Public libraries are having their purposes and practices fundamentally challenged by the growth of networked computing and neo-liberal models of the civic sphere. While these changes should be matters for broad social debate, it seems equally important to re-imagine what public libraries of the future could be and could enable. This talk explores some of the roles that contemporary art might have in that collective process of re-imagining.
From Martha Rosler Library (2005-6) to the open-access file-sharing on MemoryoftheWorld (2011-), a trend can be traced for making libraries as or within contemporary art projects. This talk covers the history and techniques of what I call 'speculative library making', considered as the practice of constructing real or imaginary libraries as an artistic act; plus a sub-genre practice of producing functioning public libraries as a form of public non-art.
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Visual and Material Cultures
Visual and Material Cultures, 2020
(Northumbria University)
