The Central Libraries > Donnell
Library Center
abecedarium:nyc
Produced by Lynne Sachs + Susan Agliata
in collaboration with local New York City artists.
Visit
Online Exhibition
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Abecedarium: NYC is an interactive
online exhibition that reflects on the history,
geography, and culture - both above and below
ground - of New York City through 26 unusual
words. Using original
video, animation, photography and sound, Abecedarium:
NYC constructs visual relationships between
these select words and specific locations in the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.
explore
places
Each
word - whether it's
A for audile or
Z for zenana – leads
to a different short video and a location in the
city that you may never have experienced before. In selenography (the
study of the moon), amateur astronomers in Staten
Island's Great Kills State Park celebrate
the wonders of the night sky. In open city (a
metropolis without defense), the ruins of military
installations throughout the five boroughs decay
with time. Chatty teenagers in a Flushing,
Queens cafe drink bubble tea in xenogenesis (the
phenomenon of children markedly different from their
parents). In diglot (a
bilingual person), a Chinese accountant, Albanian
baker, Palestinian falafel maker, Argentinian film
archivist and Cuban cigarmaker speak candidly about
their daily routines. In mofette (an
opening in the earth from which carbon monoxide escapes),
mysterious gases flow from gaps in the streets of
Manhattan.
people
A group of moving-image
artists was invited to contribute their own visual
interpretations of selected words, thus sharing
their own unique perspective on the nature of language
and urban life. In addition to creating
a video, each artist reflects on their own work in
the project blog, and intimately shares their perceptions
and interpretations of the city in which they live. From
listening to ringing church bells on a Sunday morning
in Astoria, Queens to investigating the repercussions
of the 1950 Standard Oil spill in Greenpoint, Brooklyn,
each artist provides a unique vision that enriches
the collective knowledge.
Artists (in alphabetical order): Susan Agliata,
Alisa Besher, Beth Botshon, Janine Fleri, David
Gatten, Barbara Hammer, Heather Kramer, George Kuchar,
Ethan Mass, Scott Nyerges, Lynne Sachs, Erik Schurink, Erika
Yeomans.
context
To place the project
within the context of the greater
culture of the web, Abecedarium:
NYC utilizes the popular social networking
tools of del.icio.us, Picasa, Facebook, Flickr,
and Google
Maps. In this way, project participants
can become a part of and contribute to the Abecedarium:
NYC network of links, photos and resources
related to the geography and culture of New York City.
When you add Abecedarium: NYC to your
own del.icio.us social
bookmarking account, post the link to your Facebook profile,
or join the Abecedarium: NYC photo
network on Google's Picasa,
you will become an integral part of the online community.
The interactive content is also contextualized
by a brief history of the artist abecedarium - from
the Italian Futurist's edible alphabet to essayist
Susan Sontag's alphabet of dance to avant-garde composer
John Cage's alphabet radio poem. This narrative
traces the rich history of the abecedarium as artistic
outlet from the first seeds of language to the
digital age, from physical objects to virtual worlds.
share
The experience of visiting Abecedarium: NYC is
more than watching, listening and learning. Visitors
to the project are invited to respond to existing
content as well as to share their own experience
of New York City by contributing original videos,
soundscapes, photos or texts to the project blog. As
more users contribute, the project grows in size,
scope and experience, and transforms into a destination
for sharing and learning about every facet of the
city.
The web 2.0 capabilities of Abecedarium: NYC allow
for a new level of user sharing, interaction and
tracking. Shoot
a video and geotag it
to the exact location it was shot, then track other
users' comments on your work via RSS feed. Add
your favorite post to Digg and
subscribe to the project feed through Google
Reader or My
Yahoo!.
Using del.icio.us,
the project blog also provides links to related sites
with a special focus on artist produced abecedarium
projects. Find the alphabet on the wings of butterflies,
a plant alphabet created by the artist John Baldessari,
an acrostic alphabet poem read by former Poet Laureate
Robert Pinsky, as well as the history of the alphabet.
background
Beginning in 2000, filmmaker and Abecedarium:
NYC co-director Lynne Sachs became intrigued
by the concept of an “abecedarium”, a
book designed to take a child through the first steps
of reading. As a new mother, Sachs cluttered her young
daughters' play area with these age-old formulae
for learning: A is for apple; D is for dog;
X is for xylophone. She wasn't completely
satisfied, however, because, for the most part, these
ABC books functioned more like a conventional cultural
literacy test than intriguing introductions to the
world of words.
Over the course of the next six years, Sachs examined
the work of other artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians
and poets who had created their own original interpretations
of the alphabet (See History of the Artist Abecedarium).
During an artist residency at the MacDowell Colony,
Sachs began work on a project which would intertwine
a meditation on words and their meanings with an
exploration of New York City.
In 2005, Sachs proposed creating a multi-media
online abecedarium with the Donnell Media Center
of The New York Public Library. The Media Center is known
both nationally and internationally for its thirty-year
history of exhibiting avant-garde film and video to
the public. Through the Library's initiative,
The New York State Council on the Arts provided
a production grant for Abecedarium: NYC.
In 2006, media artist and web designer Susan Agliata
joined the project as co-director.
Co-directors: Lynne Sachs + Susan Agliata
PHP Programming + Research and Development: In
Choi
Flash/ActionScript Programming + Innovation: Joseph
Tekippe
Abecedarium: NYC is made possible
in part with public funds from The New York State
Council on the Arts, a state agency.
