Academic Technology @ BGSU

Do you have the attention span to read an e-novel that spins its yarn in 140 character increments?

The latest edition of The New Yorker explains the new literary phenomenon in Japan: novels appearing in mobile-phone byte-sized chunks, a craze started by a young Japanese professional bored with her post-academic options.

In the U.S., fueled by the popularity of Twitter-sized communication bytes, two sites, QuillPill and Textnovel, have taken up said cause. What may be lucrative in Japan may not “translate” to American cultural radar, but there seems to be momentum to put information–and, now, “art”–in its quickest, most digestible form.

Is this a way to get your students finally to read Moby Dick, The Bell Jar, or Their Eyes Were Watching God?

Is it needed discipline or merely artificial constraint that provokes one to compose (and read) within such strictures? Is its impact to increase or reduce literacy in the digitally-saturated marketplace?

Stay tuned. Or logged-in.

Tags: 140 character, mobile novels

MIT announces “Center for Future Storytelling” under a $25 million grant from Plymouth Rock Studios, movie and tv production company. Their press release suggests:

“With the establishment of the center, whose research program begins immediately, the Media Lab and Plymouth Rock Studios will collaborate to revolutionize how we tell our stories, from major motion pictures to peer-to-peer multimedia sharing.”

Sam Leith, Literary Editor of UK’s Daily Telegraph, explains in his critique of this announcement,

“The Center for Future Storytelling is a sign of the times. The notion that the narrative arts are under threat from information overload, shrinking attention spans, text messaging, social networking sites and slam-bam CGI blockbusters is one widely given voice.”

Tags: digital storytelling