Libraries: - Looking for a new identity and mission in the pandemic era

Is the library just a place to read books? Certainly not. Someone told me that it is a good place to do homework, watch movies, sleep, stare in a daze, watch the scenery, and meditate. The library is not only a place for people to enhance their knowledge and enrich their spirits but also a place to help humans escape from reality. Here, humans may be alone, but libraries are not.

When the pandemic era came, many people lost the Shangri-la existing in the metropolis in their heart. Meanwhile, the library also has gradually lost their vitality.

It is time for libraries to undergo some changes, to be given a new form or identity or mission. How can a library be changed from a place that helps human beings escape from society to a place where people can understand each other? How can a library be changed from a place for enhancing knowledge to a place for emotional exchange?

A library to record the sounds from the future during the pandemic era

During the first lockdown period in London, I tried to record current sounds to explore the life in future.

The audio-work is set in a dark room in which inside layout is the same to rooms in the student department building. The rooms in the student department building have the same layout and size. When the policy of lockdown began, for safety, every resident needed to stay in their room like prison. They were trapped in their rooms during this extraordinary period.

In the room, every corner is equipped with a small sound. The sound is from interviewees’ most frequent and impressive sound when they were at different points in this space in a day during this period. When listeners are close to these points, the sound will play these sounds.

Because of constraints from physical space, The effect of this work can be simulated by three-dimensions modeling.

I have created a new form of library : This space can be regarded as a library that records the sounds under the epidemic circumstances.

At the moment, people can get comfort from these voices, and not feel it is just themselves alone suffering from all this. Based on Etienne Klein’s opinion, People should start living well right now, with new thinking and positioning. If the future is now, people can start to look for themselves, find problems, and understand the meaning of life.

New exploration for libraries: - from the female gaze

During the pandemic era, females need a space to record their emotions, experiences, and contributions and share them with others widely.

The true value of women has been selectively forgotten by this society, and female workers have always been ignored. The stress and harm that the policy of lockdown cause to females’ bodies and minds are not taken seriously.

Based on Perez’s (2019) book ‘Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Women’ which critically analyzes the invisible and ignored aspects of females, if females themselves do not realize them, they may not have a strong awareness and resistance against the patriarchal system. The pandemic era has made this situation worse. Many people’s main sources are the internet and screens, but the media is used to erase the value of female workers. In China, there are no females among the medical staff representatives fighting the pandemic in TV shows and documentaries. Documentaries on the fight against the epidemic only has male footage, and the females’ efforts in this war are erased. A whole year passed since the fight against the epidemic began, but pads still cannot be included in the list of materials needed in the fight.

I think such difficulties for females are worthy of being to be acknowledged and discussed. Besides, there are also many stories that ordinary women cannot share with other people during the pandemic. In this virtual library, every female can write down their contributions and difficulties. They can record their own history during this period. This space will also become an existence used to satirize the recording of social history. Social history should not exist beyond females.

Because of constraints from physical space, it can be set as a virtual space. I think this can be a long-term project, and the stories of ordinary women deserve to be recorded and seen. Women need to encourage each other and grow together. #Sheforher# is a classic topic.

What can be found in this virtual space?

During the pandemic, the Chinese government conducted the new policy ‘cooling period for divorce'. This is an ironic guide for women who are preparing for a divorce and divorcing that may be seen in this virtual library.

Biography

Yiting Wu has a business background, and she learned financial management in the past.

She has a great interest in contemporary art practice and curating contemporary art. Her current personal research plan is mainly to place feminism and contemporary emotions in the current social, political, economic, and cultural environment critically, experimenting with different research methods, to take part in reflective practice, and explore the links among social science, art and design methods and the functions of communication.

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Athenaeum, 2021

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