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Most libraries around the world use the Dewey Decimal Classification System (DDCS) to list and categorize books. The DDCS is a library classification system developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876. By categorizing items within a library it serves as a tool for people searching for specific knowledge. It was an attempt to organize all knowledge into ten main classes, which are further subdivided into 100 divisions and 1000 sections. This makes the DDCS appear purely numerical and infinitely rational. However, DDCS is regularly revised, reflecting how culture, ideology, and the perception of knowledge change over time. As a result of these changes and to provide for future alterations 89 of the 1000 sections in the system are classified as “ Unassigned.”
For this issue of Shifter we invited artists, writers, activists and scholars to comment on, disturb and restructure the logic of this system by adding new categories to fill the unassigned spaces. These comments, reflections, parasite systems or prosthetic extensions all expand on what is structurally “knowable” within the institution of the public library, by opening up the possibilities held within its undefined categories.
Participants:
Avi Alpert
Kim Asbury
Lindsay Benedict
Karlotta Blöndal
Emil Madsen Brandt
Dion Farquhar
Alison Gerber
Joshua Hart
Jesal Kapadia
Philipp Kleinmichel
Yahia Lababidi
Lawrence Liang
Karl Lydén
George Monteleone
Huong Ngo
Morgan O’Hara
Annika Ruth Persson
Jean-Marc Superville Sovak
Adam Trowbridge
Anna Vitale
Ylva Westerlund
Editors:
Sreshta Premnath, Kajsa Dahlberg & Jane Jin Kaisen
[…] aspects and stages involved in an artist’s work before, during and after the production. Alison Gerber should be commanded for her three years of research leading to this timely publication tapping into […]