Supplemental resources for most of our weekly topics.
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Week 1: Aug. 26: Introductions + Historicizing Information Overload
TEXTS REFERENCED IN CLASS (You needn’t read these, but you’re welcome to!)
- Clay Shirky, “It’s Not Information Overload, It’s Filter Failure” (video) O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo NY (2008).
- Ann Blair, “Information Overload, Then and Now” The Chronicle Review (November 28, 2010).
- Daniel Rosenberg, “Early Modern Information Overload” Journal of the History of Ideas 64:1 (January 2003): 1-9.
- Jorge Luis Borges, “The Library of Babel” The Garden of Forking Paths
- J.G. Ballard, “The Index” The Paris Review 118 (Spring 1991).
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ARCHIVES
Week 2: Sept. 2: Exploring The Archives
GUEST: Kate Eichhorn, Lang Faculty Member & Author of The Archival Turn in Feminism (Shannon’s out of Town)
READINGS
- Mike Featherstone, “Archive” Theory, Culture & Society 23:2-3 (2006): 591-596.
- Jacques Derrida, “Note” + “Exergue” Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (University of Chicago 1996): 1-23.
- Jennifer Ulrich, “Transmissions from the Timothy Leary Papers: Applying Archival Processing” NYPL Archives Blog (March 26, 2012); Jennifer Ulrich, “Transmissions from the Timothy Leary Papers: MPLP, the New Standard?” NYPL Archives Blog (December 10, 2012); David Olson, Leary Intern, “Transmissions from the Timothy Leary Papers: Artifactual Intelligence” NYPL Archives Blog (May 30, 2013).
- “Networked Q&A with Marvin Taylor,” NYU Workshop in Archival Practice Blog (April 20, 2012).
- Kate Eichhorn, Interview by Hope Leman, Critical Margins (January 1, 2014).
- Optional (but highly recommended): Part 3 of The Hairpin’s “Ask an Archivist” series (September 4, 2012).
TO DO
- Please also visit the “Offense and Dissent” exhibition in the Sheila Johnson Design Center, 2 W 13th, before it closes on September 3. We’ll be discussing this exhibition with Radhika Subramaniam on Oct. 28.
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Week 3: Sept. 9: What’s in the Archive?
FIELD TRIP: New York City Municipal Archives, w/ Ken Cobb, Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Records and Information Services
Meet at 4:00 at 31 Chambers (@ Centre). Take 4/5/6 (front of train) to Brooklyn Bridge. Please bring picture ID.
READINGS
The following will help to provide some context for our tour:
We’ll discuss the following when we return to the classroom next week:
- Michel Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge, Trans. Smith (Harper & Row [1969]1972): 126-31.
- Wolfgang Ernst, “Dis/continuities: Does the Archive Become Metaphorical in Multi-Media Space?” In Wendy Hui Kyong Chun & Thomas Keenan, Eds., New Media Old Media: A History and Theory Reader (New York: Routledge, 2006): 105-123 [focus on pp. 105-6, 108-10, 112-14, 116-20; skip “A Forerunner of the Internet?,” “The Silence of the Archive,” “Global Memories,” “Retrograd…,” “Between Reading and Scanning”]
- Michael Gaynor, “Inside the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation” Washingtonian (May 9, 2011).
- Listen: Craig Shank & George Drake, Jr., Everything Sounds 25: “Packard Campus” (May 23, 2013) [28:10]
- Watch: Arthur Ou, The Invisible Photograph, Part 1: “Underground: The Corbis Image Vault” (2014) [16:50]
- Optional: Shannon Mattern, “Paper, Ash & Air: Material Remembering” Talk @ 9/11 Forum on Memory, Trauma, and the Media, The New School, September 9, 2011.
We’ll continue our discussion of archival themes – including the relationships between memory and storage, ephemerality and erasure – in our “Databases” unit, particularly when we discuss Vannevar Bush.
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Week 4 Sept. 16: Who’s In the Archive?
PRESENTATIONS: None
READINGS/SCREENING
- Ann Laura Stoler, “Colonial Archives and the Acts of Governance” Archival Science 2:1-2 (2002): 87-109.
- Christa Wolf, “So Who Could I Tell the Story To” Harper’s (March 2013).
- Diana Taylor, “The Archive and the Repertoire” In The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003): 16-33.
- Supplemental: Diana Taylor, “Archiving Performance: The Digital as Anti-Archive?” (video) Animating the ArchivesConference, Brown University (December 3-5, 2009): search iTunes for “Animating the Archives” –> choose “Keynote” –> fast-forward to 22:00, and watch through 1:03:56
- Optional: Terry Cook, “Evidence, Memory, Identity, and Community: Four Shifting Archival Paradigms” Archival Science 13:2/3 (2013): 95-120 [focus on 105-118].
- Bruce Lazorchak, “Ian MacKaye and Citizen Archiving” The Signal: Digital Preservation (Library of Congress blog) (May 8, 2013).
- Skim through Raqs Media Collective, The Atlas Group & Interference Archive
- Melissa Morrone, “The Interference Archive Documents Radical History” Library Juice (April 10, 2012).
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Week 5: Sept. 23: Archival Aesthetics
PRESENTATIONS: Ariana, Saori
READINGS/LISTENINGS
- Breakell, Introduction, “The Archival Impulse: Artists and Archives” (video) Tate Modern (November 16, 2007): search iTunes for “The Archival Impulse” + Tate –> choose Part 1 –> listen from 2:00 to 11:30
- Susan Stewart, “Wunderkammer: An After as Before” In Ingrid Schaffner & Matthias Winzen, Eds., Deep Storage: Collecting, Storing, and Archiving in Art (New York: Prestel, 1998).
- Hal Foster, “An Archival Impulse” October 110 (Fall 2004): 3-22.
- David Joselit, “On Aggregators” October 146 (Fall 2013): 3-18 [focus on 12-18].
- Amei Wallach, “A Conversation with Ann Hamilton in Ohio” American Art 22:1 (2008): 53-77.
- Shannon Mattern, “Preservation Aesthetics,” plenary address @ “Digital Preservation 2014” conference, Library of Congress, July 2014.
- Pamela Lee, “The Whole Earth Is Heavy” Artforum (September 2013).
- Watch: Erwann Lameignère, “Camille Henrot ‘Grosse Fatigue’” (2014) [7:27]
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LIBRARIES
Week 6: Sept. 30: Ordering Media’s “Innumerable Species”[v]
PRESENTATIONS: Laura, Rachel, Nima
READINGS/SCREENING
- Georges Perec, “Think/Classify” In Species of Spaces and Other Pieces (New York: Penguin, 1997): 188-205.
- Roy Boyne, “Classification” Theory, Culture & Society 23:2-3 (2006): 21-30.
- Alex Wright, “The Industrial Library” In Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008): 167-80.
- Barbara Tillett, “What is FRBR?” (Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service, 2003).
- Browse through the resources for Dr. Cristina Patuelli’s “Knowledge Organization” class at Pratt, and Birger Hjørland’s “Lifeboat for Knowledge Organization” – just to get a sense of what LIS students need to know!
- David Weinberger, “Everything is Miscellaneous” (video) Google Tech Talks (May 10, 2007) [the first few minutes are a little rocky].
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Week 7: Oct. 7: Libraries: From Mesopotamia to Madison Avenue
FIELD TRIP: Morgan Library, 225 Madison Ave @ 36th Street, 4-5pm
READINGS
- “Library” Oxford English Dictionary (2010).
- Matthew Battles, Excerpts from “Burning Alexandria,” “The House of Wisdom” & “Books for All” In Library: An Unquiet History (New York: W.W. Norton 2004): 22-81, 117-155.
- Quickly skim (just for fun!) Library Bureau, A Handbook of Library and Office Fittings and Supplies (Library Bureau, 1890).
The following will prepare us for our field trip:
- Charles E. Pierce, Jr., “Private to Public: Opening Mr. Morgan’s Library to All” In Paul Spencer Byard, et. al., Eds., The Making of the Morgan: From Charles McKim to Renzo Piano (New York: W.W. Norton, 2008): 21-32.
- Shannon Mattern, “Collected Notes on the Morgan Library for an Article I Meant to Write in 2003 But Never Did” [it’s exactly what it says it is!]
- The Morgan Library & Museum, “McKim Building Restoration.”
- Holland Cotter, “Let There Be Light, and Elegance” New York Times (October 28, 2010).
- Optional: Jennifer Maloney, “New York Public Library Rethinks Design” Wall Street Journal (August 27, 2013).
- Optional: Scott Sherman, “NYPL Shelves Plan to Gut Central Library” The Nation (May 7, 2014).
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Week 8: Oct. 14: Idiosyncratic and Unorthodox Libraries
PRESENTATIONS: Eishin, Annie, Zack
READINGS
- Georges Perec, “Brief Notes on the Art and Craft of Sorting Books” In Species of Spaces and Other Pieces (New York: Penguin, 1997): 148-55.
The Warburg Library
- The Warburg Institute Library and Classification Scheme
- Alberto Manguel, “The Library as Mind” The Library at Night (Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2006): 193-212.
- Barbara Maria Stafford, “Reconceiving the Warburg Library as a Working Museum of the Mind” Common Knowledge 18:1 (Winter 2012): 180-187.
The Prelinger Library
- “The Library as a Map: An Interview with Rick Preligner and Megan Shaw Prelinger” Contents 5 (2013).
- Optional: Gideon Lewis-Kraus, “A World in Three Aisles” Harper’s (May 2007): 47-57.
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Week 9: Oct. 21: The Future Library
IN-CLASS SCREENING: Holmes Films, The Librarian, 1947; Alain Resnais & Chris Marker, Toute la Mémoire du Monde, 1956
READINGS
- Skim David Giles, Branches of Opportunity (Center for an Urban Future, 2012).
- Shannon Mattern, “Marginalia: Little Libraries in the Urban Margins” Places (May 22, 2012).
- Shannon Mattern, “Library as Infrastructure” Places (June 9, 2014).
- Skim Matthew Battles & Jeffrey Schnapp, “Scenarios” In The Library Beyond the Book (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014): 55-119 [apologies for the highlights!]
- Visit the Digital Public Library of America and, while you’re at it, see the Hathi Trust, too
- Check out the work of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab and Harvard’s Library Test Kitchen
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Saturday, October 25, 2:30-6pm
Field trip to the Reanimation Library (534 Union Street, Brooklyn) +
Interference Archive (131 8th Street, Brooklyn)
Please, please, please, please, please come. It’ll be awesome. I promise.
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Week 10: Oct. 28: Prep for Spring Semester Exhibition + Planning Final Projects
GUEST: Radhika Subramaniam, Director / Chief Curator, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
READINGS
- Susanne Lehmann-Brauns, Christian Sichau, & Helmuth Trischler, Eds., The Exhibition as Product and Generator of Scholarship [preprint] (Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, 2010). Read the following (34 pp.):
- Jochen Brüning, “Exhibitions vs. Publications – On Scientific Achievements and their Evaluation”: pp. 25-28.
- Martha Fleming, “Thinking Through Objects”: pp. 33-47.
- Ulrich Raulff, “Old Answers, New Questions – What Do Exhibitions Really Generate?”: pp. 69-77.
- Thomas Schnalke, “Arguing with Objects – The Exhibition as a Scientific Format of Publication”: pp. 103-110.
- [via Radhika] Tamara Rhodes, “A Living, Breathing Revolution: How Libraries Can Use ‘Living Archives’ to Support, Engage, and Document Social Movements” IFLA Journal 40:1 (2014): 5-11.
- Explore this sampling of library- and archive-themed exhibitions:
- “Little Museum of Diary” @ Piccolo Museo del Diario, Tuscany, Italy, 2013
- “Systemics #2: As We May Thing (Or, The Next World Library)” @ Kunsthal Aarhus, 2013
- XFR STN @ The New Museum, New York, 2013
- “The Finding Aid: Black Women at the Intersection of Art and Archiving” @ Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 2013
- Harvard Labrary @ Cambridge, MA, 2012
- “L’Institut des archives sauvages” @ Villa Arson, Nice, France, 2012
- “An Archaeology of Knowledge” @ Brody Learning Commons, Johns Hopkins [permanent installation], 2012
- AAAARG Library @ MoMA PS1, New York, 2012
- “Library Science” @ Artspace, New Haven, CT, 2012
- (The Missing Library) @ Dumbo Arts Center, 2011
- “Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art” @ International Center of Photography, New York, 2008
- “Deep Storage: Collecting, Storing and Archiving in Art” @ P.S.1, Long Island City, 1998
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DATABASES
Week 11: Nov. 4: Tabula of Relationships, Orders of Things
PRESENTATIONS: Oliver, Fan
READINGS
- Michel Foucault, Preface to The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (New York: Vintage Books [1970]1994): xv-xxiv.
- Muhammad Haadi, “The Evolution of Database” All About Databases (October 18, 2010).
Paul Otlet
- Alex Wright, “Forgotten Forefather: Paul Otlet” Boxes and Arrows (November 10, 2003).
- Molly Springfield, “Inside the Mundaneum” Triple Canopy 8.
- Google’s Mundaneum Collection – see especially their “The Origins of the Internet in Europe: 1895-2013” exhibition
Vannevar Bush
- Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think” The Atlantic (July 1945).
- Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, “The Enduring Ephemeral, of the Future is a Memory” Critical Inquiry 35 (Autumn 2008): 148-171 [stop at p. 161 if you’re pressed for time].
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Week 12: Nov. 11: A Database Episteme
PROJECT PROPOSALS: Everyone shares their final project ideas. Proposals are due next week.
READINGS
- Charles & Ray Eames, “The Information Machine” (1958) [film]
- Ted Byfield, “Information” In Matthew Fuller, Ed., Software Studies: A Lexicon (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008): 125-32.
- Skim Chaim Zins, “Conceptual Approaches for Defining Data, Information, and Knowledge” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58:4 (January 2007): 479-93.
- Alan Liu, <preface type = “general”>, <preface type = “technical”> + <argument title = “technologic” subtitle = “the blind spot on the page”> In “Transcendental Data: Toward a Cultural History and Aesthetics of the New Encoded Discourse” Critical Inquiry 31:1 (Autumn 2004): 49-63 [note: you’re reading only half the article].
- Browse through Lev Manovich’s Cultural Analytics projects.
- Tim Sherratt, “A Map and Some Pins: Open Data and Unlimited Horizons” discontents [blog post] (June 11, 2013).
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Week 13: Nov. 18: Database Aesthetics
The following is subject to change. There are countless directions we could take our discussion on this topic, so I think we’ll wait to see how your interests evolve before nailing down our specific topics of focus. Take a look at what last year’s class discussed here.
READINGS
- Christiane Paul, “The Database as System and Cultural Form: Anatomies of Cultural Narratives” In Victoria Vesna, Ed., Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow (University of Minnesota Press, 2007): 95-109.
- Paddy Johnson, “Curation and Conservation: An Interview with Rhizome’s Ben Fino-Radin” Art Fag City (June 22, 2012).
- New Museum’s XFR STN (see press release and other links at bottom of page)
- Melena Ryzik, “Preserving that Great Performance” New York Times (August 11, 2013).
- Cory Arcangel, “The Warhol Files” Artforum (Summer 2014).
- Watch: Arthur Ou, The Invisible Photograph, Part 2: “Trapped: Andy Warhol’s Amiga Experiments” (2014) [18:52]
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Nov. 25: NO CLASS
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Week 14: Dec. 2 – Final Class, 4-7pm: FINAL PRESENTATIONS
Please note alternate location: 79 5th Ave, 16th floor, Media Studies’ “back conference room” (room 1645)
- Each person will have a total of 10 minutes (including set-up!) for presentation and five minutes for discussion. It’s best that you build in some “buffer” time for the inevitable snafu(s), so I’d recommend that you plan to talk for no longer than eight minutes.
- There will be pizza. Please bring drinks and other snacks to share.
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