Bibliodérive is the application of the Situationist International practice of the dérive or “drift” reapplied to the realm of research, libraries, and archives.

The John M. Flaxman Library bibliodérive is a collection of generative, open-ended actions, or situations, taken to destabilize research practices geared towards an expected product or outcome, the gathering of information to merely support extant ideas and thought structures. It is a disruption in the traditional use value assigned to the library, the archive, to information storage and even to the very concept of research itself.

Situations
The Flaxman Library Bibliodérive Deck
Friday: 10:00am – 5:00pm drop in anytime, 6th floor Sharp
The Flaxman Library Bibliodérive Deck is a set of prompts aimed at engaging with the library’s collections, exploring non-traditional research and the physicality of the library itself. The Deck of prompts will be available to dérivists for use during the event. Prior to the bibliodérive, we are collecting prompts from the SAIC community. Please add your prompt to our deck using this link. The completed Deck will be archived in the library and will be shared online

Space/History
Friday: 10:00am – 5:00pm drop in anytime, 6th floor Sharp
A class will create and curate a historical timeline that physically disrupts the visual and physical space of the library. A counter narrative will be formed as texts, images, and items from the library’s collections are placed in chronological order and annotated, commented on, and contrasted with diverse narratives, gestures, voices, objects and bodies. At 11am, students will deploy their performative responses to these items. Biblioderive participants are welcome to make their own additions throughout the day that add to or alter this timeline.

Stamp Out the Patriarchy
Friday: 10:00am – 5:00pm drop in anytime, 6th floor Sharp
Artist Dano Wall has created a stamp that transforms the $20 from a Jackson, into a Tubman. Harriet Tubman was a “disrupter” who led the underground railroad and dared to think differently about race and gender in the United States. In Wall’s words “…Who we choose to honor as a society affects the moral attitudes that are baked into us as we grow up. The impact that seeing the face of Harriet Tubman staring back at you from a $20 bill should not be underestimated. This sort of representation can subtly but deeply affect someone’s conception of themselves and their place in society. The slightly subversive nature of it being currency that’s been hand-stamped by another human makes a discovery of one of these bills all the more joyous.” Join us in changing the face of history – stop by and stamp your own $20 or use our fake twenties to commemorate Tubman!

It Was a Rebellion
Friday: 10:30am – 11:30am, 508 Sharp
An encore performance of Sadie Woods’ site-specific radio broadcast for the 50th anniversary of the Chicago “riots” following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination in April of 1968. From the days of the Civil Rights Era to Ferguson to Baltimore to downtown Chicago in the wake of Laquan McDonald, the public expression of Black rage that escalates into physical confrontation or property damage is often framed as mindless barbarism by authority and mainstream media as the word “riot.” In this sonic exploration, DJ and sound artist Sadie Woods recuperates and challenges our notion of the riot and reframes it as a legitimate, even loving, insurgency or rebellion. Mixing music from the Civil Rights Era, news reports, speeches, ephemera, and symbolic sounds, Woods takes us on a journey that reverberates with echoes of the unheard. Additionally, a short documentary film will be screened about the creation of this work.

Microbookmarking
Friday: 11:00am – 4:00pm drop in anytime, 6th floor Sharp
Individuals passing between rows 4 and 5 (NA958 to NB497) are to select a book of their choice and make window cut-outs on paper that would serve as a bookmark. Microbookmarking is a term that Megan Nugroho made for this action that allows for a unique revealing of words from pages of a book. “Is this highlighting a certain part or is it censoring the rest?“

Babel
Friday: 11:30am – 12:00pm, 6th floor Sharp
A timed selection of readings culled from the library’s collections, read in a variety of languages, performed by the SAIC community, orchestrated by Arnold Kemp, in the spirit of scores composed by John Cage.

1968 and the Vietnam War
Friday: 12:00pm – 1:00pm, 508 Sharp
Presentation and discussion of artists’ publications and multiples from the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection focusing on protests from the Vietnam War and the subsequent era of social engagement. Nora Taylor and Seth Kim-Cohen will lead the discussion with a focus on the year long course World on Fire: 1968-Now that examines the intersection of art, design, and politics in 1968, the mythic year of global upheaval.

Live Modular Synthesizer Exploration
Friday: 1:00pm – 2:00pm, 6th floor Sharp
In an attempt to score the movement of people in the space of the library, a modular synthesizer will be played on the 6th floor of the Flaxman Library. Knob movements and patch decisions will be made through interpretations of words and phrases found in books nearby the modular synthesizer location. The sound of the synthesizer will drift through the bookshelves and into the ears of the individuals in the space.

Figuring Out the Flaxman
Friday: 1:00pm – 4:00pm, 6th floor Sharp
A Multi-Level Drawing course will draw a clothed figure model in varied situations at the Flaxman Library among the stacks, engaging with furniture and the collection. Participants will draw with pencil/markers on portable surfaces (no easels) and tape up the drawings in the library as they are completed.

Astro/Tarot Psychology with Neha Bhat
Friday: 2:00pm – 3:00pm, 6th floor Sharp
Astro/Tarot Psychology is a unique system of inner development, using Jungian methods of active imagination and listening to symbols from the collective unconscious. It is existential in nature, question and answer driven, and not fatalistic—in that, this method of asking the tarot for guidance does not point towards any definitive date/time/event to be predicted. Rather, it speaks of possibilities, of connecting one’s own behavioral patterns to larger planetary themes of the cosmos. Join Neha Bhat as she guides participants in utilizing these methods of inquiry to gain insight into their own unconscious patterns.

16mm Film Festival
Friday: 3:00pm – 4:00pm, 613 Sharp
Mining the collection of 16mm experimental films housed in the Flaxman Library, curated by Zach Fontenot.

an aparallel evolution of thought and speech
Friday: 3:00pm – 4:00pm, 6th floor Sharp
Evan and Dove sit back to back on the backless cushion chairs in the library while they read out loud. Each artist chooses a different book that has some important connection to them and reads it at the same time, obscuring each other’s voices, until one of them can no longer continue to read.

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Tags: Bibliodérive 2018, Chicago, Illinois, Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection, John M Flaxman Library, Loop, The Leroy Neiman Center, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Zach Fontenot