Librarian in Residence – Goethe-Institut New York

On February 16, Julieta Aranda, Fia Backström und R. Lyon ended their exhibit with one last event, which placed all the exhibition components in their final context.
The dove emerged from her box and landed next to the love letter written in a font that cannot be read by a machine, but rather is “human readable only.” Which was quite fitting, really. Surely everyone was wondering who was reading all of these love (or angry) letters circulating on the Web. An automated analysis of keywords, though possible, would in any case fail with a letter written in this font, and the intimate secrets it conveys are safe.

As mentioned before, Julieta Aranda, Fia Backström and R. Lyon’s exhibition evolved over the course of its six week run. Beside the audio component from Wretched Worst, there was also a visual change: one day a strange package with air holes and a return address in Australia showed up on a table. Visitors who looked into the hole were confronted with a bird eye peering back at them. The mystery in the box was revealed at the closing on February 16: a stuffed pigeon lived in the box from Australia. What does this have to do with the library and its future? Who knows…

After a run of six weeks, Julieta Aranda, Fia Backström and R. Lyon’s exhibition ended on Saturday. An outstanding event was the ‘noise intervention’ that took place on February 4. Starting punctually at 4pm, it was ear-splittingly loud in the library for exactly 10 minutes. The band “Wretched Worst” made themselves comfortable in our stacks and then ripped loose. Our colleagues were forewarned (after all, the library is part of an open loft) – they either watched in amusement or fled behind closed doors into one of the few offices in the loft. A library patron who happened upon the performance was thrilled. As a big Rammstein fan, this type of music was right up his alley. Even for those who don’t appreciate Rammstein, the performance was still meaningful. Schönberg needed 12 tones for his music, yet Wretched Worst made do with only one, the ultimate abstraction in music, another visitor opined. A day later, a colleague was questioned by someone from the floor below in the building’s elevator who was curious about the noise and thought it sounded interesting. They started up a conversation which ended in the woman asking to be added to our mailing list. We finally made contact with the neighbors – for the first time since we moved in three years ago.