Teaching the Radical Catalogue
A Syllabus
Summary
Interrogation of the prevailing practices of organizing knowledges in libraries in the Global North
Supported by
Werkstoffarchiv Stiftung Sitterwerk, St Gallen (CH)
Description of project
The project interrogates the prevailing practices of classifying and organizing knowledge in libraries of the Global North. Drawing on Emily Drabinski’s article “Teaching the Radical Catalog” (2008) the project develops a study and research program that investigates the politics of naming and framing and the practices of searching and finding in libraries from an intersectional and decolonial perspective.
The program geopolitically situates Western library systems as embedded in coloniality, addresses their claim of universality and neutrality, and investigates the resulting biases and structural oppressions and exclusions: To find certain things, it might be enough to type one word, for others we need a multitude of search terms until we find the information we are looking for. Some things cannot be found at all.
In eight sessions, together with librarians, activists, artists, designers and programmers, the syllabus examines the library catalogue’s technological foundations and addresses the assumptions, authority, and privilege of those bodies who do the cataloguing work. It explores a range of practice-based experiments to intervene into these default structures.
Through a range of discursive formats (workshops, exhibitions, publications), and by connecting people and practices, this artistic program creates awareness and understanding of the underlying structural biases so that they can be addressed.
Teaching the Radical Catalogue has been exhibited in the “Reading the Library” (Foundation Sitterwerk). The entire syllabus, including seven interviews is published online. And the issue 375 of Fabrikzeitung Zurich (Dec 2021, print) is dedicated to this work with new texts and conversations building on the exhibition.
Type of work
Film, Video and Radio, Exhibitions, events and festivals, Physical artifacts, Digital artifacts
Published in
“Reading the Library” (exhibition) Kunstbibliothek and Werkstoffarchiv Stiftung Sitterwerk, St Gallen (CH), 29.08.2021 – 07.11.2021
“Teaching the radical catalogue”-- A Syllabus (online publication) 29. August, 2021
“Der radikale Katalog”, issue 375, Fabrikzeitung Die Rote Fabrik, Zurich, 17 December 2021
Link to web site
https://syllabus.radicalcatalogue.net
https://www.sitterwerk.ch/En/Event/611/Reading_the_Library
https://www.fabrikzeitung.ch/category/der-radikale-katalog/#/
http://evaweinmayr.com/work/st-gallen-art-library-sitterwerk/
Date
2021Creator
Weinmayr, Eva
Kolb, Lucie
Keywords
Library catalogue
Practices of searching and finding
Intersectional search
Classification
Coloniality
Global North
Publication type
artistic work
Language
eng