Tag: read

Sensory fiction suit , the book which was plugged in

Posted on by Team Blookup

After hearing and smelling, books keep dropping physical barriers and surprising us!

Sensory Fiction is a unique book titled “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”, a science-fiction novelette written by James Tiptree (a woman, as her pen name tries to hide)… In 1973!

It resembles any book but its size and thickness are strange: In fact, this book allows to experience the emotions of its main character with a connected jacket to wear before starting the reading session!

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A 1973’s story in a book from the future!

The concept is still at the prototype stage but the technologies used are already advanced! The MIT Media Lab, which developed and delivered a physical form to the whole idea, used nearly 150 programmable LEDs to illuminate the cover of the book, allowing colors to change the atmosphere all around you while the jacket, equipped with a heating device (with the help of a Peltier junction), vibrating plates and a system of compression by airbags, will make you experience with the heroine the power of love and despair, the sensation of freedom and that of confinement…

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Front and back views of the Sensory Fiction suit

By playing on heat transmission, heart rate and the atmosphere of the room, Sensory Fiction transports you beyond words and, if it does not replace your imagination (fortunately!), it allows you to be immersed body and soul in the narrative!

We are excited to know if new stories will be adapted to the concept!

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Source | Images:  F3H3

Growing trees out of books!

Posted on by Team Blookup

A small publishing house in Argentina recently made a totally organic book that gives back to nature what it took from it by growing into a tree (Which might remind you of our previous article about the Japanese blooming newspapers). What’s their secret? Well first, unlike the majority of books, this one is made using organic ink along with acid-free pages that allow it to be planted without harming the soils. Seeds are put inside the paper during the making process and will wait until their time comes to grow into a magnificent tree!

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This book tells the story of a man wandering inside the equatorial jungle as seen through the eyes of his son.

 

Pequeño Editor, the publishing house specialized in books for children,  wanted to deliver a message to their young readers: “Books come from trees. Today, a tree comes from a book.”

Even though changing the way we make books on a global scale seems difficult (If not impossible), we have to salute the effort made by the people of this publishing house who do not only show us an eco friendly alternative but also educate children in the process!

“If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children” – Confucius

If you want to know more about Pequeño Editor and their work, be sure to check out their Facebook and Twitter page!

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Dogs and Humans finding trust and confidence by reading

Posted on by Team Blookup

We already know that reading for ourselves has several beneficial effects. Escaping to other universes brings us solace, discovering other cultures opens our mind, we can learn, imagine, travel, ease our mind.

 But we don’t often read to others and communicate those feelings. Thus making reading a solitary hobby and, above all, a very “human” hobby.

But can reading be used to both build confidence in children and help abandonned dogs to trust humans again?

This strange-sounding question is what started the Shelter Buddies Reading Program, created by the Humane Society of Missouri.

Helping Dogs Relax !

The idea is to ask children and young people (between 6 and 15 years-old) to volunteer at the shelter in order to practice their reading and public speaking skills by reading one (or more!) book(s) to lonely dogs waiting in their kennel.

They freely decide which book(s) to read and the dog they want to read it to, they sit in front of him or her and initiate the first contact.

Girl sitting on the floor reading to a dog

Jo Ellyn Klepacki, assistant director of the Missouri Humane Society explains that the goal of the program is to get the dogs to move from the back of the kennel to the front, as dogs staying near the front of their kennel get adopted more quickly than the others. Knowing this, it’s easy to understand how slowly adjusting them to the presence of kind humans can help them trust people again and find a new loving home faster.

Boy sitting on the floor reading to a dog

“We started this for two reasons”, Klepacki adds, “Dogs in a shelter environment exhibit a lot of signs of anxiety and show stress signals, so we wanted to do something to comfort them. We have a lot of children in our area who are really engaged and they ask, ‘How can I help?’” 

Children sitting in front of dog kennels reading to them

The program benefits both dogs and the young volunteers, who are able to practice their aloud-reading skills in a safe and nonjudgmental environment. Thus also helping to tame their fear of audiences. The shelter encourages them to generally interact with the dogs as well, by talking to them and by passing them treats if they make their way to the front of the glass.

The program is a success, and you can still become a Reading Buddy now if you want to help!

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Source – Photos credits: Humane Society of Missouri, abcnews and twistedsifter

Event :”Literature Vs Traffic” in Toronto

Posted on by Team Blookup

Today we’re going back in time !  For those who, like us, have missed an impressive and ephemeral artistic installation. The one that illuminated and animated downtown Toronto during the night of October 1st, 2016.
 books-street-hagerman-toronto

The anonymous group of artists Luzinterruptus took 12 days and gathered 50 volunteers to cover Hagerman Street in downtown Toronto.All done with nearly 10,000 books, all donated by the Salvation Army. Among those, some were surprisingly old and were part of private donations.

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The main event in the streets of toronto

The installation, named “Literature vs. Traffic”, had already been illegally carried out in Madrid and New York. This time it obtained the authorization of Melbourne to perform there. The artists were invited to the event “Nuit Blanche Toronto 2016” in order to reproduce the experience.

Luzinterruptus confirms that in 5 years “The meaning of this piece has not changed as the battle between pedestrians and vehicles still goes on in most of the world’s large cities and it is hard to find real, workable solutions. Despite the efforts on the part of some cites to reduce downtown traffic, they can only go as far as to create a Car-free day ! All to have an idea as to how we would live without them”. The collective adds on its website: “We want literature to take over the streets and conquer public spaces, freely offering those passersby a traffic-free place which, for some hours, will succumb to the humble power of the written word”.

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Hagerman Street was closed for one night and replaced the come-and-go of cars by hundreds of pedestrians ! All moving between illuminated books, resulting in a magic and impressive ballet. Passers-by were free to consult the books at their own pace. They were also allowed to choose the ones they would take home in order to preserve a small piece of this lively and interactive work. It took them only 10 hours to empty the street almost completely. They finally, in the early morning, gave back the road traffic.

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Who knows, if this event comes back in a (very) distant future ?! Perhaps one day there will be blooks among a myriad of other lighted books!

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Source article – Photo credits: Lola Martínez

Story Pod : a new kind of library in Newmarket (Canada)

Posted on by wsb

Last week, we discovered the Blook and Bed Hotel, a very original hotel based in Tokyo, where bedrooms are seperated by books. This week, we are going to Canada to discover an other original concept.

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In Toronto (Canada), some people have created a library for the city of Newmarket. It is a big black cube which produces light by night thanks to the solar energy. During the day, this cube becomes a library which looks like a book. People can come over and read a book while sitting on the grass around. There are books for everyone : children, teenagers, adults… everyone will find what he wants.

This is such a good way to encourage people reading !

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