"Libraries are not made; they grow."
Augustine Birrell (1850-1933), Chief Secretary of Ireland
December 15, 2011 (New York) -- New York-based experimental production studio MomenTech will install a temporary "pop-up" branch of the International Public Space Library (IPSL), a global interactive public space project featuring a growing collection of anonymously donated books that have been placed in public locations around the world, at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York as part of "Urban Action," day two of "Strategies for Public Occupation," a 7-day growing exhibition of ideas, on Saturday, December 17, 2011. "Strategies for Public Occupation" runs from December 16-22.
Unlike a traditional library, the IPSL is not permanently housed in a physical building; any public place is a potential temporary location for the IPSL. Anyone can donate or borrow a book.
For "Strategies for Public Occupation," the temporary pop-up branch of the IPSL at the Storefront for Art and Architecture will offer a selection of books to help stimulate the ongoing public discussion of economics, politics, society and culture, particularly reflective of the Occupy Wall Street movement (the library of which was destroyed by city officials) or indeed any social movement that has been or is currently powered by the free exchange of ideas, particularly through the sharing of books.
To donate a book, download the IPSL ex libris from http://internationalpublicspacelibrary.blogspot.com, affix it inside the book you wish to donate, then place the book in a public space anywhere in the world. If you find an IPSL book, you are welcome to take it and enjoy it. When you are finished, place it somewhere in the public space for someone else to discover. IPSL explores how boundaries and borders are crossed—and how ends can be turned into beginnings—simply by exchanging and sharing the knowledge contained in books via the public space.
IPSL ex libris
Please feel free to enjoy these books during your stay at Storefront for Art and Architecture. Starting at 5pm on December 16, you are welcome to take a book. When you are done with it, please place it somewhere in the public space so that someone else may find it.
In November 2011, the IPSL was presented at the Eastern Bloc Center for New Media and Interdisciplinary Art as part of Ethnographic Terminalia 2011 Montreal: Field, Studio, Lab, an exhibition and conference that brought together an international group of artists and anthropologists.
ABOUT MOMENTECH
MomenTech is a New York-based experimental production studio that was founded in 2010. MomenTech coined the term Augenblicksmus (a neologistic variant of the German word “augenblick,” meaning literally, “in the blink of an eye”) to describe a creative principle based on the primacy of the moment in the development of advanced methods for the mobilization of transnational progressivism, post-humanism, neo-nomadism and futurism. With simple instructional works, covert public interventions, user-generated content (UCG) and user-assisted content (UAC), MomenTech provides innovative solutions to leaders, teachers, curators, producers, directors and organizers looking for state-of-the-art methods to engage the public on the fundamental, practical and theoretical questions encountered at the intersection of education, science, technology, arts, culture and sports.
MomenTech has presented projects around the world, including "Field of Dreams Festival," Bruce High Quality, Brooklyn New York; The 7 Billionth Person Project, Yale University; "3 Walls on Wednesdays," Athens, Greece; "An Exchange with Sol LeWitt," Cabinet, Brooklyn, New York; NewMedia Daet Festival, Camarines Norte, Philippines; "Escape," 6x6 Media Arts, Athens, Georgia; "Placebos for Art," Behring Institute for Medical Research, Dresden, Germany; Magmart International Video Festival VII, Naples, Italy; "April Fools' Show," SpaceCamp Gallery, Indianapolis, Indiana; "mailto:," Drift Station, Lincoln, Nebraska; DUMBO Arts Festival 2011, Brooklyn, New York; and "Ethnographic Terminalia," Eastern Bloc Center for New Media and Interdisciplinary Art, Montreal, Canada.
