ADD TO MY LIBRARY VOL.II Bibliographic Data Flow ©christinamitrentse11

ADDING LIGHT- BOOKMARKS TO MY LIBRARY

NIGHT IN THE STUDIO ……ADDING MEMORY TO THE LIBRARY ITSELF (CONSTRUCTING A FLOOR PLAN..….

I have started constructing a Floor Plan for my Library influenced by the structure of the old Alexandrina Library , other ancient Libraries and comparing it with contemporary public Libraries build nowdays. The Library of Alexandria by the time of Ptolemy III there were two libraries, the major one, and a daughter library located in the sanctuary of the temple to the god Serapis.These were not ‘lending’ libraries as we known them in today, but rather, places where scrolls could be stored and where people could come to study them. Thus, these libraries consisted of large central rooms where scholars could read, and smaller ante-rooms, or even niches where the scrolls were kept (images found below.

LIGHT /SPACE /Education

During my MA studies I studied in some of the world’s most renowned libraries, such as the inspiring library of the British Museum,where supposedly the dream and the horror of communism was born, or the much smaller but significant library of Chelsea College of A&D. Their difference in size was immense, but there was a common denominator shared by almost all the classical style libraries: that was their dark atmosphere, spot lights only, hardly any sound, only whispering, visually you were surrounded by stacks of mostly leather bound books. You were meant to be glued to your seat over your book. One had the feeling of being in a monastic setting with editions of the Bible, the Greek tragedies and other heavy volumes of sacred wisdom and Art. Libraries were conceived as castles of learning, education and ancient wisdom, as if education by default had to be directed backwards. And above all, the seriousness.The results of this sterile and serious paradigm of human learning, whether in Oxford, or Harvard ultimately sanctioned by the “religions of the book” from 2000 to 2500 years ago and not derived from “religions of personal experience”, are not encouraging: Seems the 20th and 21st century was the bloodiest in human history.

Shall we build completely new institutions for educationincluding libraries?. we need freedom from religion, from all socalled “divine” teachings! We need light! Modern brain scientists say that it might be too late to initiate such new paradigm of learning at the level of higher education, our universities. The cultural hypnoses of different countries are usually fully accomplished before the age of 14. That is the age when the human mind is most pliable. The basic cultural hypnosis of any country, or what we refer as “education” is finished by that age. After that age human intelligence in most cases seems to stop growing. Thus, the new human being has to be created between birth and the age of 14.

Plans…….???????

The form and setting. I believe the role of the artist, more than of anyone else, gives form to new growth through his work.

A great example of a Light Library i love is of Picture Books in Iwaki City of Fukushima by Tadao Ando. Here the overall atmosphere is bright, transparent, with open bookshelves up to the ceiling . This organization of the books in their individual cubicles seems to echo the structure of our human memory in the brain. bright colours and forms .An atmosphere of playfulness, is the mark of this new educational facility: it looks new in content, and new in outer form.

It seems that this library allows free movement. It does not enforcing rules. It looks like it is meant and designed as a domain of innocence, playfulness.

Well.., this is a library for children. picture books from all over the world, donated from a private collection. But it moves away from the established classical paradigm of what a library was and what it should look like. Imagine -even though the architect comes from a traditional East Asian architecture( Buddhist temple).

Form Dictates Function

My fascination with material (board, paper, papyrous,old books )and form derives here………….

Throughout most of the library’s history, the term “book” referred to works written on papyrus and some parchment rolls. Beginning in the second century, stacked and bound wooden boards recorded literature, science, and technical information. These tablets, called codex, derived from a centuries-old practice of using wooden writing tablets for notetaking. These new, durable codices gradually replaced the fragile rolls. However, rolls continued to be used for archival-type documents. Parchment eventually replaced the wooden boards.

The new codex form impacted book storage. Codices were stored flat on the shelf and covers protected their leaves. The libraries had to find ways to house both rolls and codices.

New libraries emerging in the Middle Ages in churches, schools, and monasteries concerned themselves only with the codex form.