BL_ME 2020
British Library Media Extension 2020
………….It’s now ….well just coming up to 11:45 on December the 31st 2019, New years eve and I am here on the opening night of the BL_ME festival 2020, and for those that don‘t already know the BL_ME festival or the British library_ Media Extension festival is a offshoot of the Media extension tour that celebrates The European Library’s or TEL’s 20th anniversary, celebrating the ongoing digitisation of the material safeguarded in Europe’s national libraries and institutions.
In the 20 years since it was set up The European library has sought to digitise and unify the collections of all the national libraries and institutions across Europe to give the mobile , virtual users across the world complete access to its digital and non digital collections at any time and at any place.
Tonight’s celebration marks the completion of the projects second round of 10 year digitisation programmes which due to its unexpected success has been rewarded with a 2 year digital festival that will tour around some of participating institutions. For the first year the Media Extension festival will be hosted by the British Library to give prize for the extraordinary contribution the BL has made to the TEL project. The ME building will then be demounted and re-located to various locations around Europe promoting the online library and its visions for the future.
The Media Extension is not only a celebration of the progress made in the digitisation of Europe’s national libraries and institutions but also explores how we might navigate and simply make sense of the profusion of the new digital data.
While the first decade and to some extent the second decade of the 21st century has been about access to information, in the third decade we will begin to explore how we might make sense of this proliferation of data. The TEL project again leads the way and through the BL_ME festival project will promote the rise of new immersive landscapes as a possible method for navigating information , promoting experiential and subsequently more intuitive learning. Sounds, light , orientation, haptic’s/touch may all contribute and augment the way we meaningfully consume information in the future.
The ME building is a sign of things to come, immersive landscapes, ambiguous places, limited life spans, these are all spatial concepts that the design of the building has attempted to engage with. During the day the building appears as a complex network of structural and ad hoc insertions.. But it is a night as we can see here that the building really comes alive. Designed as a 24 hour space the building really takes advantage of the ambiguity that darkness brings. The structure seems to vanish, the warm glow of LED’s comes to the foreground and the occupant is immersed in a virtual world of speculative landscapes, transported from the here and now, to the anywhere and anytime of the new virtual worlds.
….Yes…. And its now, in a couple of minutes or should I say, …yes seconds that the ME will celebrate in in full Technicolor style here in London behind the institution that initiated it all….and (crowd in unison) 5,4,3,2,1,…. And there it is welcome … (hubbub) to…. ‘tomorrow-land ’.
Transcription from the 2020 New years eve report by
Bobbie Johnston
BBC WThe BL_ME
British Library Media Extension 2020
………….It’s now ….well just coming up to 11:45 on December the 31st 2019, New years eve and I am here on the opening night of the BL_ME festival 2020, and for those that don‘t already know the BL_ME festival or the British library_ Media Extension festival is a offshoot of the Media extension tour that celebrates The European Library’s or TEL’s 20th anniversary, celebrating the ongoing digitisation of the material safeguarded in Europe’s national libraries and institutions.
In the 20 years since it was set up The European library has sought to digitise and unify the collections of all the national libraries and institutions across Europe to give the mobile , virtual users across the world complete access to its digital and non digital collections at any time and at any place.
Tonight’s celebration marks the completion of the projects second round of 10 year digitisation programmes which due to its unexpected success has been rewarded with a 2 year digital festival that will tour around some of participating institutions. For the first year the Media Extension festival will be hosted by the British Library to give prize for the extraordinary contribution the BL has made to the TEL project. The ME building will then be demounted and re-located to various locations around Europe promoting the online library and its visions for the future.
The Media Extension is not only a celebration of the progress made in the digitisation of Europe’s national libraries and institutions but also explores how we might navigate and simply make sense of the profusion of the new digital data.
While the first decade and to some extent the second decade of the 21st century has been about access to information, in the third decade we will begin to explore how we might make sense of this proliferation of data. The TEL project again leads the way and through the BL_ME festival project will promote the rise of new immersive landscapes as a possible method for navigating information , promoting experiential and subsequently more intuitive learning. Sounds, light , orientation, haptic’s/touch may all contribute and augment the way we meaningfully consume information in the future.
The ME building is a sign of things to come, immersive landscapes, ambiguous places, limited life spans, these are all spatial concepts that the design of the building has attempted to engage with. During the day the building appears as a complex network of structural and ad hoc insertions.. But it is a night as we can see here that the building really comes alive. Designed as a 24 hour space the building really takes advantage of the ambiguity that darkness brings. The structure seems to vanish, the warm glow of LED’s comes to the foreground and the occupant is immersed in a virtual world of speculative landscapes, transported from the here and now, to the anywhere and anytime of the new virtual worlds.
….Yes…. And its now, in a couple of minutes or should I say, …yes seconds that the ME will celebrate in in full Technicolor style here in London behind the institution that initiated it all….and (crowd in unison) 5,4,3,2,1,…. And there it is welcome … (hubbub) to…. ‘tomorrow-land ’.
Transcription from the 2020 New years eve report by
Bobbie Johnston
BBC WThe BL_ME
Design Realisation Report
The BL_ME 2020 festival souvenir programme was designed to provide a user friendly means of navigating what exactly went into making of the ME_2020 event. The programme provides an in depth look at the planning, design, construction and eventual dismantling of the BL_ME building, exploring some of the reasons why the building was commissioned and the lasting legacy that it has left.
The BL_ME 2020 festival souvenir programme was designed to provide a user friendly means of navigating what exactly went into making of the ME_2020 event. The programme provides an in depth look at the planning, design, construction and eventual dismantling of the BL_ME building, exploring some of the reasons why the building was commissioned and the lasting legacy that it has left.
Site Location: Directly behind the British Library and Running Parallel to the new Kings Cross terminus
Exisiting British Library Boundary
Hybrid Programme Diagram
BL_ME Conceptual drawings Showing the building as a series of interrelated sections wrapped in a thin LED Skin
BL_ME Long section through the Building
Affusion Towers/ Digital immersion staircases -
