Marginalia, mischief and hugger muggers

I recently participated in an event with the Society for Creative Investigation, through the Locally Localized Gravity show, at the Institute for Contemporary Art. This society creates a structure to do a group exploration of a library or book collection with the intention that participants can take the method and repeat it in other collections. It is based on Duchamp's random acts.

It works by a group of people (maximum of 10) going to a library and collecting material, gathering back together, further exploring the texts and culminating in a informal performance/presentation. It is a wonderful method for exploring the energies of texts. My intention is to use the method of creative investigation at the Powel House library and others in the coming months to gather more raw material for Playing Telephone with Ghosts.

The theme of these investigations will be "secrets" books contain. This may be finding texts relating to secrets, or the chance serendipitous occurrences, when the reader uncovers those small bits of marginalia, notes, inscriptions and general mischief left in books by the hands of the past. These can serve as clues to the provenance or path the book has led to its current place.

My hope is that the investigations will turn into more formal performances. All texts, pictures notes etc. will be documented for the project and the participants will each get a copy of the materials as well.

Please contact me through the comments if you are interested in participating, or email playingtelephonewithghosts (at)philalandmarks.org to get on the mailing list to participate in upcoming investigations.

Warm wishes, Caitlin