Research from Walter Benjamin's Unpacking the Library and its application to my own research practice and my own role as a researcher.
Illuminations - Walter Benjamin (1969)
reference: Illuminations, Walter Benjamin – Unpacking the library pg. 61-69 (Key texts, Resources)
- “Habent sua fata libelli” meaning books have their own destinies, remarked of famous books like The Divine Comedy and The Origin of Species. – For a collector, not only do books have their own fates, but also each individual copy of them.
Presents an attitude against commercialism that may be raised when exploring digital aesthetics of art.
- Pg. 63 – Rebirth
‘To a true collector, the acquisition of an old book is its rebirth.’
Words are imbued with meaning when they are written, but only in reading them is that meaning and significance activated. It is through this process of activation and reactivation that a text begins to haunt.
- Pg. 68 – Extinction - ‘But, as Hegel put it, only when it is dark does the owl
of Minerva begin its flight. Only in extinction is the collector comprehended.’ – Collector is comprehended in preservation and appreciation. Before the extinction of information, the collector of knowledge is required, sparks commission of writers.
While a critique of the white cube aesthetic might seem untimely, it is in fact timely as it is near to extinction itself. As the relevance of art galleries and funding towards artistic ventures decline, and the recent pandemic begins to reshape our experience of art, the aesthetic of art curation is moved online. This transition may be a natural progression of the white cube's ideologies and therefore e must examine why this is before the curation of art moves away from curated space.
Thoughts:
- Idea of the fate of a book, an association of Walter Benjamin's Aura but with text, or more specifically the physicality of an object that holds such text.
- Meaning is transcibed into the pages, and is passed on through a fluency and a commonality between the writer and the reader. - This is a very explicit conversation, the reader can only add to the conversation with their own notes/ marks on the pages/ highlights and tearing out pages. THis side of the conversation may never be seen by the original author but the visceralities of the conversation may be seen by the next reader.
- The reverence can be seen in books in a similar way. religious texts may often have worn pages and crippled spines, but the text itself is often relatively pristine. The aura therefore is not just in the printing of the book but is affected by the receival of its readers.
Application to own research Project:
- In acquiring knowledge from older books as well as bringing them into contemporary conversation "is its rebirth". Therefore texts themselves can be said to haunt.
- Written words have an interesting and inseperable relation to aurality; the duality of words as both spoken and written. When we read something visual, it is not uncommon to hear the words spoken aloud by our internal dialogue. Therefore as long as written word occupies gallery spaces, the spectre of spoken word dwells there also.
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