#ntucca

[hemanchong]

Making a common resource pool of surplus material. Step 1 Identify a surplus resource in your community that may be of use when shared with or redistributed to others. Think for example about different materials, objects, but also immaterial things such as knowledge and skills. Step 2 As a group decide on how you will gather this surplus resource, where it will be gathered and who will be its temporary custodians. Decide also on whether you want to open up the collection beyond your group or community and how that might impact your decisions. Step 3 Consider how you intend to redistribute the resources: will they stay inside the space for people to use? Can people become a member of your common resource pool? Will people be allowed to take the resources they need? Step 4 In the space, find a way to visualise - either by bringing the objects or something that represents them - the surplus resources that you have. Allow people to browse through them, categorize them and make them their own. It is important to consider different ways in which a resource can be regenerated, this does not need to be through redistribution but can also happen inside the space. Step 5 Depending on your decisions, offer a membership card, or support in letting people decide which resources they may want and need to take with them. Step 6 Throughout this experiment discuss questions of ownership: what does it mean to own something you don’t use? How is finance and ownership related when it comes to the resource you are sharing? What does a lack of access to this resource do to people? And what does an excess of this resource do to others? This recipe is derived from The Library of Unread Books and composed by the Commons • Art team. The Library of Unread Books asks questions about ownership and the relationship between wealth and knowledge. It brings to light once-hidden-away titles to emphasize shared knowledge, and functions as a common resource pool of knowledge that is not contingent on financial means. It also brings together a network of worldwide, lifetime members of this library. #TheLibraryOfUnreadBooks #HemanChong #ReneeStaal #Casco #NTUCCA #JameelArtsCenter #Library (at The Library of Unread Books) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjdYWjsJ6Di/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[hemanchong]

#Summer is in full swing! We made a limited edition for @thelibraryofunreadbooks with @ntu_ccasingapore! Imagine your body parts on book covers! How kinky! Special thanks to @anasophiesalazar and @utemeta for producing this! “The Library of Unread Books is an itinerant library initiated by Heman Chong and Renée Staal in 2016. It is a living reference library with a collection of over 3000 titles, that traces the perimeters of knowledge and reflects on notions of access, excess and the politics of redistribution. Every single book you find in the collection was once private property and has been donated by an individual who did not read it when it was in their possession. Contributors to the growing mobile library receive a personalised #library card and a lifetime membership. The Library of #Unread #Books brings to light these once-hidden-away titles to emphasize shared knowledge. The books, which are accessible to anyone who can visit the library sites, work to create a commons. The books of The Library of Unread Books are arranged randomly and in stacks, in a setting that encourages visitors to feel at home and re-arrange the books according to will and desire. Reminding us that a (private) library is both a means to an end and a research tool rather than an accessory, Umberto Eco famously called for an “antilibrary” made up of unread books. The novelist and scholar argued that read books are far less valuable than the unread ones and that a library should contain as much of what one does not know as finance might allow. “You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly.” In the case of this library of unread books, access to knowledge is not contingent on finance, and so the books are reverted back to a common resource pool.” #TheLibraryOfUnreadBooks #HemanChong #ReneeStaal #NTUCCA #book #books #bookstagram #artistsedition #beachtowel (at The Library of Unread Books) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf7ZxPkoNwf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[hemanchong]

The first location of @thelibraryofunreadbooks back in June 2016 @ntu_ccasingapore @gillmanbarracks #TheLibraryOfUnreadBooks #GillmanBarracks #NTUCCA #ntuccasingapore #Singapore (at The Library of Unread Books) https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ4z_dMPgHY/?utm_medium=tumblr

[hemanchong]

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A post shared by Heman Chong (@hemanchong)

#TarekAtoui #NTUCCA #GillmanBarracks #Singapore #ArchivingSg #SoundArt (at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore)

[hemanchong]

#AnnDemeester #NTUCCA #Singapore (at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore)

[hemanchong]

#TheMakingOfAnInstitution #PanelDiscussion with #UteMetaBauer #NikosPapastergiadis #AnnDemeester #JohnTirman #YukoHasegawa on #Ownership #Development and #Aspirations of #producing, #defending and #maintaining an #institution. #GillmanBarracks #NTUCCA (at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore)

[hemanchong]

#TheLibraryOfUnreadBooks is a #referencelibrary where every single volume you see on the tables has been donated by an individual who, for some reason or another, has not read the book in their possession. It is a simple way to displace an object from an extremely #private place to a site open to the public where it becomes accessible by anyone. The books are arranged #randomly, in #stacks, and during the course of the exhibition, their position will shift around a lot. We like that it remains consistently #confusing and #surprising. The journey of ‘The Library of Unread Books’ began on 23 September 2016, as part of a generous residency at #NTUCCA. After this iteration as part of #TheMakingofanInstitution, it will move to other locations. Most of these future venues are not confirmed yet, but we hope that the library will never be in storage. Within an institutional context, the piece balances nicely between an artwork and a public programme. Eventually, we would like the library to enter the permanent collection of an institution. We will run the library ourselves for ten years, accumulating as many #unreadbooks as possible and having many interesting #conversations with the people who come and read. Please approach one of the gallery caretakers if you would like to donate a book. We take you at your word that it is an #unread #book you are donating to us, much like a #handshake. In any case, we are happy that these books have managed to detach from your #shelf (or under your bed) and are now available in the public domain for anyone who wants to read them. Feel free to sit and read or browse for as long as you like and return the book to any stack you prefer. #HemanChong & #ReneeStaal Singapore, February 2017 (at The Library of Unread Books 2)

[hemanchong]

A cheery #AngSongMing @circadiansongs visiting #TheLibraryOfUnreadBooks on the day of #deinstalling. We are moving to Blk 43 #MalanRoad to the main #NTUCCA space! Come visit us again beginning 10 February! (at The Library of Unread Books)

[hemanchong]

#was #afraid #to #read #it #might #count #for #all #islands #utemetabauer #TheLibraryOfUnreadBooks #PrivateIsland #JamesMeek #Why #Britain #Now #Belongs #To #Someone #Else #booksofinstagram #unread #books #library #bookstagrammer #bibliophile #booknerd #bookcover #bookish #bookworm #hemanchong #singapore #sg #sgart #ntucca #gillmanbarracks (at The Library of Unread Books)