The Race for Space

“Sometimes when I’m careless enough to turn in my sleep or call out or twitch, I am horrified to hear the books start to slide, because it would take little more than a raised knee or a shout to bring them all down like an avalanche, a cornucopia of rare books, and squash me like a flea.”

Like the obsessive collector of knowledge, Hanta in Bohumil Hrabal’s novel, “Too Loud a Solitude” I share, a slightly more rational, but real fear of the impending possibility that I could be swamped or crushed under the sheer weight of paper I have accumulated in the form of books (mostly), magazines, photos, postcards, drawings on paper and exhibition catalogues. I sleep in a bed towered by two rather large bookcases. It is a collection that is forever growing, even now, from having just sorted through an album of some 170 photos printed and chronicled into another album to sit on top of the ever groaning and increasingly bowing bookcase shelves. I have never tested their structural integrity, but am happy to keep adding to them, long may they hold!

I paint a dramatic hyperbole and it is of course true that much of this material could be digitised and made far smaller (and safer) but my reasoning for mentioning is that somewhere in my madness lies the bigger question of how we gather, store and access knowledge and information in a world that is consistently producing.   

“It took two centuries for the Library of Congress to acquire its 29 million books and 105 million other items...today it only takes 15 minutes for the world to produce an equal amount of information in digital form.”

Where does all of this information go? What happens when that storage is full? And how much knowledge can we possibly stand to lose or even be unable to re-call if it is forever increasing? I am emphatically not suggesting the solution is one of burning or saving books as the premise of Hrabal’s novel, but for me, it does raise the foremost questions as well as the notion of the personal archive versus the public archive and how they operate differently but share a similarity in that they are both dependent on issues of space in relation to time, accumulation and editing. 

 “According to a 2007 BBC report, the Vatican library (1.5 million books on 37 miles of shelving) was literally sinking under its printed burden.”

I do not aim to answer or resolve all of these ideas in this post, but felt that I had begun collecting too many thoughts and references on the subject to ignore it completely; it is a starting point from which hopefully I will revisit themes again at a later date. The origins of this post have actually come from those photos I mentioned earlier, specifically they document a recent trip to Copenhagen where in the Architecture Centre I came across a zine all about Archives and their relationship to space and storage. Titled MAP (Manual of Architectural Possibilities) and created by David A Garcia Studios on an A1-sized folded sheet of paper, printed on both sides in a poster-style format. Each issue deals with a different theme succinctly presented through text, quotes, stats, info-graphics and graphics.

http://davidgarciastudiomap.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/map-003-open-call.html 

Sample of the layout of MAP 003 Archive 

For its size, the content and information within this zine is impressive and relevant to my current thoughts on the huge amounts of paper I personally hoard! Its utilitarian size also refers to its purpose of providing insight into the spatial implications needed for systems of organising information, i.e. collections, libraries, archives, servers etc.

“Where do we store all of this info?” being the question asked that also seems to me to be intrinsically linked to the more written about question of, “how is it stored?” Much seems to be written about systems of categorisation , less so on where it is held. According to MAP, preserving information for the future seems to be closely linked with physical issues of context and space as much as it does with the organizational systems by which information is catalogued. Not to mention, of course, political implications of the institutionalisation of knowledge, i.e. how, when, by and for who information is gathered; a question for another day! 

“From antiquity to the present, and with an exponential impetus, we have been obsessed with systematically collecting and reorganizing what in effect already exists, in its own kind of order, or disorder. This desire for control and centralisation of our environment, has no doubt aided us in the past and present. Nevertheless, some think that archives have reached such epidemic proportions that, not only has the digital revolution not been able to solve the problem, but it has in fact aggravated it. All of this, of course, occupies space, an increasingly huge amount of space.”

It was interesting to discover that,

The British Museum exhibits 1% of its total collection of 7 million items.

The British Library exhibits 3% of its total collection of 14 million items.

The MOMA exhibits 15% of its total collection of 150,000 items.

The above stats highlighting, for me, the importance of circulating what is exhibited within these collections or making what isn’t shown ,accessible in other formats; either online or per request which many of them already do. It is really a question of who decides what is shown and when and whether some things are better not shown in order to protect/preserve them? I speculate that archivists, curators and librarians will also have their own set of either institutionalised or professional criteria for selecting work to be added or displayed within collections. I do not know and am curious as to what these are, but am more interested in the idea of what a creative or artistic practice could bring to the process of archiving that perhaps these other professions lack or are prohibited in some way from doing.   

I’m fascinated by the idea of archiving but I carry the suspicious mind of one who is easily bored: that dares to suggest that the very act of making an archive is already an admission of creative defeat...Others will argue that the very process of making the archive, devising the system...is in itself totally creative...What if the day-to-day circumstances may not be as neat as the parametric analysis? –Peter Cook

Inside The Black Diamond in Copenhagen

Artist as archivist, artists working with archives? Architect or designer as archivist? I am fascinated at the idea of a sort-of cross-pollination of disciplines between an artistic practice with its parameters of looking, deconstruction and analysis from a creative perspective could work with more traditional archiving systems. This isn’t the same as artists using archiving as a way of making work, this is about artists working with existing archives and what they could bring to how these collections are accessed and/or interpreted. Surely there is a need for creative solutions to future challenges faced by ever increasing demand for space in relation to what is being stored? It marks a shift in my own attitude from how I have had an art practice heavily centred on ‘producing’ and its capitalist implications of making a physical art work with the intent of owning/selling it; over to one of ‘engaging’ and working with things that are already in existence. I do not have a problem with either but feel that there is something more sustainable about the latter. Perhaps I also feel some responsibility to not keep adding to the pile as to working with what already exists...  

In an interview about, Collection (not) as curation: how exhibitions are different from libraries, artist and librarian, Andrew Beccone explains how collecting can function as interpretation,

“Absolutely, but many libraries don’t have the freedom to approach their own collections from such a standpoint. One of the things that I find interesting about the current trend of independent libraries is the attention that they often call to collection-as-interpretation.”

I think Beccoone’s statement implies  that by allowing more control in a curatiorial sense of what is admitted and omitted within a collection can become a means by which collections can be interpreted by what is in them and how it is organised. This seems to me a similar process to that of curating, when art objects are [collected] and [organised] into a new system, in other words exhibition, from which they can gain new meaning and interpretation as a whole as well as individual works within a bigger concept. The problem with the library as a collection is whether it becomes more about the overall interpretation or the sum of its parts?

He does however acknowledge that there is some overlap between the two,

“In library-speak, those who are responsible for acquiring materials and shaping collections are known as collection development librarians. These are probably the closest corollary to curators in librarianship, but there’s a difference (and this is speaking very broadly because there is an incredible range of conditions within which both librarians and curators operate), for instance, between a curator who is able to assemble a group of artists based on a particular idea of his or her own choosing, and say, a collection development librarian at a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library who is “curating” a collection based on a concrete set of criteria such as the demographics of the neighborhood, the library’s own circulation statistics, or some institutional policy.”

I know that I am skimming the answers to many of the points raised here, but part of the way to solving or addressing them is in recognising them, the future of the archive in relation to space is highly topical and one I think will become increasingly important in years to come. MAP offers one last and final insight into future storage possibilities, 

The brain has also been discussed as a medium of data storage and it has been estimated that the brain has the equivalent digital capacity of 1-1000 terabytes…1 terabyte is the equivalent to 50,000 trees made into paper and printed...

Occupationally speaking, having worked as a Bookseller, now, within a Library and in my spare time continuing to make works on paper as an artist, it seems and I hope that my own relationship with collections both physical and digital is set to continue. Of course, as long as there is space!

Quotes and Images sourced from: http://davidgarciastudiomap.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/map-003-open-call.html & https://hyperallergic.com/57475/interview-reanimation-library-andrew-beccone/

Happy World Book Night 2014!

Is it unusual to travel for two hours on a train just to visit a library? Perhaps, if it was an ordinary library but then Birmingham Central Library is anything but ordinary.

Like a giant box of Ferrero Rocher, Christmas present or Islamic garden trellis the ornate aluminium facade of Birmingham Library is impressive and certainly eye-catching, if not also accused of being a little gaudy. Never being one to shy away from matters of taste (in probably not having any myself) and whilst recovering in the lull of post Amsterdam festivities it seemed the right time to pay a visit and reach my own conclusion. Even more appropriate timing too if you consider that it was designed by a Dutch architect, Francine Houben.

 Libraries are fantastic places, period. Whether they’re old or new, rundown, in a village, town, city or touring in the back of a bus they're still full of wonder, potential, magic and the source of much delight and contemplation. This is largely due to them being full of books, acting as temples for books, palaces for books. Rarely is it the actual building itself that inspires but more the sheer accumulation of books, the knowledge, histories and stories they hold all in one place.  It is the idea of the library, a wealth of collective and shared knowledge that is debatably, in many ways as uplifting as a place of worship (or it can be). Equally, I’d agree that books really do furnish a room and unless you’re incredibly wealthy where else are you going to see thousands of books, that you have the freedom to access, all in one place other than a public library? Is it therefore the books that make the library or can the library itself as a building, a construct, a symbol for knowledge, learning, discovery, discussion, debate etc. be as important (if not more so) than the books themselves? More on that later....

 Being in the business of supposedly selling as many books as possible it may seem counterproductive, to those not within the world of bookselling, to speak so highly or fondly of libraries as though we should regard them as the enemy. I’m pretty confident that this is not the attitude of most booksellers and I speak for myself in saying that it is impossible not to have a respect for libraries and what they offer, not to mention unsustainable when anything that encourages and promotes reading can only be considered as a good thing for both parties (economically and ethically). Most libraries I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting have been old (in one sense or another), New York Central Library, the British Library, the Bodleian (Oxford), the Rijksmuseum Library, Bristol library and even Taunton library, which whilst obviously is no way near as old or grand as the Bodleian is still fairly old (despite renovations it’s still the same building)... well in fact, what was the Old Library is now a pub, but that’s a whole other story.

  Birmingham library is on the other hand, very shiny and new, opened in September 2013 and costing an estimated 188.8 million! All that money didn’t just go on a lavish exterior, the innards are not only as impressive architecturally, but are where the real workings of the building happen and substance lies. Point already made, libraries are awesome places so imagine (what is claimed to be) the biggest library in Britain and one of the biggest in the world, ten floors including archives, collections a gallery and more. It doesn’t yet live up to the dusty, established neglect that, sort-of lovingly stereotypes many of the aforementioned older libraries, but this is not a criticism.

In fact, with the history of ‘the book’ as a piece of technology having until recently remained relatively unchanged for hundreds of years, now being under more threat/pressure to change with the arrival of digital or e-books, there is never a better time to re-kindle (pardon the pun) our investment into books, how we store them share them, access them. What do libraries of the future look like? Do they contain physical books? Do they become data storage banks? And how do any of those changes affect how we interact with those books and/or that information? The building of Birmingham library has almost coincided at the beginning of this unfolding debate and how people choose to use it will influence, in some way, what future role libraries will have.

At some point in the design process for Birmingham library someone must have had the idea that what current libraries are missing are curves, we spent so long trying to create storage solutions suited for housing books that most libraries since the Bodleian onwards has became very square and boxy. The building itself on the outside is very square and made of different levels with outside seating/gardens on three different floors. If not for the overlapping circular motif cladding the building it would be a tiered box. Besides, looking around the rest of Birmingham’s architecture it seems to be in-keeping with a theme of curves throughout from the spotted rotund Selfridges building to the renowned Floozy in the Jacuzzi (don’t take my word for it!).  

On a practical level, squares are fine, they’re very utilitarian, but there’s nothing like the sweeping round atrium space inside the library filled with shelves and more shelves of books to break convention and draw one’s attention. Naturally too, many of us didn’t even know what an atrium was until after the millennium when suddenly every corporate building, institute and public space decided that what they lacked in business acumen and reputation could be made up for with an impressive, costly and oversized hole in the middle of their existing building (not mentioning anywhere I may have been in particular...). The bigger the hole it seemed, the more productive and industrious the business...but...uh, back to the library. Thankfully the atrium here works well at opening up the space without being too daunting as it is broken up by levels of escalators that beckon you to explore and see where they lead. It’s like being inside a spaceship...or an airport, depending on your age and imagination. However the promise of being transported both literally by the escalator and in the literary sense by the books themselves is a clever effect.

On each level and away from the traffic central atrium is what you’d come to expect from a library, quiet, rows of shelves, seating areas (really comfy might I add), natural lighting (each floor is surrounded by windows), information terminals and tables but with the added thoughtfulness of having these tables positioned facing windows all around the edges of each floor so people sat can look-out/view over the city acts as an important reminder to the context of the library, the city in which it resides and its people. The outside-in is exploited again with an outside garden/seating area on two different levels with views overlooking the city making the library not only a place of study but a social one.

Whilst books may still be my main reason for going to a library what makes Birmingham Library so special and different is the building itself. It does everything a library should do, whilst being an exciting, modern and intriguing place to visit, to socialise in its own right. Without knowing too much about it, I think that good architectural design should make you want to explore the building and it should inspire without being inaccessible. For these reasons Birmingham Library feels like an inclusive, active, motivational place to be as in different ways so do many other libraries. When a library is designed with this in mind, it enhances the books but also invites an audience of people to use the library’s other resources such as film, music, archives, internet, gallery, cafe etc.  What Birmingham library signifies is the last recent significant investment into a public cultural place and if it is successful (as it appears to be so far) then it is an example of what good design and investment can do to encourage and raise the use of all libraries. 

In the run-up to and after the opening of Birmingham Library in 2013 there were many closures of local public libraries throughout the country with many still under continued threat of closure since. This isn't new news or even a call to arms, just a thought that perhaps we all need to do more to show the Government and our Local Authorities that our libraries are not merely storage facilities for books but are unique in being one of the only places where anyone can go and choose to be in solitude and study or meet and connect with other people regardless of their age, wealth, religion, race etc. For this reason alone and many more too numerous to mention they should be protected, looked-after and cherished. I sincerely hope Birmingham Library acts as a positive example of what good investment can do and encourage investment in developing future/existing libraries and or cultural spaces. The timing of its build when so many smaller libraries were closed isn't ideal circumstances but its legacy could yet prove beneficial to the future of other libraries. 

Going back to my earlier point, if books do become completely digitised in the next hundred years then we shouldn’t be overly concerned, as long as there are people who want to read them and there are people writing then that is a good thing. To read is to be empowered, to be enlightened, to be informed, so it doesn’t matter so much the format that reading takes as to where we access it being the thing of crucial importance. How authors, publishers and booksellers within this industry adapt to promote digital books and make profit from them is the debate that is ongoing. Going back to libraries it is a question of what is the role of a library without books and if those books are digital how do you engage with people and make them aware of what they can access and how? It is difficult to browse a digital database so often things that are often the most useful can be left unseen. I find it reassuring that there is a lot needs to change and improve with how we manage and access digital books before this will/if ever happen.

Until then, there’s the library.

Happy World Book night!