the bootleg library
Project details
- Year
- 2020
- Programme
- Master – Media Design: Experimental Publishing
The bootleg library is a particular, situated social infrastructure. It operates from the understanding that the library is a collection; a collection of the texts contained within it, and the readers collected around them.
A physical, travelling collection stored in a former wine-box, a digital collection on a self-hosted server, and moments when readers come together create the conditions for producing texts; by bootlegging, uploading, editing, meeting in small rooms, in small groups and annotating the collection.
Tasks of the Contingent Librarian, a text written, edited and performed together, comprises a set of cards and an index of tasks (e.g bootlegging, reading/writing, amateuring, making it public/keeping it private, etc.) defined through the particular activities of the bootleg library.
Tasks of the Contingent Librarian is published in several different forms, printed and digital, including a hyper-linked version called Library of Contingencies*. Although the way they are written or read may vary, each text bears resemblance to the others; ‘originals’ and ‘copies’ alike.
