The library
The Morrab Library is in the Morrab Gardens, amid the subtropical palm trees and plants that thrive in milder climates. Every writing desks upstairs faces the windows. The lush green colours of the foliage, the birdsong coming through the windows, and sea views make you want to dream and drift. It is a tranquil place, safe, warm and welcoming. Downstairs, the entrance, the reception and reading room are busy with members of staff, visitors and volunteers. It is lively, but never noisy. Books mute sound.
Observational drawings
I wanted to absorb the energy and atmosphere of the place and get to know the life of a library as if it was a living being. I went back to the drawing board and embarked on a series of observational drawings of the study rooms using only paper and pencil. John Berger described drawing as an act of discovery. Observational drawing allowed me to absorb the surrounding effortlessly.
A mind busy with drawing and focused on the hand-eye coordination can take note of all the details happening simultaneously without the need to scrutinise it. When drawing, I noticed muted sounds and chattering coming from downstairs, the thick, solid walls that give you a sense of security. You can focus on your work and don’t have to worry about the outside world. The sash windows were always open by a few inches to allow plenty of airflow (courtesy of Covid). When the library was quiet birdsongs filled the rooms.
Birdsong-Transference
Birdsong-Transference is an interactive sound piece which was inspired by those tranquil moments of drawing and quiet contemplation.
The interactive object is a book with two paper cones on either side – one to speak into, the other one to project the sound. When speaking into the left cone it translates the human voice (or any sound) into birdsong. It is magic, thanks to Cycling74, and the software MaxMsp I was using. More precisely, the human voice produces sound waves and the frequencies and harmonies which can be digitally modulated and shaped to resemble birdsong.
The work is about the shared experience of the beauty of books. Good books resonate, enrich the mind, bring knowledge, inspire and elevate our energy. Every single book we read changes us. Books we dislike might force us to take action and speak up. Books start processes.
Stranger Than Fiction
Stranger Than Fiction, 3:22min, (2022/24) animation combines stop-frame and hand-drawn images. Created during the artist residency at the Morrab Library, it was shown at the Morrab Library for the Penzance Arts Festival 2022. From the very beginning of the residency I gathered material for a stop-frame animation. In-between drawing and working on the sound piece I took hundreds of photos of books moving, chairs going round in circles, scruffy old coasters whizzing across the table, of light and shadow playing with the window blinds.
Morrab Library came to life.
The photos filled the computer hard drive, and I left me wandering what to do with the footage.
When we look at images at a speed of ten frames per second, the brain perceives movement, and things come to life. It is a wonderful trick, and the brain falls for it. The adjective animate (meaning alive), comes from the verb animare, ‘to give life to’, which came from anima, meaning breath, soul. James Hillman, the archetypal psychologist, coined the word animism. His words deeply resonate with me and underpin the way I see life.
‘Animism is not a projection of human feelings onto inanimate matter, but (that) things of the world project upon us their own ideas and demands, (that) indeed any phenomenon can come alive and deeply inform us through our interaction with it, as long as we are free of an overly objectifying attitude.’
I completed the animation Stranger Than Fiction towards the end of the residency, at the last minute. The animation doesn’t have sound yet, but I might add some at a later time. I found it difficult to match any sound with the rich tapestry of the visuals. It clashed. In the end, I opted for a silent movie and changed the title to ‘a very quiet animation’. It is a library after all, I convinced myself, and they can do without a 3min sound loop on repeat for the time of the exhibition.