What am I Seeing?, led by Reanimation Library's Andrew Beccone, is a workshop organized around the problem of cataloging images. It is presented in conversation with Apparatus for a Utopian Image, a changing, interactive exhibition exploring how we interpret and associate meanings from the images that surround us.

Unlike books, which can explicitly convey their subject matter through their written content (and can be cataloged relatively easily because subject headings are comprised of written language), image cataloging requires an extra step—the translation of a given image into a written description. This becomes even more difficult when you aren’t sure what you are looking at—an experience not uncommon in (though certainly not limited to) the world of Contemporary Art. 

Using content taken from the shelves of the Reanimation Library, the participatory workshop will offer insight into library cataloging practices and of the theoretical foundations of classification systems, with special attention paid to their inherently subjective and political nature. 

Seating is limited to 20 people. RSVP to meghana@efanyc.org by 9/30.

REANIMATION LIBRARY
The Reanimation Library's collection—simultaneously prosaic and peculiar—consists of relics of the rapidly receding 20th century. Chosen primarily for the images that they contain, they have been culled from thrift stores, rummage sales, flea markets, municipal dumps, library sales, give-away piles, and used bookstores across the country. 

ANDREW BECCONE
Andrew Beccone, an artist, librarian, and musician, is the founder of the Reanimation Library. The library has been exhibited widely at venues around the world including Vox Populi (Philadelphia), SPACE (London), High Desert Test Sites (Joshua Tree), talcual (Mexico City), 98weeks (Beirut), the Museum of Modern Art, the Queens Museum, and Kunsthalle Osnabrück.

This event is in conjunction with Apparatus for a Utopian Image, on view from September 21 - October 29, 2016 at EFA Project Space.