Library
Last summer I went to Zürich Central Library, ZB in short, to get a couple of books from Van Doesburg & J.T.G.
On the way there I bumped into a Buddhist monk. Peace he said with a calm voice and he showed me his hand. I put my hand in my pocket and grabbed my wallet, searching for the right number, 2 or 3.
Maybe…
PEACE he said with the same calm voice, but this time louder and pointing towards his notebook. In this notebook appeared a list of names and numbers between 20 & 50.
He pointed again. This time towards the only note in my wallet.
I reacted a bit surprised and gave him my note. In return I could write my name on the list and my number next to it. He thanked me and granted me a wristband made out of wooden balls and a hard plastic card. I put the wristband around my arm and the plastic card in my pocket.
I continued my journey towards the library.
[Enter]
The doors opened automatically.
Minus 2
Searching the computer for codes, letters, and numbers. Moving down with the central elevator.
I ended up in {-2}, where I tried to find the right code, but it didn’t appear between the others. I wondered and looked up. An old man, I guessed somewhere in his late 70s, maybe 80s, walking very slowly. Old man: I’m looking for the section with art books, the ones with big pictures in it. Behind him stood this younger man, a worker in the library.
Younger man: Yes mister, what are you looking for exactly?
Old man: These books with big pictures, they were around here before.
Younger man: Let me ask a colleague, just a moment.
He smiled quietly at me, in the same way as his bodily gesture. I smiled back and thought: Abstract : Reality played very well sir.
Moving towards a new domain, {-3}, Unfortunately I couldn’t travel deeper, cause the other domains were kept secret. In the elevator I bounced into someone, he pushed the button: [-5]
Do you work here?
Yes, I work in the library, therefore I can travel deeper.
I responded: “Ade” and got out in {-3}
The man disappeared in-between sliding doors.
Welcome to level -3
[5] tables in front of me. On every table a plastic cup with a different colored stripe around it, and a different number on it.
On one side a table with [1] computer. Just around the corner another table, a pencil and a pile of paper. On the other side, a scanner.
Mirror.
Behind the elevator a thick concrete wall. Another room.
This time with {6} computers; {2} people behind those computers, properly workers.
[First move]
Going around, moving towards an antique cabinet with tiny drawers. I opened a drawer and found the word ‘Biology’. Under it, its meaning, and links to other words.
I opened a second and found…What did I find?
I don’t remember anymore.
Encounter 1
A professor entered the room.
Glasses, messy hair. He took {2} weighty catalogues from the bookshelf, filled with old editions of ‘Das Bild’, an ancient German tabloid.
As a wild man he flipped the pages, and with his old digital camera he started making pictures. 1, 2, 3, many, many pictures. Laughing in himself while shooting.
I wondered: What is this man doing? Where is the fun?
I looked to my right, the table with the stack of papers on it.
In a ‘transparent-plastic-shaped-box’ I found a ruler and grabbed a piece of paper. I drew a line with a certain length at a certain speed.
I looked to my left, the computer…
Most pages blocked, but [Wikipedia] not.
“Das Bild.”
[Enter]
You arrived: PiP [Picture-in-picture]
I wondered: What are those two people doing over there, behind the concrete wall, I mean behind those computers?
Encounter 2
A shadow entered the room in the shape of a bit fatty, bit messy, but seemingly bright personality. He was reading a very small red book.
He left it on the table, moved towards the computer and put something in the ‘transparent-plastic-shaped-box’. Then he disappeared into nowhere.
I followed his traces. The small red book stated: ‘Pattern language of the brain’.
It had another title which I don’t recall, but this is a good {placeholder} for now. Series of small images of vibrating scribbles, ordered in tables with descriptions next to it.
I looked at the ‘transparent-plastic-shaped-box’, the last trace the shadow made. I approached the box. To my surprise the messy shadow hid a piece of trash inside the box. A ‘transparent-plastic-rippled-straw’ was placed inside the ‘transparent-plastic-shaped-box’.
‘Transparent-plastic-rippled-straw’ inside the ‘transparent-plastic-shaped-box’, M.© 2019
This wristband was annoying me. This plastic card, what purpose?
I left both items on the scanner and moved up, towards level {+3}.
{-3} Leaving both items on the scanner, M.© 2019
Transportation
To enter level {+3} you must go up with the elevator to level [0].
Level [0]: a lounge, comfortable chairs, even sofas in the centre of the room. Students studying together, or alone in a cubicle.
People reading newspapers, advertisements I found, pardon, found me on top of the bookshelves.
At the end of it, this adolescent, his smartphone rotated and plugged into charge. Curious to see what he was doing; I turned my head around the sofa.
A Game, he was playing a video game.
Where was I…
Ooh yes level +3.
But first to the toilet.
doubleUC-Biology
Where can I find the toilet? Exit the library and then the first to the left.
Vielen Dank!
What happened here?!
Roles of paper on the floor. White-textile-paper. Aah this machine, they are so annoying.
I tried to roll the papers back into the machine but could only manage halfway. Scribbles on the wall, a Leonardo da Vinci wallpaper covered the walls of the toilet room.
All, except one wall. This one was left open and had a small window in it, facing towards a church.
Flush!
I messaged the porter: The machine is broken, papers all around. Thanks for telling me.
Foot-journey
To reach level [+3] you must go by foot, I heard the Buddhist monk whispering in my ear.
I skipped the lounge this time. Moved up the stairs.
First straight and then spiralling up.
“An Announcement.” A shelf with cover-images of books. Placed in front of the covers, the books themselves. One cover-image appeared three times in a row. Two copies were lying on the shelf, the third was taken away.
OK…What to do now?
I sat down, opened my book. Bright warm light pierced through the glass ceiling. Few people were sitting around me.
A row full of books beautifully sectioned next to me.
Anthropology, philosophy,…you name it, they ordered it.
Started reading…The Arcadian Man.
While reading, the person sitting at the table diagonal across me, fell asleep,
numerous times in the 30 min I was there.
Transportation
This stairway in the corner, what does it lead to?
I stood up and moved my body towards the corner of the platform, because it was more a platform than a room, this space.
I walked up the stairs. A door, locked.
I left a note.
One on the table.
One in the cover-bookshelf.
I spiralled down, all the way to the second floor and I left another note inside the computer. From the second floor I moved straight forward to the ground-floor, to the exit.
Beep beep!
Excuse me sir, you must scan your books.
Ooh ok.
I scanned…
I didn’t scan my books.
I went to level {-2} and placed the book of Van Doesburg, next to the book, About Cooking, and another book about Thermodynamics.
What the hell, I just place Torres-García next to it.
I went to level {-3}. What did I see there., a guy with his feet on the table. The same table on which I marked a straight-pencil-ruler-line…
When I walked around, I noticed that this guy was playing with an empty plastic bottle of water, till the moment it dropped on the ground.
He balanced backward, standing on only one leg and grabbed the bottle with two fingers.
I looked at the scanner. The two items were still there.
I moved towards the corners of the room. Empty bookshelves, some yellow post-its, a woman.
While running towards the exit, a guy in a suit, supposedly-a-lawyer passed just in front of me. Light bulbs in a rainbow of colors, all around the metal stairs.
I went quickly, quickly up the stairs.
Down, down to the lockers. Numbers, numbers, where is my number.
I asked the person next to me: Can you tell me where this number is? I’m not so good in numbers.
Sure, I can. [Pointing towards a locker] It’s this one.
Thank you!
I ran to the toilet because I had to piss. Under the sink the same orange trash-can as we have at home, but this one you couldn’t close anymore. The rotating-white-disc on top broke, leaving only a button.
Two trash-cans, M.© 2019
Hurry…Hurry…!
The automatic-sliding-door almost closed on top of me.
Outside, through the gates,
a spitting fountain.
Musée Visionnaire printed on the back of my head.
Library (pt.1) © M. Production [Educating Creativity] Published 11.2019, written 11.2018 Triple-A Society