Dewey Decimal System

Installation at the Seattle Central Library, 6 LCD Screens on glass wall, 45" x 24' (2005-2014)“Making Visible the Invisible” is a commission for the Seattle Central Library, situated in the Mixing Chamber, a large open 19,500 sq ft space dedicated to information retrieval and public accessible computer research. The installation consists of 6 large LCD screens located on a glass wall horizontally behind the librarians’ main information desk. The screens feature real-time calculated animation visualizations generated by custom designed statistical and algorithmic software using data received each hour. This data consists of a list of checked-out items organized in chronological order. The item may be a book, a DVD, a CD, a VHS tape, etc. and from the list we can collect and aggregate titles, checkout time, catalog descriptors such as keywords, Dewey classification code if they are non-fiction items. There are approximately 22000 items circulating per day. Items with Dewey Decimal System labels provide for a way to get a perspective on what subject matters are of current interest at any given time as the Dewey system classifies all items according to 10 major categories: 000 Generalities; 100 Philosophy & Psychology; 200 Religion; 300 Social Science; 400 Language; 500 Natural Science & Mathematics; 600 Technology & Applied Sciences; 700 Arts; 800 Literature; 900 Geography & History. These are then subdivided into 100 segments. There are 4 visualizations at this time.The circulation of checked out books and media transforms the library into a data exchange center. This flow of information can be calculated mathematically, analyzed statistically and represented visually. From a cultural perspective, the result may be a good indicator of what the community of patrons considers interesting information at any specific time. Visualizing the statistical information of the titles and their categories therefore provides a real-time living picture of what the community is thinking.

Source: project website

CodeSwitching 23µg imagines hypertext at the time when the Web has evolved into Web[∞].CodeSwitching 23µg attempts to illustrate what will happen if the DNA sequence is replaced with the Dewey Decimal System.CodeSwitching 23µg establishes how a hypertext might also function as a T-cell receptor complex.CodeSwitching 23µg follows the information hygiene protocol.CodeSwitching 23µg is an attempt to come up with impossible, non-existent information technologies.CodeSwitching 23µg imagines a society where the self has long been proved as fiction; hypertexts in this society are marketed, packaged and sold as events.CodeSwitching 23µg is part of a series of hypertexts called “10–43: Blan©k Fiction”. 

Babel is a site specific work for a non-site. The context of the work is non-physical. The site is an abstract thing...information space and the taxonomy of knowledge that all libraries represent...which the Internet, where the project is realised, is.

The Dewey Decimal numbering system, used in the cataloguing of library contents, is the key metaphor, visualised in a three dimensional multi-user space that is itself a metaphor for the infinite nature of information.

In Babel the Dewey Decimal system is used as a mapping and navigation technique. The structure of the library is re-mapped into the hyper-spatial that constitutes the Web. The Dewey numbering system is employed as a means to navigate the internet itself, the taxonomy inherent in the numerical codes mapping onto web-sites that conform with the defined subjects.

The Dewey Decimal system is based on two concepts; firstly that each area of knowledge can be defined as a number and that the space between each numbered area is infinitely divisible. This allows the cataloguing system to be both navigable in its subject headings whilst able to contain an infinite number of potential entries in the catalogue. As such it is a simultaneously finite macrocosmic and infinite microcosmic system.

In Babel viewers logged onto the site are confronted with a 3D visualisation of an abstract data space mapped as arrays and grids of Dewey Decimal numbers. As they move the mouse around the screen they are able to navigate this 3D environment. All the viewers are able to see what all the other viewers, who are simultaneously logged onto the site, are seeing. The multiple 3D views of the data-space are montaged together into a single shared image, where the actions of any one viewer effects what all the other viewers see. If a large number of viewers are logged on together the information displayed becomes so complex and dense that it breaks down into a meaningless abstract space.

Viewers are able to generate specific Dewey Decimal numbers, a dynamic interface keeping them informed of web-site addresses that conform with the subjects thus defined. Viewers can select any site with a simple point and click of the mouse, opening the site in a new window.

(Source: Simon Biggs' artist statement)