OK everyone, put on your long read hat and settle in. Shannon Mattern has a must read essay on the Design Observer blog Places titled Marginalia: Little Libraries in the Urban Margins.In it she looks at the recent rise of the mini, pop-up, guerrilla and ad-hoc library and tries "to figure out where they’re coming from, how they relate to existing institutions that perform similar roles, and what impact they’re having on their communities.""Nowadays we have libraries in phone booths and mailboxes, in public parks and train stations, in vacant storefronts and parking lots" says MatternMattern also covers the various mobile...
Paper Moments
Inspiration 1 by Anna DorosenkoTo celebrate their 20th anniversary, The Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) launched Paper Moments, a competition that invited people to submit paper-themed photos. About the contest: Throughout times, paper has been all around us, working for us, delivering to us and making our lives easier. It is so much a part of our daily lives that we take it for granted and rarely stop to think about it. Yet it communicates symbols, engages our senses, brings cleanliness, comfort and safety and accompanies our every moment. Capture one of these moments and you might win one of...
20th in Education; 1st in Incarceration
by jasonkillinger. And they want to privatize both!
Book People: Giuseppe Arcimboldo is channeled again
The Librarian (Wolfgang Lazius) by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, ca. 1562. Oil on canvas. 97 x 71 cm (38 3/16 x 28 in.)Last summer we did a post entitled, Evolution of a Painted Librarian: Peter Sis channels Giuseppe Arcimbold, showing how one of the illustrations in Sis's 1994 book The Three Golden Keys closely resembled the famous painted librarian of Arcimbold.Now we welcome Andre Martins de Barros into the Arcimboldo circle. Here are two of his works; The Philospher and The Bookseller. The philosopherThe bookseller
Massimo Bartolini’s bookyard
Check out this outdoor library that will grace the vineyard of St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent during this years Track festival.Designed by Italian artist Massimo Bartolini, the library installation consists of 12 bookcases that slope in harmony with the vines.The books are supplied by the public libraries of Ghent and Antwerp and are for sale with the proceeds going to the libraries.TRACK: a contemporary city conversation features work by 41 international artists that are strewn about the city of Ghent. h/t and more images at designboom