Garden Library Visualization
This is an interactive visualization of the emotional database of the books in the Garden Library for Migrant Workers in Tel Aviv, reflecting the first three years (2009-2012) of the library’s lending history. I developed it after the concept from artist Romy Achituv.
Each book in this library has an emotional categorization (amusing, bizarre, boring, depressing, exciting, inspiring, or sentimental) that is reassigned by the readers when they return the book. In this way, books accumulate an emotional history as they wander trough these cetegories.
The Garden Library was founded in 2009 by ARTEAM, an interdisciplinary art collective cofounded by Romy. It is an outdoor library with no guards, walls, or door, and it serves the refugees and migrant workers of Tel-Aviv. According to Marit Benisrael, one of the members of ARTEAM: “The idea is that the books will wander in the library like people do in the world, and that every person can change something.”
For more information about the library and the visualization, check the following pages in Romy’s website:
The Garden Library for the Migrant Communities and Neighborhoods of South Tel Aviv