The Sound of the Stacks
There are many listeners in the Reading Room at the Central Library. I have been coming here to listen for five years. I have brought many students of film here to listen too. But it still feels like a secret. It was therefore very special to enter the Stacks. The sound from the Stacks in the centre of the ground floor projects upwards, to the Reading Room ceiling, where it meets the other sounds.
Mostly it was peaceful in the Stacks, a private place of work, I made a sound journey through touching the spines of the books. Running my finger along the countless spines. This movement was in reach, a way of navigating through the history and density of the books through sound. Maybe it’s playful, like a child’s view of a maze.
I aim to make a continuum, a sound loop which I want to project upwards, upon the ceiling in the Reading room.
Whilst recording the Stacks, there were some very special sounds I was able to hear, the sound of a librarian’s fingers filing, in along extending wooden shelves, the sound of the Town hall bells, one afternoon striking three chimes. The sound of whipers, goods lift doors, trolleys up and down the corridors of the Stacks. It was meditative to sit and listen, in such a quiet, respectful place, where the whispers float up to the Reading Room ceiling, and form a continuum of their own. Thank you Libby for such a sound treat.
