[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-doing-my-bit-for-london-2012":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"\u003Cb>Is London on target for the Olympics?\u003C/b> Well, the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.discover.org.uk/\">Discover Children's Story Centre\u003C/a> is! Lying in the shadow of the Olympic Park, they've set up a whole programme of interactive storytelling, called StoryCloud, as part of the \u003Ca href=\"http://festival.london2012.com/events/9000961749\">London 2012 Festival\u003C/a> cultural olympiad, open to kids everywhere to add their drawing and writing online!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sarah_target-74dc7284b7.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSo on Saturday, I threw on my sports gear and raced down to Olympicsland to do my bit. For London. FOR THE WORLD.\\r\n \\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sarah_olympics-d43cab31c7.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSo while writer and my project colleague Philip Ardagh welcomed visiting dignitaries (what is a dignitary?), celebrities and heads of state, I led a big pack of excited kids in the Discover centre in bout of \u003Ci>Down the Plughole\u003C/i>-themed storytelling.  \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_bath-095b2d4812.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSince so much of StoryCloud is an online storytelling experience, I thought I'd use some of the bits and bobs I'd come up with, which hadn't been used for the interactive illustration, to create a sort of primitive slideshow animation. There was one little boy in the front, in an orange t-shirt, who went into absolute laughing hysterics when our character, Morris, got a sponge squeezed over his head, which was most heartening. Anyway, here's a rough approximation of what we did, although it was me reading, not Philip. (Hear Philip read the whole story, karaoke-style, over on the website, \u003Ca href=\"http://storycloud.co.uk\">storycloud.co.uk\u003C/a>.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"1878\"/>\\r\n\\r\nThen we thought about the kinds of things Morris might encounter down the plughole, and the kids helped me design a 'Sewergator'. Isn't it charming?\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sarah_draw-c34bf63d39.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for more under the cut!-->\\r\nThey also helped me come up with a comic, which made perfect sense on the day, but now seems slightly fragmented. Drawing comics to order in front of lots of people is a challenging past-time.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sarah_comic-b1ef4790b9.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThen the kids came up with their own ideas about the things Morris would encounter down there. I might create my own fan art for this image by one kid, it's great. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/plughole_pic4-4da9de18f2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIt really was all happening that day, here's the Olympic Torch procession passing the Discover centre just minutes before our event. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/Discover_olympic_torch-7fe247cbfd.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n...And would you look at that! Ha ha, I got to carry the torch for a whole 23 seconds. (Yes I did, of course I did.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/storycloud_sarah_torch-752b1097a9.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd then Stuart and I went for a wander around the Olympic Park, to inspect. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/stratford_olympicpark-d0dee6ad35.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe didn't get to go up Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond's \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArcelorMittal_Orbit\">Olympic tower\u003C/a>, but we'd quite like to.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/stratford_olympic_tower-6f756558ad.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThe view from the skybridge inside Westfield:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/stratford_olympic_park-cdcb43c640.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd hey, cool artwork in next-door Stratford tube station. Love the 'taches!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/stratford_tube_murals-4baba6bc71.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nA few more sewer beasties from our Discover crew. Families, get out your drawing supplies, click over to the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.storycloud.co.uk/\">StoryCloud website\u003C/a>, browse the stories, and decide which one you want to add to! And there are more stories on their way by some of the biggest names in British kid lit, a new one every Monday.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/plughole_pic2-58030bb9b8.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/plughole_anastasia-51517a3f2c.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/plughole_pic3-17bd547337.jpg\">","2012-07-22T15:32:00.000Z","doing-my-bit-for-london-2012",[],"doing my bit for london 2012",1776628724015]