Going over my previous work and talking to the tutors, I came to the decision to focus on the part of the book that describes the mysterious nature of the words MCV. They are repeated randomly, in the swathes of unintelligible writings, that fill the endless books of the library. The inhabitants have formed a pseudo religion based around these letters, in a vain hope it seems, to cling to some sense of familiarity.
After reading the book again, it came to me that it's quite illuminating. The issues it deals with, (transcendence of knowledge) are dealt with in a way that the reader can question the ideas of religion, society, power etc, and to realise that in the end, knowledge is the only true thing that we can hold dear to ourselves.
From this enlightening moment, I asked myself what else is illuminating?……….a lamp. Yes…….I'm going to make a lamp.
The idea will be to create 25 hexagonal frames, (25 is an important number in the book. How many signs there are that create the multitude of words in the Library of Babel) and attach to these, an image on tracing paper. These will be slides that can fit in to a tower frame, with a light bulb at the bottom. The idea will be that you can make out the images on the plates when you view the lamp from the top.
These are the 25 hexagon images I will be using.
