Canceled: Alternative Manifestations and Productive Failures
curated by Lauren van Haaften-Schick
Archive of the exhibition included in:
The End(s) of the Library: David Horvitz
How Can a Digital be Gift?
11/08/12 – 12/21/12
Opening: November 8, 6:00-8:00pm
Goethe-Institut New York
72 Spring Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY
theendsofthelibrary.com
The End(s) of the Library is a series of artist commissions taking place at the Goethe-Institut New York library from October 2012-June 2013 organized by Jenny Jaskey. For the first of these projects, David Horvitz will address the role of digital rights management (DRM) within the library’s infrastructure. Working with a group of artists and independent publishers, Horvitz will attempt to make a generous donation of artist books to the Goethe-Institut library in digital format. His gift will be contingent upon these materials being available to library users for an unlimited timeframe and without restriction for edition size. Both of these aspects of e-books – their length of use and number of copies – are currently limited within the e-book system, in which each book is understood as a singular object. Horvitz’ project, entitled How Can a Digital be Gift?, will explore the challenges of the digital format to the library’s circulation model, emphasizing the important role played by third-party distributors who provide the online platforms necessary for sharing digital content. With these platforms, libraries no longer own the books in their collections, but rather subscribe to them as rented data.
To carryout his project, Horvitz will be in residence at the Goethe-Institut New York, integrating his collecting and digitization work into the library’s everyday existence. He will maintain an active blog documenting various aspects of his project, and will embark upon an extended conversation with the Goethe-Institut library staff and their information providers. In celebration of the artist books donated to the Goethe-Institut, Horvitz will host a special event and book launch for BFFA3AE by digital publisher Badlands Unlimited, the Los Angeles-based music group Lucky Dragons, and Andrew Beccone of the Reanimation Library on Monday, November 26, 2012 beginning at 7 p.m.
David Horvitz (b. 1983, Los Angeles) is a New York-based artist whose work shifts seamlessly between the Internet and the printed page. His participatory practice, which often involves close collaborations with other artists, as well as a web-based audience, considers strategies of information circulation and the impermanence of digital artifacts. Horvitz work has been included in exhibitions at The Kitchen, New York; Art Metropole, Vancouver; Or Gallery, Vancouver; and New Museum, New York, among others.
The End(s) of the Library is a series of commissioned installations, lectures, performances, and workshops that consider the state of the library with Julieta Aranda, Fia Backström & R. Lyon, David Horvitz, Christian Philipp Müller, and The Serving Library taking place at the Goethe- Institut New York Library from November 8, 2012 – June 21, 2013. Organized by Jenny Jaskey, the contributors will address how previous library configurations have given way to new forms and revised values in the digital age, emphasizing the fact that the library is neither a monolithic system nor an abandoned utopia, but an ever-contested site demanding new readings of its organizational frameworks: an institution whose ends are without end.
The program is free and open to the public. For a full schedule of exhibitions and events, please visit theendsofthelibrary.com. For general information call (212) 439-8700 or visit the Goethe-Institut New York online at www.goethe.de/newyork.
