to have a play with Polymaps. So, this is what Docklands looks like at 300 feet: And this is the City: You can explore the map at shorttermmemoryloss.com/maps/300ft/. Usual disclaimers apply. (Ben, does this count?)
This Five Things thing. Various people have been doing it. So here goes. Five things I’m thinking about: The future of the book That may seem a little obvious. And vague: let’s talk about novels. The novel is a historical accident, it’s different to everything else, and it’s not dead yet. It’s only been around for a very short while: its roots lie in medieval and early modern epics and romances, but it only really gained its present form in the 18th Century. It has, crucially, always been enabled by technological and social development. And with that in... Read the rest of this post →
A year ago this week, I went freelance. So this seems like a good time for a recap. In the last year I’ve been extremely lucky to work with clients including Hachette UK, Bonnier, Art Public, Six To Start, Airlock, Newspaper Club, Proboscis, Dennis Publishing, and a number of others. I’m continuing to work with clients large and small on a range of projects within publishing and in the wider spheres of art and technology, which I’ll talk about here when I can. I’ve also spoken at Playful, SXSWi,... Read the rest of this post →
I’m just returned from Scotland, where I swam in lochs and rivers and partook of nature. This was good. I also read: novels aside, I was immersed in Walter Benjamin and Montaigne’s Essays. Of the former, this was my first experience of reading on the iPad, and a very good one indeed. The highlight function in iBooks is addictive; the lack of an export function criminal, but there you go. Copying out, as we shall see, has its own rewards. Both writers are prodigious, generous and, in their own way, quite funny, which makes them ideal holiday companions. I... Read the rest of this post →
So it’s started again: the planes rumble overhead. The first I’ve heard is right above me now—for a few moments it drowns out the birdsong and childrens’ voices rising from the gardens below my window. I grew up beneath the flight path of Heathrow. From my bedroom window I could read the flight numbers of the planes. There was a railway line too, the main line from Waterloo, and rail strikes or maintenance on the line frequently resulted in garden parties. No such respite from the air—until this week. For most of us, the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull has been... Read the rest of this post →
For Hire
Booktwo.org is the blog of James Bridle, a book and technology specialist with specific expertise in planning and producing web and new media projects for clients in publishing and the arts. If you'd like to hire me, have a look at my CV and portfolio, and feel free to get in touch.
I am also a member of the Really Interesting Group.
You can follow me on Twitter.
Speaking Engagements:
I am available for conferences and other events. For examples, see my talks at Interesting, Playful, South by Southwest, dConstruct and Tools of Change Frankfurt.
A complete list of talks, with links, is available.
