readingroom as installation
"READING ROOM" - Installation, www, AudioCD, book
Commissioned by the Southern Alberta Art gallery, Lethbridge, Canada (1996 - 1999),
The over 140 stories found in the CD ROM 'Library' of READING ROOM are collected from European immigrants and their descendents to Western Canada at the turn of the century until now. They are, like most family stories, remembered and retold as acelebration of both the unusual and the ordinary.
A few of the stories situated anonymously among the rest, are invented.
These are reminders of the inaccuracy and subjectivity of memory and of history and of the curious relation between 'fact' and 'fiction'.
All of the stories are centered around a particular object from everyday life, some of which are stored in the object library of the gallery. These are labeled with identification tags and are connected to the cyber library by a corresponding catalogue system of numbers and drawings.
The user can feel free to "borrow" a memory by browsing in real or in virtual space.
This multi media installation about the nature of libraries, memory and information storage was presented in different disciplines.
The over 140 stories found in the CD ROM 'Library' of
READING ROOM
are collected from European immigrants and their descendents to
Western Canada at the turn of the century until now. They are, like most
family stories, remembered and retold as a celebration of both the
unusual and the ordinary.
A few of the stories situated anonymously among the rest, are invented.
These are reminders of the inaccuracy and subjectivity of memory and
of history and of the curious relation between 'fact' and 'fiction'.
All of the stories are centred around a particular object from everyday life,
some of which are stored in the object library of the gallery. These are labelled
with identification tags and are connected to the cyber library by
a corresponding cataglogue system of numbers and drawings.
The user can feel free to " borrow" a memory by browsing
in real or in virtual space.
A multi media installation about the nature of libraries, memory and information storage
BETTY SPACKMAN / ANJA WESTERFRÖLKE
THE SOUTHERN ALBERTA ART GALLERY, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, March 15 - May 4, 1997
GALERIE IM STIFTERHAUS, Linz, Austria, September 8 - 21, 1997
STUTTGARTER FILMWINTER, Stuttgart, Germany, January 8 - 11, 1998
WORK & CULTURE, Landesgalerie at the Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum, June 19 - October 4, 1998
FACE2FACE - The Body, Identity and Community in Cyberspace, Forum Stadtpark, Graz, July 06 - 11, 1998
FACETTEN 1998. Literarisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz. Hsg. Linzer Kulturamt. Linz: Bibliothek der Provinz, 1998, S.133 - 137
BASISTAGE,Oberösterreichische Landesbibliothek, Linz, Austria, March 4 - 7, 1999
LITERARISCHES COLLOQUIUM BERLIN, Deutschland, 10-11. September 1999
