Building Words in Minecraft: Bursary 2015, Diary 2
Victoria Bennett and Adam Clarke
Posted • filed under Experience.
|
Victoria Bennett and Adam Clarke form one of two teams we are supporting through the 2015 Writing Platform Bursary Programme, in association with Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.
Victoria’s and Adam’s project uses Minecraft to immerse the player in the experience of a poem and expand the idea of what literature and video games can be. They are documenting the evolution of their project and their collaboration through a series of video diaries recorded in Minecraft.
In this first diary Adam and Victoria share their early ideas for the project – how they might go about building worlds from words, how players might experience and play with story in Minecraft, and draw interesting parallels between writing and building. As Victoria says:
“we started talking about how does that blank world relate to the blank page? As a writer, when I approach a blank page, I’m thinking, ‘what am I creating here?’ Each word that I place down is like a block, and this relates to how we create a world block by block within Minecraft”
We are also supporting Kelly Jones and Linda Sandvik through the bursary programme. Their project is inspired by Kelly’s parents meeting on illegal CB Radio and uses physical computing to explore the ideas of connection and intimacy, ephemerality and permanence. You can read their first diary post here.
Victoria Bennett is a poet, creative activist and full time home-educating mum, living in rural Eden, Cumbria. She is the Founder and Editor of Wild Women Press and Blissfool Books, she has facilitated creative experiences for the past 20 years, including the Wild Women Workshops and Salons. Winner of the Northern Promise Award and the Andrew Waterhouse Award for Poetry, Victoria has published 4 collections of poetry and performed live across the UK, including Glastonbury Festival.
Adam Clarke is an artist who uses Minecraft, games, traditional art and technology to inspire and entertain, working globally with institutions, museums, schools and companies to find groundbreaking ways to interact with a young game playing demographic. He has worked across the UK providing workshops, experiential events and talks to inspire and engage and also produces online YouTube Channel “101 Ideas for Minecraft Learners” and “Everyday Minecraft”. His current project, Tateworlds, is a series of playable Minecraft maps where the player can literally explore and interact with famous artworks from the Tate collection.