This is the second 'future of libraries' talk I have been to in the last few months. Was good, relevant and I was going to do a write up but this lovely librarian has done such a good job I thought it would be best to just link to his!
http://thoughtsofawannabelibrarian.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/no-furniture-so-charming-the-future-for-libraries/
It was part of the London Word Festival which is on at the moment. Several things I wanted to go to but can't afford to go to them all and almost all of them are ticketed. . . shame in this climate that there were not more free events.
SFCB Blog & Tumblr
I'm loving this blog right now. this post in particular: http://sfcb.org/blog/2011/04/10/books-and-bookboxes-by-joanne-b-kaar/
Check it out if you love book arts.
Also; after Ronnie started her Tumblr blog I decided it was cool and started one too; good for shouting out about little links etc.... come follow us both; mine is here: http://everyweekness.tumblr.com/
Check it out if you love book arts.
Also; after Ronnie started her Tumblr blog I decided it was cool and started one too; good for shouting out about little links etc.... come follow us both; mine is here: http://everyweekness.tumblr.com/
Warburg's Mnemosyne Atlas
Aby Warburg was an art historian, but he was also interested in how historians researched art and so set up his own library; this was organised in a very unique way, not by subject or alphabetically but by affinities that only he was able to explain in any detail. His big unfinished project was the Mnemosyne Atlas which was an extension of his strange and different library classification scheme. As you can see from the images below he created panels covered in black cloth to which he pinned photographs and postcards. A visual research board where certain paintings related to each other; where images had relationships with each other that they might not otherwise have had. 
These boards were always only meant to be the start of the project, eventually he wanted to create some kind of book to explain his theories. This never happened as he died and then the boards were lost when his colleagues were fleeing the Nazi's; as with Kurt Schwitters' lifelong project the Merzbau, only the photographs remain.
While working on this BAO project I have been drawn back to Warburg's project and the way it shows how a researcher thinks and works; making connections between seemingly unrelated images, events, theories, ideas etc... So as a 'page' of this archive book I want to stage a photograph of Miss Emma Robinson, my made up researcher at her research desk, behind the desk will be her research wall, looking very similar to one of Warburg's Mnemosyne panels. Here it is so far; I am building it up in my studio as we speak:
From Link to Link
Not feeling well today so I've been in bed jumping from link to link. This series of links started here at Stitchwork Jackie's blog and this led me onto Susan Mills (book artist) wonderful website which has some wonderful little videos of her books; my favourite of hers is Garden Ledger. While searching her website I found a link to her project with Full Tilt where she interviews artists and others about books and bookbinding: http://www.bookbindingnow.com/ I started listening to the interview with The Reanimation Library which of course led me onto their website;
The Reanimation Library is a small, independent library based in Brooklyn. It is a collection of books that have fallen out of mainstream circulation. Outdated and discarded, they have been culled from thrift stores, stoop sales, and throw-away piles across the country and given new life as resource material for artists, writers, and other cultural archeologists.
This is a really intriguing project which I am sure I will come back to when I start researching for my MA.
I also listened to the Emily Speed interview, which reminded me to check her website again as I haven't been on there recently. I noticed in her news section that she is part of an exhibition soon called Texture of Time which I will have to go to as it also includes another artist I like; Joby Williamson.
Lots to think about now and more link exploring, as well as sneezing, I am sure!
This is a really intriguing project which I am sure I will come back to when I start researching for my MA.
I also listened to the Emily Speed interview, which reminded me to check her website again as I haven't been on there recently. I noticed in her news section that she is part of an exhibition soon called Texture of Time which I will have to go to as it also includes another artist I like; Joby Williamson.
Lots to think about now and more link exploring, as well as sneezing, I am sure!
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