The Collection of Books, the Library as a Place of Sensual Imagining.
I’ve been writing about the concept of the book in a multiplicity of layers. I see the book as being a deeper metaphor than merely the concept of a series of paper flanges that leaf, loosely, content on both sides. To the dictum of some, it’s the perfect design / information object. Designer, theorist, reader, TrueType technologist, Bill Hill has explored the concept of the book, screen, interface and content “interception” and the relationship between seeing and experiencing the layering of information. And story. And imagination. And inspiration.
That’s the bridge for me, the concept of the book as being far more than just paper; it’s a stimulator. But more so, it’s the book that is contained in a massive collation of mindful inspirations — the massed cloud of mind, the cumularity of the library. We’ve talked about the concept of cumularity as the allegory of the clouded clumping — in computers, in mind, in fullness — and it’s the idea that an association of minds, which could be the library — the community — therein the imagination of the book(s) and the imagination of the mind and the collective influences of people that are crowed together.
I was talking to Jack Larsen, the other day, and he was telling me about his experience at the Seattle Public Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas and his team. As he put it, there were people there, that claimed it as their own. It’s a simple pleasure — but one of immeasurable power; since, in the unfolding of words, the entanglement of mind and content intertwines in the most wondrous — neuroscientific spindling — manner; it’s the link between the sight, the seeing, and the seeing inwardly, sight outwards, and finally how that interweaving creates a spin between mind, imagination in the ringing of minds — the writer and the reader. That takes you of each other — to another place.
And it’s here, the library, that represents a kind amphitheater of the mind. I’ve related the notion of the book, in the context of the metaphor of Amazon — from flow, to jungle, to cloud, to kindled fire — and now to the spirit of the book and library. Others — aside from Jack’s resonance — are exploring the idea of being inside the book, the repository of the book. There’s another point of transition — the concept of the librarian, and that channeling of content as a individual “matrices” of information — we have designed for the library.
We’ve supported fundraising efforts; we’ve designed signing systems for the King County Library System; and we’ve created approaches for creating massive cumulative search tools for gathering “librarian minds” — literally, a cloud of them — in Los Angeles, for getting humanized answers quickly.
Direct from librarians. The idea is about asking, listening, gathering solutions — it’s more crowd commentary; it’s about community. Ask Now, it’s here — another layering of story and query, combined with people.
What I’m the most interested in is the relationship between imagination, experience and place — here: the library, the place of books and the palace of memory.
I do have a concern about sensuality and experience. The book is the touching, sensualist point to the embodiment of personal sensation — and imagination — and interestingly, the library represents a similar alignment with that experience in place, in imagination, the realm of the book and the touching “non-digital” world.
Experience this crossover — between the line of the book, the imagination, the sorting of place and the procession (the adventure) through it.
Consider the etymon of the book, the library. They are of the wood, the leaf, the bark, the ash, the folium — the inner skin of trees. And indeed, wandering into the realm of the forest — the jungle of ideas, inspirations and imagination. See this impression — book, paper, leaves of imagination, journey, adventuring forth, visualized like this:
The NY Public Library is now open for more hours. While other institutions are crashing, this one thrives. The hunger of the crowd mind — the collective community of searchers and explorers — those that are reaching back to the heart of imagination; they are gathering like moths to the light.
The light of the mind.
tsg
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