A desire to explicate the unfamiliar. Passion for untested endeavors. An interest in patterns. Respect for constraint. First, simplify. Distill the amalgam of program and mission into elegant tangibles. Identify challenges. Transform these into your scheme. Combine one part magic; one part narrative; two parts art. Incorporate questions. Add language, code. Versify. Serve warm.
York Public Library that exposes the library’s collections, treasures, and hidden sonic character. This site-specific soundwalk and companion exhibition are proposed for the flagship Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, but librarians across the country can customize the underlying technology to surface holdings in their own collections.
toured Carrère and Hastings’ new beaux-arts library on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue (Source: History of the Stephen A. Schwartzman Building, www.nypl.org). Visioned by preeminent librarian Dr. John Shaw Billings as a place where everyone from the new immigrant to the expert scholar could access one of the world’s most important learning collections, the New York Public Library’s flagship building has become the keystone of a century-old 87-branch system. In 2011, the iconic marble structure emerged from a suit of scaffolding after a three-year, $50 million restoration and preservation project. In the words of NYPL President Paul LeClerc, the building’s “magnificence is a visual reminder of how centrally important reading, learning, and creating are to a vibrant and democratic society (Source: Historic, Three-Year Preservation Project Restores The Landmark Façade of the Library On 42nd Street, www.nypl.org).”
Desire, a locative site-specific soundwalk delivered via mobile application guides visitors along a sonic pathway through key spaces: Astor Hall, the Jill Kupin Rose Gallery, the McGraw Rotunda, the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room, and The Deborah, Jonathan F. P., Samuel Priest, and Adam Raphael Rose Main Reading Room. Classical tones and found sounds, treated algorithmically, reverberate through the soundscape as voices read from collection treasures, showcasing how the digital, the physical, place and space, the real and imagined, coexist in library collections. On this, the 100th birthday of one of New York’s iconic public spaces, Volumes of Voices takes visitors on a literary journey that exposes the library’s collections, treasures, and hidden sonic character.
of full-length audio books. Images, curatorial notes, and archival media put each book in context, and the curious can use the catalog to request print editions on library shelves. At the end of the soundwalk, visitors may record themselves reading a favorite quote from a text they love, upload it to their social network of choice, or embed it in the Volumes of Voices website. This collaborative storytelling project, inspired by the British Library’s “‘community-led’ survey in sound of the acoustic landscape (‘soundscape’) of Britain,” exploits the Surrealists’ “mystique of accident” to surface a visitor- generated exquisite corpse of collection treasures.
into data that triggers a sound poem’s layered movements. Voices read from collection treasures while sound sourced from the building’s interior underscores the power of the spoken word. Built from streamers made from vintage catalog cards, projected light, and a range of custom-built speaker enclosures, the companion Volumes of Voices installation uses interactive physical and digital media to expose the library’s expansive collections. To further engage the on-site visitor, a participatory companion exhibition, installed in the hallways leading to the McGraw Rotunda, abstracts the Schwarzman Building’s 88 miles of holdings and 10,382,600 cubic feet of space into a responsive media sculpture through which visitors deconstruct the library and reassemble it into a metaphorical literary journey.
for travel to library conferences and other off-site locations, offering installation visitors a surprising, delightful introduction to the New York Public Library.
library is a symbol of the past, the present, and the future of learning. On its 100th birthday, Volumes of Voices takes visitors on an immersive literary journey that exposes the library’s collections, treasures, and hidden sonic character, catalyzing a refreshed partnership between the library and the lifelong learners it serves.
Rose Gallery, we move deeper into the building and away from the bustle of New York City life. The movement transitions from ascent to reflection, from the feeling that we are in company to the feeling that we are alone.
placards. Seeing photos of the library under construction, we have the sense that the building is built on a foundation of optimism, and that the library collections are a path that many other learners have walked, over time. The fourth movement transitions to the fifth with open-ended, hopeful tones.
through the curved windows above Astor Hall, we hear a s y m p h o n y o f b o o k s composed from the sounds of turning pages. The movement quiets as we enter the library catalog nook.
m p l a t i v e , b u t emphasizes the human work o f c a t a l o g i n g t h e Schwarzman Building's collections. Found sounds i n c l u d e h a n d w r i t i n g , typewriters at work, books being stacked, and the tapping of computer keys.
to quiet observation as we return our attention to the architecture. We understand that the architecture embodies the library’s democratic ideals. This movement finishes with an instrumental solo as we emerge from the catalog nook to explore the rest of the space.
see where vendors once tied their horses when making book deliveries. Found sounds evoke horses waiting for their next errand as language fragments tell stories about librarians, deliveries, work, and routine.
Found sounds are composed from a cascade of ruffling catalog cards, pages turning, and the whisper of layered voices reading book titles. These sounds crescendo as we cross the threshold into the Rose Main Reading Room.
e r w h e l m e d b y i t s opulence. There are a number of people at work at the study tables. Of all the soundwalk movements, the eleventh is most reminiscent of the library scene in Wim Wenders’ film, Wings of Desire. The whisper of learners reading and writing, voices of writers reading their work, and the sound of books being delivered from underground stacks blend with musical tones, exposing t h e l i b r a r y b u i l d i n g ’s mechanics.
to record themselves reading a favorite quote and add it to the visitor-generated exquisite corpse of collection treasures. They can share the story behind their selection, listen to what others have recorded, comment on other quotes, and share them with friends on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr.
from Sarah Lawrence College. Her writing has been featured in Open City’s “Debut Writers” reading series at the KGB Bar in Manhattan, and Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. Carlin M. Wragg is a writer and experience designer with expertise in content development, storytelling, and social media. As a Master’s candidate in NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and Editor of Open Loop Press, she explores how interaction design, transmedia, and social networks create new ways to experience literature and support the next generation of storytellers.
multi-channel, haptic feedback instrument that allows users to touch and physically throw loops of audio around a room; PCO, an interactive sound and light installation based on the behavior of synchronous fireflies; and RE_, a ten minute score produced in collaboration with students from the Stanford Dance Department. More information about these and o t h e r w o r k s c a n b e f o u n d a t www.modulationindex.com. Chris Carlson is a second-year Master's student at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He is focused on the development of unique tools for generating, processing, and interacting with sound.
in 3D sensing and visualization. Originally from Tacoma, Washington, he now lives in New York City where he attends New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at the Tisch School of the Arts.
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