My oldest memory of a book library comes from early schooling years in Bangalore, India. I attended an institution that was run by Catholic Missionaries who embraced an ethic of strict discipline with mandated obedience to authority. The school library reflected these ideals. The students were required to maintain pin-drop silence and occupy the least space possible. I continue to remain on guard, cautious about not disturbing anyone when I’m in the library. This embodied sense of hypervigilance has sometimes prevented me from accessing the larger than life experience that public libraries can potentially offer.
Today, I attended a one-on-one interactive experience titled MANUAL at the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch. It was a wholesome experience that redefined my sensory awareness of the space and people in a public library. On arriving at the entrance, I was greeted by a guide who took me to a corridor with elevators. The next few minutes were akin to a session of guided meditation. A performer accompanied me to delightful corners across the library and helped invoke appreciation about the wealth of wisdom, life and mystique that coexist in harmony.
There were micro-experiences that brought attention to the lights, shadows, mutters, whirrings and fragrances amongst the bookshelves and reading desks. I was made to listen to distilled musings (on an audio device) that were gathered from some of the books in the library. I felt the tactile surfaces that made the space functional. I was then taken to a desk where the performer deftly transported my imagination into the world of books – taking me from disembodied pictures of human hands to forests and abstract landscapes to the blur of life on our planet and beyond.
Using public spaces for interactive, unintrusive art projects can be transformative to how we experience life in a city. We need more such free events to embed a sense of collective existence in our psyche, given the constant bombardment of anxiety-provoking news cycles that reinforce cynicism, othering and dissonance from our human surroundings. After the event, I walked around the library, looking for the books that spoke to me. And they did not disappoint.
MANUAL is running a few more shows as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival until Feb 1, 2023. Learn more here.
– Annapoorna Shruthi