NEWSgrist - where spin is art: Posts from June 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.

The project 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 it, thereby making us beholden to terms and conditions that very often legally or 'physically' prevent us from giving things away or sharing them with friends and strangers.

Documentation of the Lost Library Project is archived on flickr and tweeted photos are posted to tumblr. Begun on June 19th 2011, Lost Library is an ongoing social media performance.

Below are some responses to Lost Library from the past few days:

SARAH HROMACK-->, June 20, 2011:

#LostLibrary
#Joy Garnett

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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!

ARGOT & OCHRE:

A happy bibliophile followed my street directions, shot + posted what they chose from Lost Library:

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]

Via mrhopthescissor, June 23, 2011:

Rescuing the Word From the Water, or Garnet’s Nuggets, or The Joy Book Club @joygarnett http://yfrog.com/h0vdr9j

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.

Emily Gertz (flickr) June 23, 2011: