The Chronicle of the City of Babel 2015 - Toronto, Ontario
In October 2015, I traveled to the BABEL Working Group Biennial Conference at the University of Toronto to participate in the conference as a visiting artist. I hosted a collaborative art site and event by means of a Portable Scriptorium supplied with a few seed materials for making palimpsests.
The objective of the project was to invite the conference attendees, an international symposium of a large group of Medieval Studies scholars, artists, writers and thinkers, to contribute their own ephemera to the Portable Scriptorium for general use and to make use of any materials they wished to create pages. The pages comprise a collaborative document,, attributable to all participants and yet the work of no one participant. A mysterious, fragmented tale unfolds of who we all were in that place, as the paper that had followed everyone to Toronto made its way into the pages in a totally unexpected form.
The Chronicle is a nonlinear narrative of a city that emerged and disappeared in the heart of Toronto in a matter of a few days. At the end of the conference, the pages were displayed for everyone to see and a lecture and discussion session took place where participants could discuss their experience in building pages at the Scriptorium. The collaboration and the discussion are the topic of an article in Kadar Koli Magazine, titled "Kinesiology of Meaning: Making PAges at the Library of Babel," due to be published in early 2016. The link will be listed here when the issue is available.
Below are the images of the Chronicle, Recto sides and Verso sides where applicable, as not all pages ended up with a Verso. Contributors chose for themselves whether to sign the Verso or leave it blank, or add any additional notes that they wished. The Compass sign is the "Library Stamp" for this Chronicle.
The Scriptorium had its maiden voyage at BABEL, and is the planned site of many mobile collaborations in many different micro-communities yet to come.
The objective of the project was to invite the conference attendees, an international symposium of a large group of Medieval Studies scholars, artists, writers and thinkers, to contribute their own ephemera to the Portable Scriptorium for general use and to make use of any materials they wished to create pages. The pages comprise a collaborative document,, attributable to all participants and yet the work of no one participant. A mysterious, fragmented tale unfolds of who we all were in that place, as the paper that had followed everyone to Toronto made its way into the pages in a totally unexpected form.
The Chronicle is a nonlinear narrative of a city that emerged and disappeared in the heart of Toronto in a matter of a few days. At the end of the conference, the pages were displayed for everyone to see and a lecture and discussion session took place where participants could discuss their experience in building pages at the Scriptorium. The collaboration and the discussion are the topic of an article in Kadar Koli Magazine, titled "Kinesiology of Meaning: Making PAges at the Library of Babel," due to be published in early 2016. The link will be listed here when the issue is available.
Below are the images of the Chronicle, Recto sides and Verso sides where applicable, as not all pages ended up with a Verso. Contributors chose for themselves whether to sign the Verso or leave it blank, or add any additional notes that they wished. The Compass sign is the "Library Stamp" for this Chronicle.
The Scriptorium had its maiden voyage at BABEL, and is the planned site of many mobile collaborations in many different micro-communities yet to come.
Process - Building the Chronicle of the City of Babel at the Portable Scriptorium in Toronto
Paula Billups built The Portable Scriptorium in the summer of 2015 with the assistance of her husband. The Scriptorium has an extended wingspan of seven feet and can accommodate four to six workers on its surface at a time. The drawers and shelves are sufficient to hold art supplies, glue and ephemera for the participants to use. For more information about the construction of the Portable Scriptorium, click here.
The Portable Scriptorium was set up on the campus of the University of Toronto for the duration of the conference, and on the final day, the participants gathered for a discussion of the processes and outcomes of working on the Chronicle and using the Scriptorium, adding valuable feedback for the Scriptorium's future travels. Ms. Billups adopted the persona of the Librarian of Babel and her husband the persona of the Assistant Librarian. In these roles, they facilitated the creation of pages and encouraged conference attendees to participate by issuing small printed invitations with a scrap of "starter" ephemera attached to each one.
The transcript of the discussion section is due to be published in early 2016 in Kadar Koli magazine and the link to the article will be provided here once it is published.
The Portable Scriptorium was set up on the campus of the University of Toronto for the duration of the conference, and on the final day, the participants gathered for a discussion of the processes and outcomes of working on the Chronicle and using the Scriptorium, adding valuable feedback for the Scriptorium's future travels. Ms. Billups adopted the persona of the Librarian of Babel and her husband the persona of the Assistant Librarian. In these roles, they facilitated the creation of pages and encouraged conference attendees to participate by issuing small printed invitations with a scrap of "starter" ephemera attached to each one.
The transcript of the discussion section is due to be published in early 2016 in Kadar Koli magazine and the link to the article will be provided here once it is published.