#LostLibrary was included in the exhibition BIBLIOMANIA curated by Mary Birmingham at the Visual Arts Center of NJ, Oct 7 - Dec 11, 2011. EXHIBITION IMAGES - press release / info
#LostLibrary was a social media performance that took place in New York’s Soho district (June 19 – July 6, 2011)., and laboriously performed every day for three weeks during a heatwave. Instantaneously tweeted and posted online through Twitter and Tumblr, #LostLibrary utilized social media to foster and enact the simple act of sharing books while simultaneously documenting the process as it developed.
In the summer of 2011 following an eviction notice, I was forced to make a decision about my library, which consisted of a large number of books I had accumulated for over 15 years. I lacked any inclination to sell them, and the thought of putting them in storage indefinitely was too painful to consider. Instead, I decided I would give some of them away. An inveterate tweeter, flaneur and fevered archivist by nature, the project came together as follows: every day for three weeks I went through the process of weeding books and piling them in themed stacks. Three or four times a day, I carried as many of these books as I could in two cotton tote bags to nearby locations, and left them for passersby to browse and take. Once deposited in a dry window well or stoop, I tweeted their location along with a photograph shot with my camera-phone. The tweets, images and descriptive coordinates then seamlessly and simultaneously posted to Tumblr and Facebook.
While relying upon the efficacy of communication enabled by social networking tools such as twitter, #LostLibrary’s central act of exchange -- the sharing of books -- is firmly anchored in the material world. This act re-familiarizes us with centuries-old traditions of material exchange that lie outside profit-motives and markets, and that privilege alternative systems such as gifting, barter, and sharing. #LostLibrary inserts itself into our contemporary quandary over sharing in a world of increasingly virtual 'ownership'. In a rapidly expanding global economic system that encourages us to license our content as opposed to buying and owning it, we are likewise increasingly beholden to the terms and conditions that legally, physically and ontologically prevent us from sharing and exchanging freely. #LostLibrary asks us to reconsider the drawbacks to our new-found immateriality, to ask what we might be losing as we leave behind the heft and inconvenience of so much printed matter.
~ Joy Garnett, Fall 2012
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What follows is an archive of posts.
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Joy Garnett: Lost Library
Lost Library was a social media performance that took place over the course of three weeks (June 19 – July 6, 2011) in New York’s Soho district.
To begin, I posted the following announcement on my blog:
I am sharing the library that I've been accumulating for 15 years by giving some of it
away.
Every day I will pick a good window well in Soho, deposit some books, and immediately
tweet the location with a photograph and the hashtag #LostLibrary.
These are books for people to browse and to take away if they like.
Documentation is archived on flickr and tweeted photos are posted to tumblr.
While utilizing popular social media networks (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Typepad and Flickr), to announce the locations of books as well as to archive and share photographic documentation of the project, Lost Library’s central act of exchange – that of sharing the books themselves – is firmly anchored in the material world. As such, it offers food for thought about ownership and sharing in an age where we are increasingly encouraged to license our content (music, books, etc) as opposed to buying and owning it, thereby making us beholden to terms and conditions that very often legally or 'physically' prevent us from sharing freely. Lost Library asks us to stop and ponder our new-found immateriality, and to consider what we might be losing as we leave behind the heft and inconvenience of so much printed matter.
~ JG August 2011
Historical context for Lost Library provided by the North American Potlatch, Fluxus, Mierle Ukeles, Marcel Mauss, The Gift Economy, Jacques Rancière (2004) The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible, Claire Bishop (2006) Participation , Lewis Hyde: The Gift (1983) and Common as Air (2008).
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First post: JUNE 19th, 2011
I am sharing the library that I've been accumulating for 15 years by giving some of it away.
Every day I will pick a good window well in Soho, deposit some books, and immediately tweet the location with a photograph and the hashtag #LostLibrary.
These are books for people to browse and to take away if they like.
Documentation is archived on flickr and tweeted photos are posted to tumblr.
Begun on June 19th 2011, Lost Library is an ongoing social media performance.
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UPDATE, June 24, 2011:
Lost Library Project, cont'd
Five days ago I started sharing my personal library by depositing selections of books in the window wells of Soho. These wells offer a dry place as well as a 'natural' book shelf that invites passersby to stop and browse. Upon depositing these books, I immediately shoot a photo and tweet it, along with their location and the hashtag #LostLibrary.
Responses to Lost Library:
Via SARAH HROMACK-->, June 20, 2011:
Just Launched: Lost Library is a new social media project by painter, thinker and Newsgrist mill Joy Garnett. She writes, in today’s Newsgrist newsletter (which I’ve subscribed to since its inception and still adore as a stalwart of the very best days of Internet culture-gone-by, as they do.):
I am sharing the library that I’ve been accumulating for 15 years by giving some of it away. Every day I will pick a good window well in Soho, deposit some books, and immediately tweet the location with a photograph and the hashtag #LostLibrary.
These are books for people to browse and to take away if they like. Documentation is archived on flickr and tweeted photos are posted to tumblr. Begun on June 19th 2011, Lost Library is an ongoing social media performance.
I want the Smithsonian Books volume of Space Time Infinity, which could ostensibly still be languishing on Grand between Broadway and Crosby. But probably not!
PS: Also new by Joy: Virilio Now, which I want to have an exclamation point at the end but sadly does not, being the title of a book and all!
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Via ARGOT & OCHRE:
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Today, a happy bibliophile followed my street directions, shot + posted what they chose from Lost Library:
Via photo-reply, June 22, 2011:
score: some pretty heady stuff at #LostLibrary from @joygarnett [link]
picked from #LostLibrary for its hot pink cover, chosen for the postcards [link]
9:15 AM: 2 late 4 this #LostLibrary but eerily prophetic of #aiweiwei release [link]
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Via mrhopthescissor, June 23, 2011:
Rescuing the Word From the Water, or Garnet’s Nuggets [sic!], or The Joy Book Club @joygarnett http://yfrog.com/h0vdr9j
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Via Joe Holmes (flickr) June 23, 2011:
Joy Garnett's Lost Libraries, Sterling and Gibson Edition
I just ran across one of Joy Garnett's Lost Libraries on Crosby — at least I assume it was Joy's.
I would have taken a book, but I've already read all the Sterling and Gibsons I want for now. So I took a bookmark, an LIRR Off Peak 10-Trip Ticket, all punched out.
Classics of @bruces+@GreatDismal, Howard+Crosby, ~1pm. Took Spook Cntry+DISTRACTION. Thx #LostLibrary
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JUNE 28, 2011:Via evighedsblog.dk:
Lost Library Project 2011
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Via:
June 28, 2011
Lonely Doll Meets Lost Library RIGHT NOW
OK, I'm freaking out a little bit right now. On June 28, 2006, exactly five years ago today, DT published Marjorie's review of The Lonely Doll as part of the Daddy Types Bizarre Childrens Book Contest.
The Lonely Doll was the first of ten children's books by model-turned-photographer/author Dare Wright, and boy, are they freaky.
Anyway, flash forward to June 28, 2011, and New York artist Joy Garnett's ongoing #LostLibrary project. Garnett's liberating her book collection by placing thematically organized stacks of books around SoHo, and then posting a photo of the stacks on Twitter, so folks can scurry over and take them.
And what just turned up, minutes ago, on Greene Street, between Broome and Grand? "The Lonely Doll and dreamscape architecture."
Hop to, unless they are too freaky for you, which they very well may be.
Previously: DT Bizarre Book Contest: The Lonely Doll
Follow #LostLibrary on Joy Garnett's Twitter or Tumblr [twitter, tumblr]
Too slow? Freak yourself out with Dare Wright's Lonely Doll books on Amazon [amazon]
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