Books&Print Sandbox at The Library of Birmingham
As part of the new Library of Birmingham's opening activities, some of the participants of Books&Print Sandbox are participating in Volume on 5 December.
Posted by Simon MoretonAs part of the new Library of Birmingham's opening activities, some of the participants of Books&Print Sandbox are participating in Volume on 5 December.
Posted by Simon MoretonTo mark REACT's support for Media Futures' conference Publish! New adventures in innovation and the offical end of the sandbox, today we publish some of the learning from our R&D:
Today we publish eight films that tell the stories of our Books & Print Sandbox projects.
The films reflect the sparkling diversity and hard work of a group of people with more talent, ideas and approaches than we could have dared to ask for.
Posted by Jo LansdowneWell that is it; our final workshop is done and dusted. There is still a lot to do of course. I will spend the next month working with the teams to put the finishing touches to their prototypes, develop business plans, make short films of their work and plan our final showcase event. But, yesterday did mark the end of the three month Sandbox R&D period and that makes me a bit sad.
Posted by Jo LansdowneI mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I get a real kick out of the sense of community which has developed in and around our Books & Print Sandbox projects. This was brought home to me again yesterday as I left work and caught sight of a group of projects drinking together in Watershed's bar. Collegiality isn't a frivolous 'add on' to what we are trying to achieve, its at the very core of Sandbox.
Posted by Jo LansdowneIn our first meeting with the project teams, Mark and I talked about the several stages of opening up and focussing down that we anticipated they would experience and how this would impact on their development. I have realised however that we missed out a vital stage – the week when everything goes a little bit pear shaped.
Posted by Jo LansdowneYesterday was our second Sandbox workshop (not including our two day kick off meeting) and it was a cracker. The enthusiasm, energy and real engagement of the teams and advisors is just fantastic. We had tweaked the format a bit this time, in response from some super helpful feedback from everyone, and invited adviser Kim Plowright to lead the afternoon with a focus on stories and endings. One of the things highlighted was the importance of the classic beginning, middle and end narrative structure so....
The beginning:
Posted by Jo LansdowneSitting down to write my (almost) weekly round up of the project blogs I can't help but notice something. There aren't as many. If I didn't know the teams better, this might worry me a little but luckily Mark and I have been doing our second round of meetings with them over the last few days and so I know that this is less to do with a slow down in the pace of work than their transition from thinking to doing. This week, after a month of exploding with all the possibilities, the teams seem more focussed, more practical and more scared.
Posted by Jo LansdowneThere have been a couple of noticeable themes for me in this week’s blogs from the projects. The first is the growing awareness in many of the teams of their place within a tradition of telling stories across time, form and place. Of their role in an ongoing process of translation. The second is an increasingly overt discussion about audience and how the choices that they make now will shape and define who engages with their eventual thing (product, experience, book whatever), how they do so and what they feel about it.
Translation
Posted by Jo LansdowneWe are now a few weeks into Books & Print Sandbox and the projects have been quick off the blocks to put our 'Making things Fast' preaching into practice. Our Sandbox business mentor, Mark Leaver, and I met with all of the teams last week to hear about their progress.
Posted by Jo LansdowneProduced by iShed as part of the Sandbox Programme