Fantasies of the Library - Etienne Turpin (ed.), Anne-Sophie Springer (ed.)

Notes

Abstract

"The intercalations: paginated exhibition series is an experimental foray exploring the structure of the book as a potential curatorial space. As the reader-as-exhibition-viewer moves through the book-as-exhibition, she discovers that the erratic intercalations of the Anthropocene invite new forms of literacy, visuality, inquiry, and speculation that are, in the words of Clarice Lispector, less promiscuous than they are kaleidoscopic."

"Fantasies of the Library is a sequence of pages wherein the reader-as-exhibition- viewer learns—rather surprisingly, but with growing conviction—that the library is not only a curatorial space, but that its bibliological imaginary is also a fertile territory for the exploration of consequential paginated affairs."

How the a physical organization influence of a bookshelf can influence it's digital version

"Inspired by Aby Warburg’s “law of the good neighbor” the Prelinger Library’s organization does not follow conventional classification systems such as the Dewey Decimal System. Instead it was custom-designed by Megan Shaw Prelinger in a way that would allow visitors to browse and encounter titles by accident or, better yet, by good fortune. Furthermore, somewhat evoking the shifts in magni - tudes at play in Charles and Ray Eames’s Powers of Ten (1977) the shelves’ contents are arranged according to a geospatial model departing from the local—material specifically originating from or dealing with San Francisco—and ending with the cosmic—where books on both outer space and science fiction are combined with the more ethereal realms of math, religion, and philosophy. " p.2

"The library is divided into two major parts: the open bookshelves, and the boxed ephemera collection. The geospatial arrangement system is duplicated in both places, but only the bookshelves offer surprising juxtapo-sitions. The flow of subjects within the geospatial arrangement system is described in some detail on our site www.prelingerlibrary.org/home/collection. " p.4

"The browsing experience of physical bookshelves—and even of the web—is so absorbing, but our digital archives and libraries still struggle to serve browsers and wanderers. How can we create absorbing browsing experiences in formal collections of digital works?" p.4

The book as a minitaure gallery/exhibition space

" One potential vector would examine the role of individual publications as adjacent or primary exhibition spaces, where single exemplary books and their interiors could be examined as if they were miniature galleries. By parsing the differences and correlations between the objecthood and content of books within practices such as the artistic, editorial, design, and curatorial, one could gain valuable insights about the latter as the youngest and most hybrid of these practices in a dynamic field of production.4" p.5-6

The library as a public place of reading

" If the book is traditionally seen as the preferred medium for private consumption and research, and the gallery is understood as the space for public exhibition and performance, the library—as the public place of reading—is thus a hybrid site for performing the book." p.6

Library vs Exhibition Space = Use vs Display

"Among these, perhaps one of the most fundamental is that the library’s primary function privileges use over display and presentation, whereas museums and archives normally store objects and in-formation only after the time of their utility has expired." p.9

Book-theme exhibitions

"Just as alternative curatorial modes and methodologies have become popular for museums, book-themed exhibitions in gallery spaces have become a rather widespread phenome-non. Exhibitions such as The Feverish Library (2012), a group exhibition held at Petzel Gallery in New York, have presented artworks that address the multifaceted and longstanding cul-tural significance of books, especially by considering their recent attractiveness and shifted general value in the face of digital technology. The exhibition The Whole Earth (2013), held at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, is another exam-ple of a recent show that essentially unfolded from a publica-tion—but also, at least partly, performed itself as a book (or textbook). " p.11