Archive for the ‘Great examples’ Category
Being immersed in Ontario – VAEO revealed
Standing on the glass floor of the observation floor of the CN tower in Toronto and looking down to the ground 342 metres below is certainly an … experience. Observing the reactions of my fellow tourists, there seemed to be three basic approaches: the ‘I’ve no need to prove anything by going and standing on that, and by the way it is much safer here on the ordinary floor’ group, the ‘I’m okay with heights and can look down easily…*@%$’ group or those who forced their shivering legs onto the awfully fragile transparent floor and got off again as swiftly as possible, whilst avoiding all downward glances like the plague.
Thankfully, the experience with VAEO at the SPARKS symposium, at the preview of the just released The Hive and Grove VAEO and the one-day ‘Introduction to Immersive Publishing’ event was as all-encompassing but in a much more pleasant way (though be warned, the forthcoming Tightrope VAEO may bring chills with it…). Watching attendees wander the corridors of The Walper Terrace Hotel as if mesmerised by the various triptychs situated around the conference site (headphones plugged in and smartphones playing the audio aspect of the enigmatic experience) brought a smile and a glint to the eye.
One thing we are noticing is that it takes a little while for newcomers to VAEO to get into the routine, to get comfortable with this new approach, but then on their fifth, sixth or seventh triptych there is a relaxing, an audible sigh and the eyes glaze over a bit as the experience begins to envelop them. As creators of the VAEO platform this is one of the most magical moments – one that shows the power of what is possible through Immersive Publishing – using books/posters/even t-shirts as gateways to realms of magical stories and enchanting encounters.
The fantastic group who participated in the one-day ‘Introduction to Immersive Publishing’ shared their own experiences of VAEO and the potential it offered to their own work as authors, creators and professionals. We are now working with many authors who are excited by the potential of Immersive Publishing and are eager to start designing their own Immersive worlds.
The CN tower just added a new terrorising experience – The Edge Walk – walking on the roof of the restaurant 116 storeys up. Perhaps it is time to offer them a VAEO, something that brings depth to all that height…
Richard
mPowr (Publishing) Ltd
Our choice… Your choice…
Al Gore’s recently published Our Choice for the iPad was widely received as a dramatic improvement to the e-book. Push Pop Press have managed to create an app framework that replicates the look of a book and also integrates pop-out images, animated diagrams and illustrations, audio and video clips. They’ve launched the interface with a very prominent and high quality title – Al Gore is recognised as a leader in the movement to address Global Warming. The title is quite impressive and the ability to swipe from page to page is, as always with the iPad, a lovely moment – it never seems to get plain and simple routine! The pop-out and full-screen images are beautiful, though frequently haunting at the same time due to the subject matter. The animated segments clarify the content and make the complex scientific data more easily digestible. Yet, for all the benefits of the app it still functions in a very rigid way – the structure is in chapters, the pages swipe from right to left sequentially and there is a linear progression of argument and description. The app is self-contained and appears to be in a fixed-and-final format.
Immersive publishing steps out of this linear mode – it recognises that access to information and story can come from many different angles. A book, a venue, a person, a flyer… these can all become portals to an experience that, if constructed in a strictly sequential manner would be merely a replication of what has come before. Our immersive titles can be accessed in a variety of ways and they can incorporate randomness, variety and unique routes through the material or story that can adapt as the immersonaut (reader) progresses. Imagine a printed book that comes with its own soundtrack and audio commentary, accessed via your smartphone, with content that changes and evolves over time so that if you read the book through one month and come back to it the next your experience might be quite different. You don’t just have to imagine it, you can get hold of it and try it for yourself as we’re already doing this with VAEO – available from Amazon US and Amazon UK.
Our Choice is an excellent work, with the imagination behind VAEO, the ability to weave multiple stories and create enchanted engagement with the reader, it could be even more effective in its goal of averting the threat to our wondrous planet.
Richard
mPowr (Publishing) Ltd
Immersive Publishing 