Annie Shaw has invited artists Jen Kennedy & Liz Linden, Marie Lorenz, Michelle Rosenberg, Angie Waller, along with architect Lori Brown, librarian A.G. Graham and information scientist Nate Hill to construct a civic, non-commercial public space in the form of a summer library at DAC for the Dumbo neighborhood. The project invites contemplation on how the function of libraries, their physical space, and their role within communities is changing with the migration to digital form of the content libraries have traditionally housed.
For (The Missing Library), Marie Lorenz fills in a gap of missing information by establishing the first free online tide chart of the New York harbor, providing a useful tool for new DIY boat builders, a part of her continuous effort to alter our perception of New York as a vertical city. Jen Kennedy and Liz Linden carve out an enclave in the library dedicated to arranging a wide array of materials to be considered in a feminist context. Their collection is established through exchange rather than expansion – library users are encouraged to bring their own materials to swap for items in the collection, redefining what is presented as essentially feminist in each rotation.
On the topic of compiling learning and knowledge, Angie Waller invites the reader to search for things she doesn't know she doesn't know. By generating her own system of Unknown Unknowns, the project promotes questioning rather than answering. The puzzle continues with Michelle Rosenberg, who turns the site into Median time 11 min, in which words plucked from the environment are encoded in an idiosyncratic alphabet of objects.
In the reference section of the library, architect Lori Brown and web librarian Nate Hill present their research materials for two proposed libraries: Matilda Joslyn Gage Library and DUMBO Library. Matilda Joslyn Gage was an influential activist who has been largely left out of feminist history. The proposal for the DUMBO Library will be presented as a model for Library Outpost, an approach highlighting information resources and community services without the traditional function of collecting and lending books.
Annie Shaw further transforms the project's architectural context by constructing a series of bookshelves and reading tables, built with used materials collected from past DAC exhibitions. These architectural and sculptural components are intended to be repurposed into future administrative support systems for the DAC office. The project gallery will be used as a screening room, showing films that are set in libraries or about librarians, based on researches done by the Movie Librarian A.G. Graham.
To encourage further conversations, the public is invited to a series of free programs:
Thursday, June 30: The Tide and Current workshop with Marie Lorenz
Thursday, July 7: Lori Brown on Matilda Joslyn Gage Library & Nate Hill on DUMBO Library
Saturday, July 30: "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" a discussion with Liz Linden and Jen Kennedy
Thursday August 4: Family Feud, game night with Angie Waller
Lori Brown has developed a practice that focuses on the relationships between architecture and social justice issues, with emphasis on gender and its impact upon spatial relationships. Two projects she has recently been working on include a local women’s shelter renovation and designing a roaming bus providing internet and community space for the Seneca Nation. Her current book project explores how highly securitized spaces, legislation, and the First Amendment affect places such as abortion clinics, domestic shelters, and hospitals to be published by Ashgate in 2012. She teaches at Syracuse University.
Nate Hill is a web librarian for the San Jose Public Library. Before that, he worked at the Brooklyn Public Library for a decade. His experience as a graphic designer provides him a unique perspective on the library's web services. During his time in New York, he developed projects such as the DUMBO Library Outpost, the Greenpoint Poetry Sites Project, as well as some unique programming for the Bushwick Library. Currently he is doing design and development work on 'Scan Jose', a mobile history app that connects library patrons with historic photographs on their mobile devices, and most recently he has joined a team working with the Harvard Library Innovation Lab to create a beta sprint entry that will inform the Digital Public Library of America project.
A.G. Graham is a library scientist who holds an MLIS degree from the University of South Florida, and a doctorate in Library & Information Studies from Florida State University. She is the author of Movie Librarians: Notable Library and Librarians in Film, a website dedicated to the subject of librarian image in pop culture.
For the past three years, Jen Kennedy and Liz Linden have been collaborating on an interdisciplinary investigation looking at the relationship between contemporary feminism and contemporary art. Their projects have been exhibited internationally and across New York at The Sackler Center for Feminist Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The New Museum, among other public and private institutions.
Marie Lorenz has been ferrying passengers around New York’s waterways since 2005. She calls the project The Tide and Current Taxi because instead of a diesel engine, she uses the tidal currents in the Harbor to propel her homemade boat. Her work has been shown at High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree, California and at Artists Space, in New York. She has completed solo projects at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England; Artpace in San Antonio, Texas; and Jack Hanley Gallery, New York.
Michelle Rosenberg creates acoustic sound devices and architectural environments that encourage collaboration among strangers Her work has exhibited in galleries including Exit Art and Parkers Box in New York; Western Exhibitions in Chicago; and Small a Projects in Portland, Oregon. Michelle has recently lectured on the history of listening devices for Dorkbot at Location One in New York.
Annie Shaw organizes projects that combine collaborative and curatorial strategies. Her work often intervenes with systems of exchange, through which the public is asked to examine the disparities among commercial, sentimental, aesthetic and personal notions of community. She founded the five-year project space Leefahsalung at the New China Town Barbershop, and co-founded the first participatory archive on the Ambassador Hotel – both significant yet vanished sites in Los Angeles. Annie’s major projects have been featured in spaces like UnSmoke Systems in Braddock, Pennsylvania; La Casa Enciendida, Madrid; and Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles.
Angie Waller works with a variety of media including books, videos, web sites and installations. Her projects use data mining techniques to establish patterns and create narratives that critique situations of personal identity in the everyday. She has been an artist resident with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Center for Book Arts, SOMA Mexico City and The Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Her work has been exhibited at The New Museum, Sundance Film Festival, and The Bronx Museum, among other museums and festivals.
Special thanks to Katie Capri, Center for Book Arts, Ana Cordeiro, Shalea Harris, James Leritz at Kiln Design Studio, Hannah Mandel, Katherine McLeod, Sarah Nicholls, Elmer Stunkel, Surroundart, Naama Tsabar, Jason Zevin, and Raphael Zollinger.
|
