[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":176},["ShallowReactive",2],{"navigation":3,"/blog/illustrations-from-the-social-history-of-reading":78,"/blog/illustrations-from-the-social-history-of-reading-surround":171},[4],{"title":5,"path":6,"stem":7,"children":8,"page":77},"Blog","/blog","blog",[9,13,17,21,25,29,33,37,41,45,49,53,57,61,65,69,73],{"title":10,"path":11,"stem":12},"100 Years to the 1st Zionist Congress in Basel","/blog/100-years-zionist-congress","blog/100 years zionist congress",{"title":14,"path":15,"stem":16},"Hundred and Twenty Years After the First Zionist Congress in Basel","/blog/120-years-after-the-first-zionist-congress","blog/120 Years after the first Zionist Congress",{"title":18,"path":19,"stem":20},"1897, The First Zionist Congress","/blog/1897-the-first-zionist-congress","blog/1897, The First Zionist Congress",{"title":22,"path":23,"stem":24},"Breaking Down the Boundaries between Art and Life","/blog/breaking_down_the_boundaries_between_art_and_life_chapters","blog/Breaking_Down_the_Boundaries_between_Art_and_Life_chapters",{"title":26,"path":27,"stem":28},"Empathy, Direct Experience, Violence and Will","/blog/empathy-direct-experience-violence-and-will","blog/Empathy, Direct Experience, Violence and Will",{"title":30,"path":31,"stem":32},"Illustrations from the Social History of Reading","/blog/illustrations-from-the-social-history-of-reading","blog/Illustrations from the Social History of Reading",{"title":34,"path":35,"stem":36},"Mach versus Boltzmann","/blog/mach-versus-boltzmann","blog/Mach versus Boltzmann",{"title":38,"path":39,"stem":40},"Notes on the Open Public Library","/blog/notes-on-the-opl-hamburg","blog/Notes on the OPL Hamburg",{"title":42,"path":43,"stem":44},"On the Jewish Metaphysics of Death","/blog/on-the-jewish-metaphysics-of-death","blog/On the Jewish Metaphysics of Death",{"title":46,"path":47,"stem":48},"The Open Library, Graz - Location #1 - Terminal Point","/blog/the-open-public-library-graz-location-no.-1-terminal-point","blog/The Open Public Library Graz, Location No. 1 Terminal Point",{"title":50,"path":51,"stem":52},"The Open Public Library, Graz 1991","/blog/the-open-public-libray-graz-1991","blog/The Open Public Libray, Graz 1991",{"title":54,"path":55,"stem":56},"The Outdoor Exhibition Space Munich - San Francisco","/blog/the-outdoor-exhibition-space-munich-san-francisco","blog/The Outdoor Exhibition Space, Munich - San Francisco",{"title":58,"path":59,"stem":60},"The Outdoor Exhibition Space\nMunich - San Francisco Questions & Answers\n","/blog/the-outdoor-exhibition-space-munich-san-francisco-qanda","blog/The Outdoor Exhibition Space, Munich - San Francisco Q&A",{"title":62,"path":63,"stem":64},"The Sick Soul IV - An Auditorium for Film, a Runway for Fashion and a Stage for Music Performance","/blog/the-sick-soul-iv","blog/The Sick Soul IV",{"title":66,"path":67,"stem":68},"The Train Library","/blog/the-train-library","blog/The Train Library",{"title":70,"path":71,"stem":72},"Variants of Aesthetic Collectivism","/blog/variants-of-aesthetic-collectivism-2009","blog/Variants of Aesthetic Collectivism 2009",{"title":74,"path":75,"stem":76},"Zionism as Separatism","/blog/zionism-as-seperatism","blog/zionism as Seperatism",false,{"id":79,"title":30,"author":80,"body":81,"caption":80,"date":143,"description":144,"extension":145,"image":146,"meta":147,"minRead":166,"navigation":167,"path":31,"seo":168,"stem":32,"toc":169,"__hash__":170},"blog/blog/Illustrations from the Social History of Reading.md",null,{"type":82,"value":83,"toc":139},"minimark",[84,89,93,96,99,106,109,112,115,118,124,130],[85,86,88],"h2",{"id":87},"introduction","Introduction",[90,91,92],"p",{},"Libraries are commonly defined as repositories of books and magazines that are made available for the public. The definition emphasizes the nature of objects amassed by these types of institutions. Upon reflection, though, it should be clear that libraries cannot be thought of merely as places of storage but must be characterized in terms of the activities that presumably take place therein. Let us, then, rethink the matter and redefine the library as a public space dedicated to browsing and reading.",[90,94,95],{},"At first blush the above distinction might seem rather pedantic; books, after all, are meant to be used in a particular way - they are artifacts produced primarily in order to be read. We believe, nevertheless, that it is important to emphasize that the library is intended to satisfy a particularly human craving and that the books one finds there constitute one form among many others that make it possible for people to retrieve information and content. An awareness of the nature of the activities that are supposed to take place in the institutions we call libraries might help, then, to plan and design them better and expand them in the appropriate direction when the need to do so arises.",[90,97,98],{},"For similar reasons, we decided to propose for the new University Library in Innsbruck an artwork that revolves around the act of reading. Our reasoning was quite straight-forward: We believe that art, in general, should provide the viewers means for self-reflection. Public works satisfy the requirement of self-reflectiveness when they shed light on their context and help reflect on their institutional setting. Now, as we said before, we believe that the library should be defined as a space of reading. It follows, then, that a self-reflecting work of art destined for such a space must find a way to explore this important human activity.",[90,100,101,102,105],{},"The work we envisage is titled ",[103,104,30],"em",{},". We propose to place in the library space five 'history stations', each consisting of a schematic but functional replica of a piece of furniture designed for libraries in various periods of the past - a reading table, a book rack, a facility for storage and display of documents and two library ladders. These objects are meant to be used by the visitors to the library - as reading tables, ladders etc. Together, the five environments containing them form an essay on the social history and evolution of the act of reading. Such essays, we learned from our own praxis, are fairly useful as means for institutional self-reflection.",[90,107,108],{},"Practical reason tells us how to realize our plans and intentions - how to employ the objects available to us as effective means to a premeditated end. Self-reflection affords a bird's eye perspective on these procedures; it aims to question the particular nature of our special habits and practical routines. The self-reflective individual surveys the tools he possesses and the way they are commonly used; doing so helps him to evaluate his instinctive choices and to improve them to the extent possible.",[90,110,111],{},"The practice of institutional critique is a species of self-reflection - a way of answering queries about the nature of our current institutions and evaluate how they serve the purposes for which they were intended. The institutional critic reviews various aspects of the existing institutional arrangements - even those that seem unimportant or incidental - asking why they have the forms that they do and whether changing them might improve the functioning of the institution as a whole.",[90,113,114],{},"A self-reflective individual is one who is ready to see the shortcoming of his current practical routines and willing to contemplate the possibility of changing them. To the extent that he is defined through these choices and routines, he is therefore a being who questions his own nature. When he criticizes his institutions, the self-reflections gain a social dimension - the thoughts he forms about alternative ways of life take on the character of utopian thinking.",[90,116,117],{},"The reference to institutional history is one way of increasing awareness of the fact that the current institutional arrangements are not set in stone but are subject to improvement and change. This general proposition applies to the case at hand: When one is presented with different ways of storing, arranging and reading books, the disposition to see the present situation as unchangeable and absolute tends to vanish. When these examples are not merely fictitious constructions but pertain to the history of the institutions one calls his own, the willingness to consider alternative possibilities is bound to be stronger and more affective.",[90,119,120,121,123],{},"For this reason, we consider essays on the social history of a human activity, which pertain to the institutions that support it, a most effective means for encouraging self-critique and engendering self-reflection. The 'Chained Library' of Cambridge or Benjamin Franklin's 'Library Ladder' are not meant merely as examples of different library furniture; we expect them to hint at alternative ways of life where reading and other simple activities that define our daily existence are conducted in a completely different ways thereby gaining entirely different meaning. More generally, we hope that the visitor who encounters such objects would gain a window into another social reality; the effectiveness and self-reflectivity of artworks like ",[103,122,30],{}," depend on the extent to which they stimulate the social imagination.",[90,125,126,127,129],{},"In addition, as ridiculous as they might strike us at first, objects like a table that transforms into a library ladder, provide a testimony of the universality of the yearning of mankind for improvement. Rigid institutions, which attempt to convince us that life is fine as it is, obscures that essential longing; human beings thrive only when they overcome the boundaries set for their thinking - when they wake up and open to the possibility of change. In so far as we live in a society that erects strict institutions and resists alternatives, the inclusion in auxiliary means that encourage institutional self-reflection seems like a positive corrective; that is how we conceive of ",[103,128,30],{}," and other related works that we made in the past.",[131,132],"u-button",{"to":133,"label":134,"variant":135,"color":136,"external":137,"download":138},"/PDF/Illustrations_from_the_Social_History_of_Reading.pdf","Download PDF Version","subtle","neutral","","Illustrations_from_the_Social_History_of_Reading.pdf",{"title":137,"searchDepth":140,"depth":140,"links":141},2,[142],{"id":87,"depth":140,"text":88},"2008-01-21T00:00:00.000Z","Proposal for the University and State Library in Innsbruck","md","/blog/Illustrations_from_the_Social_History_of_Reading.jpg",{"head":148},{"meta":149},[150,153,156,159,162,164],{"name":151,"content":152},"keywords","Public Project, Innsbruck University and State Library, 2008, Clegg & Guttmann",{"name":154,"content":155},"robots","Innsbruck University Library",{"name":157,"content":158},"author","Michael Clegg and Martin Guttmann",{"name":160,"content":161},"copyright","© 2008 Clegg & Guttmann",{"name":163,"content":144},"description",{"name":165,"content":30},"og:title",1,true,{"title":30,"description":144},"false","6Kd4V-p0ToMgno1FESU_Vp1K5G7-T2f4WQ2vpdf3GIY",[172,174],{"title":26,"path":27,"stem":28,"description":173,"children":-1},"Text for show \"Modernismo Italiano\" at Lia Rumma Gallery, Milan 2018",{"title":34,"path":35,"stem":36,"description":175,"children":-1},"Spatio-temporal construction in eight parts or Composition for early modernist cognitive exercises",1772638419322]