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Tagging the Library


Tuesday, March 17, 2009

– First week: I grabbed the first book that caught my attention. Something on weaving, because I had misread it and thought it was about waving. I then drew all the hand positions displayed in the book and asked a sign language student to associate the ones he could recognise to words. The result became the starting point of the exploration: ‘independent – animal – west coast – give’.

– Second week: I used the search engine of the library. Typing in, one after the other, the four different words, I ended up with 10 book results. 2 for ‘independent’, 6 for ‘animal’, none for ‘west coast’ and 2 for ‘give’. 4 of the books were fitting within the design field, 2 of the ones found with ‘animal’, 2 with ‘give’.
Wondering about what to do with these four books, I took inspiration from a Wire album cover, On Returning, (a compilation of the three first album covers of the band) and compiled the four book covers.

– Third week: I asked someone for leads. Eveleen, who I asked if she would have ideas on compilation and art, told me to look into a book she heard quoted in a lecture, it was called something like ‘Postmodernist exhibition’. I couldn’t find a trace of the book in the library here, in CS nor on the internet but the idea was seducing.
In the meantime, I came across Martino Gamper’s work, approximately fitting with the subject I gave myself, but I wanted to keep using the system I had set, relate to the defined keywords.
I came back to the 10 books found earlier. 4 of them, as well, were fitting within the art field, 2 of the ones found with ‘independent’, 2 with ‘animal’. I then tried to install the 4 books as a ‘postmodernist exhibition’.
Funny thing is:The selection of the second week, on design, consists of books found through the keywords: “animal give(s)”.
The one on art then consisted of books found through the keywords: “independent animal”.

by Jules Estèves

keyword: sign language

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