Banned Books Week is September 27th through October 3rd this year, and it’s all about celebrating the freedom to read what we want. A new public art exhibit at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library is inspired by this concept. UNCENSORED: Information Antics features work from local artists that challenges censorship and explores the use and abuse of information in a technological age.
UNCENSORED celebrates its opening night at the library this Friday, September 25th from 7 – 10 p.m., and will be on display through October 22nd. Matthew Mann, artist and MLK Library staff member, has curated the exhibit for the second year in a row. Though the pieces share a common theme, the mediums and messages are very different. For example:
In “Geolocation”, artists Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman traveled to the publicly geotagged locations of various tweets, and took photos of where the tweets were written. Each photo is captioned with the text of the original tweet. The intention is to show that “somebody felt this emotion here,” Larson says, while creating an anchor of “ephemeral online data” and probe “the expectation of privacy” on social networks.
Billy Friebele built the “Ultrasonic Reflector”, a robot which blends into its environment but uses sonar to detect nearby movement and engage with its surroundings as they approach. The result is almost like a toy that you play with unintentionally.
In “Section 215”, Hasan Elahi took a photo of the top of the National Security Agency building and set the text of the Patriot Act Section 215, translated into Morse Code, over the image. Section 215 was the section of the Patriot Act used to justify the government’s collection of Americans’ phone records.
Many additional artists are featured in the exhibit, with work focusing on capturing sounds, D.C.’s homicide map, intelligence on UFOs, and more. Put together, the exhibit conjures nostalgia, darkness, mystery, emotion, and humor.
The MLK Library has also makes some recommendations for your banned book reading list:
- Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
- The Minority Report, by Philip K. Dick
- The Word Exchange, by Alena Graedon
- The Trial, by Franz Kafka
- 1984, by George Orwell
- Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan
- Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
- Modern Romance, by Aziz Ansari
- Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free, by Cory Doctorow
- No Place To Hide, by Glenn Greenwald
- Dataclysm, by Christian Rudder
- Harriet The Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh
- The Phantom Tolbooth, by Norton Juster
- The Giver, by Lois Lowry
At UNCENSORED‘s opening night, attendees will be able to meet the artists, listen to live music by local bands, and drink cocktails based on censored books—created by some of the city’s most talented mixologists from 2 Birds 1 Stone, Mockingbird Hil, Jack Rose, Collectif 1806, Zaytinya, and Red Eye Menus. Beer will be provided by DC Brau.
Tickets are $50 and can be purchased here. More information about UNCENSORED, and other D.C. public library events for Banned Book Week, can be found on their website.
