The Imperfect Librarian

Sluice magazine
Autumn 2020

The Library - the imperfect librarian

This edition of the Sluice magazine is dedicated to those that use the idea of the library to map our relationship with the State, with capitalism and with each other.
In a digital environment where all knowledge is potentially available – the role of the librarian as a sifter, a curator, a gatekeeper of limitless information is crucial and of immense interest to artists.
The Digital Commons has enabled everyone to become a librarian. Collating, curating and redistributing cultural and informational production. The Extended Mind thesis proposes our digital aids as extensions of our minds (with the interweb an example of extended cognition) in the same way as a prosthetic limb is an extension of one’s body. This suggests each individual as a walking library of Alexandria, limited solely by our personal cataloging abilities.
The physical library has a utility, this is layered with the immaterial ideas swept up with the idea of the library – ideas of access, exclusion, inclusion, ownership, authority and narrative. Here we look at artists, collectives and independent initiatives tackling – tangentially or directly – these issues.

Feat:
Duncan Poulton
Ruth Beale - Brent Biennial
Susan Francis - CAS Chapters
Ami Clarke - DAAP
Julie F Hill
Amanda Martin Katz - 3307 W Washington Blvd
Alistair Gentry
Clementine Butler-Gallie & Florence Devereux - Art of Change

Dimensions: (h x w) 280 x 210 mm
Extent 80 pp
Paper Type 120gsm

Cover:
Paper Type 250gsm
Perfect Bound

ISSN 9772398839005

Print-run: 500
Published: December 2020