On Saturdays February 22 and 29, 2020, TOPO is offering a workshop on the challenges of digital books, with speakers from the industry who have produced digital works and been through the entire process of creation, editing, distribution and marketing. The 14-hour workshop, spread over two weekends, offers an overview of the situation. It also aims to bring together people who are interested in the subject and who are likely to collaborate together on the creation of new projects.
With the rise of digital culture, the publishing world is trying to make its mark with a diversity of books that are more or less interactive and media-rich. Basically, a static PDF file is a digital publication. But if we add links, sound and video files, annotation capabilities, an animated home page, a non-linear navigation mode, a paper book with digital animations triggered by a digital tablet or phone, downloadable modules to add to the narrative, or any other interactive function, the "book" becomes a complex media work, a virtual entity with variable configuration and multiple, poorly understood issues.
Detailed Program
February 22nd
// 10 h – 10 h 30
Round table and presentation
// 10 h 30 – 12 h 15
Typology of digital literature experiments
Prune Lieutier, founder and managing director of La puce à l'oreille and independent researcher
Subjects : Typologies of genres in digital literature: presentation of a non-exhaustive overview of the different forms of literature that exist in the digital domain, from PDF to augmented reality applications, including dynamic PDF, Epub formats, enriched books, voice recognition and more.
// 13 h 15 – 15 h 15
Technological and entrepreneurial innovation
Jonathan Belisle, conceptor. wuxia.ca
Subjects : Creating for interactivity, innovating with technology, integrating augmented reality, inventing a business model, selling to school boards, developing interactive devices, etc.
// 15 h 30 – 16 h 45
The challenges of creating and distributing a multimedia book
Ugo Monticone, writer and lecturer, ogu.ca
Subjects : writing for the digital book, organizing content management (text, audio and video), directing production, overseeing design and integration, working in a team, managing marketing through distribution platforms, building and mastering your profile, and more.
// 16 h 45 – 17 h 30
Discussion and consultation of digital titles
February 29th
// 10 h – 10 h 30
Round table and presentation
// 10 h 30 – 12 h 15
Finding your way through the maze of formats and platforms
Fabrice Marcoux, book producer (LUX, Poètes de brousse) and digital publishing consultant
Subjects : definition and properties of digital books, forms of publication (Epub 2 and 3 and their uses, LaTeX, IBook, AZW, Nook, etc.), modes of production, access and distribution of online and offline books, overview of distribution platforms, metadata and discoverability.
// 13 h 15 – 15 h 00
Challenges in production, design and ergonomics
Isabelle Gagnédigital artist and graphic designer, isabellegagne.ca
Subjects design and integration, file management and preparation, platform-related content constraints, epub production tools, standard and customized interaction modes, teamwork, etc.
// 15 h 15 – 16 h 15
Pushing back the boundaries of the art book
Jhave – glia.ca and Anteism Books – anteism.com
Subjects : generative writing and artificial intelligence, renewed forms of the art book, monographs, catalogs and artists' books as creative extensions of installations, issues of durability and the search for a universal platform for digital books, etc.
// 16 h 15 – 16 h 45
Does reality augment?
Philippe Collard, Digital producer (887)
Subjects Book 887, published as a companion piece to Robert Lepage's play of the same name, a perceptual shift between printed page, sound, video, animation, 3D, etc.
// 16 h 45 – 17 h 30
Discussion and consultation of digital titles
