Japanese Fiddler On the Roof
Not lost in translation!
Reinventing Books for the 21st Century
It is interesting that what we are witnessing right now is just simply the digitization of books formerly printed in paper. For over 500 years, books have been written and conceived with Gutenberg’s guidelines in mind (Gutenberg is the inventor of the mechanical printing press).
But since the advent of computers and now of the Internet, so many new possibilities have emerged - and yet the printed world has barely changed. The advent of the Kindle, the iPad and other portable reading devices has so far simply resulted in turning analog print into digital print, while keeping the same linear prose format.
If you stop to think about it, we are stuck in one model that, while beautiful and applicable for much good, is certainly not the only model to serve all potential needs that books can serve.
Over the coming years, the whole way we think of e-books and just "books" will probably change. One day it will not be "surprising" to read, within a book, interactive pictures and images akin to the ones you see in Harry Potter movies - those quirky 3D moving photos within the wizards’ magical newspapers.
And it is also quite conceivable, indeed likely, that multimedia forms will reinvent how we do storytelling and how we provide information. Why stick to just prose, or just music, or just newspaper, or just video? Why not create new models for information that combine elements of them all?
Why assume that a linear story is best? Why think that a book is necessarily different from a video-game? Someone will come up with a book that merges some elements of a game with different endings. Analog examples already exist. And digital multiple-choice endings already exist. But we have not even begun exploring all the new possibilities presented by electronic "readers."
And why assume that a book needs to first be written and published, then read, then auctioned off to a Hollywood producer who then helps create a movie version of the movie? Someone will surely create a way to inform or entertain that combines elements of both - and more.
The potential for reinvention of the "book" is so far totally untapped.
Starbucks Love Project - 156 Countries Join at once
Very much in OneVoice, and very much with a sentiment like that of the KIND Movement, Starbucks bested all videos I got this season with this awesome compilation (which I received from Jason Alexander): musicians and ordinary citizens across the world joined on the same day at the same time to sing the same song:
Among all of KIND’s retail partners, Starbucks certainly ranks among the classiest, most professional and most sincerely committed to truly make this a better world. In this case the above is part of a partnership with Project RED to fight AIDS.
Another Impromptu Art Form - in the Valencia Market
This is another in a series (see prior examples here and here) of magical uses of art in real life situations - which accentuates all that is good about art and about life - and can be a phenomenal marketing tool:
Tech & Entertainment for a New gen
Further to my earlier post about Apple’s cool ads, I got hooked on the songs in there and tried to find the original videos. For Chairlift-Bruises I came across the video immediately below and was struck by it. It seemed so cutting edge and professional, yet so casual and young (uncomfortably so for my wife - and I can understand why as a parent I’d also be concerned). Was it possible that kids did this on their own? Or was the video director so sophisticated as to make it look so down-to-earth? It turns out it was all done by an 8th grader who is quickly building a following. And it’s actually far better than the official video! You factor in these considerations and you understand why we are just in the beginning of what will be a revolution in content generation, with repercussions for business, culture and society that we cannot begin to comprehend.
Apple does it again!
Check out this new ad from Apple for their new iPod nano with video. How is it that the Apple team ALWAYS gets ahead of all trends and pop culture and sets the tone for advertising coolness and standards? Everything in this ad is so perfect - colors, steps, shots, all.
The song on the ad is Bourgeois Shangri-La from Miss Li.
This earlier ad from Apple - with the song Bruises by Chairlift - is also awesome.
Surprise Public Performance in Antwerp
Nice idea for a social enterprise to build a guerrilla marketing campaign on:
Quote of the Week: Art and Truth
Art is a lie. A lie that makes us realize the truth.
- Pablo Picasso
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Enterpreneurial Social Ventures
