Library Features Moving Wall of Books
- 10 years ago
To commemorate it 400th anniversary, the Bristol Central Library is featuring an installation of motion-activated books.
An installation called Book Hive is capturing the attention and imagination of patrons of the Bristol Central Library.
To commemorate their 400th anniversary, the library enlisted the talents of a local artist collective Rusty Squid, a group that specializes in interactive and robotic displays.
The artists mounted books on modular boards and made each of them responsive to the movements of observers and passers-by.
As people approach or travel past the piece, the books react by opening and closing, forming a variety of patterns.
Throughout much of the installation’s three-month display, Rusty Squid representatives will be on hand to discuss the piece with observers, and will use their comments and input to modify its content and reactions.
By early February, they will have mounted 400 volumes, one for each year the library has been in service.
In a statement, the creators said, “Book Hive is a vivid response to the impact digital culture has had on the work of public libraries and the human relationship with the physical book. The hive is a metaphor for the power of libraries.”
Book Hive will be on display until March 7th of 2014.
An installation called Book Hive is capturing the attention and imagination of patrons of the Bristol Central Library.
To commemorate their 400th anniversary, the library enlisted the talents of a local artist collective Rusty Squid, a group that specializes in interactive and robotic displays.
The artists mounted books on modular boards and made each of them responsive to the movements of observers and passers-by.
As people approach or travel past the piece, the books react by opening and closing, forming a variety of patterns.
Throughout much of the installation’s three-month display, Rusty Squid representatives will be on hand to discuss the piece with observers, and will use their comments and input to modify its content and reactions.
By early February, they will have mounted 400 volumes, one for each year the library has been in service.
In a statement, the creators said, “Book Hive is a vivid response to the impact digital culture has had on the work of public libraries and the human relationship with the physical book. The hive is a metaphor for the power of libraries.”
Book Hive will be on display until March 7th of 2014.