Acid Migration of Culture

Fig. 3. Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Acid Migration ofCulture, window installation at the Donnell Media Center in the Donnell Library Center in New York City, 1994. (Photos: Mark Kaplan) Using books, words and video images, this 45-ft photo/video mural provided a critical public forum that presented issues of confrontational cultural debate. (right) Detail. that has been denuded of the elements of tactility and mortality that anchor it to physical reality. By reinserting the body into the act of cognition, the hope is to awaken the sensor/censor that differentiates the sentient reader from the acritical receptacle of information chaos. Readingsin Organized Chaos is a tactile, interactive environment that provides a bridge between the virtual/sensory realm of the computer and the full sensory facilities of the body. The books, which are connected to the table, are designed as complex sculptural objects inviting the viewer to handle and open them. Reading a book requires action-a choice of subject, location, posture and mental and physical attitude. Because of its interactive nature, using a computer relates both literally and figuratively to the act of reading a book, but the mode of transmission, and the quantity of data it is capable of transmitting, have been radically altered. The conspicuous lack of tactility within both the information and the interface becomes apparent: curling up with a good data file never presents itself as an option. Initially, the books that comprise Readingsin Organized Chaos are experienced as objects held in the hand. They are perused with the visual and tactile senses-the look and feel of the materials used in the binding, the size and heft of the object as it fits into the hand, and the necessity of the act of opening the book and beginning to read. On turning the pages, the viewer embarks upon a more or less traditional reading experience, but this traditional reading is interrupted by the presence of a miniature video monitor embedded in the book. This screen within the book displays a constant stream of digital information-excerpts from classic literature, text and images from advertising (commercials, television , print, etc.), continually updated news/data from the wire services, magazine articles and so on-samplings of those streams of information/consciousness that bombard us daily. Intermingled with these infobytes are texts that address and question this information reality: a critique of the thing is part of the thing itself. The chaotic book, with its hoard of constantly shifting information, lies dormant, much like a closed book on a library shelf, waiting for activation by a reader. Once engaged, the viewer is confronted with a microcosm of that sea of information that surrounds us. However, textual/textural anchors provide the reader with options for organizing and processing the information. Thus Readingsin Organized Chaos challenges the viewer to question the intent and modus operandi of the information society that manipulates media in an attempt to control our access to knowledge. ACID MIGRATION OF CULTURE Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, 67 Devoe Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211, U.S.A. E-mail: . Acid Migration oj Culture(1994) (Fig. 3) was a window installation at the Donnell Media Center in the Donnell Library Center in New York City. Using books, words and video images, Acid Migrationof Cultureprovided a critical public forum that presented issues of confrontational cultural debate. The 45-ft photo/video mural transformed the Donnell Library Center entrance (located across the street from the Museum of Modern Art), into a huge, open reference book. The entrance became a dictionary defining selective terms that dealt with contemporary cultural issues about art, criticism and representation. AcidMigration of Culture, the title of the window installation, is a pun on the problems of library collections and, in a larger sense, on our society's own cultural reference and identity. In a library collection, acid migration is an irreversible condition leading to the complete destruction and deterioration of a book. The dictionary mural in the Donnell Library windows showed the scars of time. There were worm holes, foxing and acid migration. Set within the holes of the dictionary page were four video monitors showing statements of artists, politicians and religious leaders on important issues...