Communication Design MRes Pathway 2021 -- Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined
Summary
Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined is a collaborative publication created by the MRes Communication Design Pathway at the Royal College of Art. Working in dialogue with RCA library staff, the Pathway set out to rethink the idea of the library during the pandemic era – as a site not only for encountering and categorising certain kinds of knowledge, but also a space (virtual or not) for dialogue and community. The contributions in Athenaeum reflect on topics ranging from the act of reading to what it would mean for books to ‘perform’ using 3D typography. They pilot new modes of thinking about what the library could feel like, what new opportunities for community building might emerge if we searched for books via memes, or encountered library collections serendipitously while walking outdoors. Together, the chapters in this publication act as a kind of ‘how to’, not in the sense of a definitive set of steps for achieving a single defined outcome, but as a set of shimmering possibilities, guiding us toward someplace new.
Join us for our publication launch on 1 March, a three-chapter broadcast encompassing short performance, discussion, film and workshop segments.
Sarah Schrimpf, 'Re:set', Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, MRes Communication Design 2020/21
Wenwen Zhu, 'Hyper-identity' experience design for Tarot reading, from 'Re:define', Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, MRes Communication Design 2020/21
Bianca Maria Nitu, 'Re:structure', Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, MRes Communication Design 2020/21
ChingUen Tsui, 'Re:transmit', Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, MRes Communication Design 2020/21
Grace Brennan, 'In the Garden with Farrah' (still image) from 'RE: Capture', Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, MRes Communication Design 2020/21
Maria Koch, 'Judge me by my cover', from 'Re:play', Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, MRes Communication Design 2020/21
Huiling Chen, 'Puzzle' from 'Re:awaken', Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, MRes Communication Design 2020/21
Cat Catalyst, cover from Apotheosis: Poems and Manifestos for a New Paradigm, in 'Re:birth', Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, MRes Communication Design 2020/21
Yiting Wu, 'A library to record the sounds from the future during the pandemic era' in 'Re:record', Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, MRes Communication Design 2020/21
