Elsewhere Blog

Although it’s rare, occasionally new objects are added to the Elsewhere collection. During the month of July, for example, a Museum Studies section was added to the library. For now, the collection consists of the following twelve books:

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (young adult
novel) E.L. Konigsburg
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder Lawrence Weschler
Species of Space Georges Perec
Illuminations Walter Benjamin
The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche
The Practice of Everyday Life Michel de Certeau
Relational Aesthetics Nicholas Bourriaud
Museum Memories Didier Maleuvre
The Hidden Dimension Edward T Hall
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Curating But Were Afraid to
Ask Hans-Ulrich Obrist
A Brief History of Curating Hans-Ulrich Obrist
Participatory Museum Nina Simon

Each one has a place in the web of influences that encompasses the philosophy of Elsewhere as a living museum. The seemingly infinite layers and levels of the space, both physically and theoretically, can create an overwhelming atmosphere and so returning to some of the literature that inspired the creation, and continued development, of Elsewhere makes sense for first time visitors as well as regulars to the space.
Readers of the collection will be exposed to themes and concepts such as….

fluxism, surrealism, dada, situationism, 1960s communes, pop,
intentional communities, the american pragmatists, the importance of
otherness (levi-strauss, levinas), other forms of thinking besides
rationality (foucault), deleuze (thousand plateau’s), the ouvere,
children’s books, aesthetics of impressionism, social practice,
site-specificity, the evolution of curation, archaeology, museums, the
history of the novel, parades and public spectacle, roland barthe,
walter benjamin, the loss of authorship, environmental art, categories
and ordering systems, the necessity of the sign, the search for
meaning, the attribution of intention and chance, public sites as
playgrounds, other uses, ideation processes, re-circulation past
recycling, bricolage, the end of language and the onset of form,
radical intervention, systemic and systematic play, shared media,
narrative building, games and invention, habit forming and breaking,
the books in the bible, math and logic and rule systems, chaos theory
and the theory of relativity, labryinths and mazes,