Blog 3: Jaqueline Cooke- “Heterotopia: Art Ephemera, Libraries, and Alternative Space.”

Cooke, Jaqueline. “Heterotopia: Art Ephemera, Libraries, and Alternative Space.” Art Documentation. Nov, 2006: 34 – 39.

Jaqueline Cooke is the research support librarian at Goldsmiths University in London. In her reading Heterotopia: Art Ephemera, Libraries and Alternative Space, she talks about her research regarding the collection of art ephemera in a library. She discusses the potential of art ephemera to represent contemporary alternative art practices such as practices that are not object-based but are tactical and contextual.

She suggests that by putting art ephemera in a library, one is giving the sort of art it is concerned with “value as a source of potential histories which might otherwise remain obscure”. (Cooke, 2006: 34). We discussed in the group that our fine arts library gave precedence to books of artists’ works and books concerned with art history and theory. The library in this sense is an ideological space, because it is a space that is determined by someone who what is important or not in relation to fine arts. As a group we found this interesting as we all often look outside of art books to find information to inform our work.

In a way, in a space like a library, we are always subjected to the dominant society. In M Gottdiener’s writing on Lefebre’s work The Production of Space, Gottdiener writes

"Every mode of social organization produces an environment that is a consequence of the social relations it possesses. In addition, by producing a space according to its own nature, a society not only materializes into distinctive forms, but also reproduces itself." (Gottiener, 1993: 132)

In our library, we produce a space that reflects the dominant societies values and structures. However I think it can be a space that also has the potential to change the dominant culture.

Cooke suggests that, because a library is a heterotopia, it can include different understandings of ideological spaces. (Cooke 2006: 34). An idea Foucault talks about in Of Other Spaces. He suggests the library is a heterotopia, a space that has “the curios property of being in relation with all other sites, but in such a way as to suspect, neutralize, or invent the set of relations they have to designate, mirror or reflect.” (Foucault & Miskowiec, 1986: 24).

The library as a heterotopia is a space where both the contradictory ideologies surrounding object-art practices and alternative art practices are reflected and produced. In changing the value of ephemera by placing it in the library, I think one challenges what society has traditionally thought of important and of value.

See you in the general library.

References:

Cooke, Jaqueline. “Heterotopia: Art Ephemera, Libraries, and Alternative Space.” Art Documentation. Nov, 2006: 34 – 39.

Foucault, Michel and Jay Miskowiec. “Of Other Spaces”. Diacritics. 16:1, 1986: 22 – 27. Jstor. University of Auckland, Auckland. 25, April. 2008.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/464648

Gottdiener, M. "A Marx for Our Time: Henri Lefebvre and the Production of Space". Sociology Theory. 11, 1993: 129 - 134. jstor. University of Auckland, Auckland. 25 April. 2008 http://www.jstor.prg/stable/201984