Art in the library and the act of learning!

 Is there anything common between a siren, Hermes, planet Jupiter and lead? The answer is yes, there is. It is the knowledge that is hidden in the work of alchemists, which is brought down to us by rare books. This kind of knowledge and description about the Alchemists practice, is the content of rare books, kept today in the Gunnerus library in Trondheim. These are part of our special collection, thanks to many scholars, that  donated their book collections to our University library since it was established in 1760. We have picked out a few of these books from the 16th century now and present them at the first floor of our library together with an Art exhibition inspired by their illustrations.  The Exhibition with the title Art in the library will be standing for the next two months at the Gunnerus library in Trondheim. The exhibition is the outcome of a workshop our library organised together with an artist for High schhol students last February.
The workshop lead by Irene D. Marquez in collaboration with Mubil project brought into live the alchemist symbols and texts of the hidden knowledge from the past. The workshop of 8 weeks with the second year students of Steiner High school in Trondheim came to an end and the whole effort culminated with an exhibition where the products of the students work was presented. The exhibition opened the 22th of March and was visited by many High school students, their teachers, parents and friends of the school and the Gunnerus library.

Irene and Aleka have been working hard six months for the workshop!

Students worked hard but the work process became even more exciting because of time spend together with discussions about the past and the future. Art and creation was the frame of the workshop but while working and learning about the Alchemists Universe the dreams and plans of the young ones were shared and cherished. The enthusiasm and the knowledge the students showed during this art experiment, lifted the experience of teaching and creating to an act of learning for all of us participating and resulted to a colorful expressed exhibition of drawings and hand made books.

Fredrik expalining distillation as a process brought down to us
through the text of many old books.

None of it would not be achieved without the inspirational drive of the artist Irene, the support and knowledge of the library branch director Stein and the funding of the Arts council. The exhibition will be staying at the library until the end of June.

The books the students made carry their drawings and reflections.

This is a new concept of outreach activity where seeking knowledge becomes part of a tactile experience generated by involvement in practical tasks.While the students have been working on their drawings and experimented with different traditional drawing techniques, questions have been answered and knowledge transmitted in an active learning frame. This seems to be the start of a new collaboration between the library and the teachers. The group will meet for an evaluation round after Easter.
The plan is to run such a workshop every year with different subjects and techniques.

The Gunnerus library would like to thank, Irene and our bokbinder Kari together with the teachers and students of Steiner school, for their dedication and enthusiasm and our chemistry expert Fredrik as well as Ingunn Eva, Victoria, Nils Kristian and Ove for their help and support!

Watch our video Mubil 2013.

Allowing creativity to flow!

Working with High school students has been really inspiring and creative these two last weeks.
The subject we have chosen for this workshop is Alchemy and the way that it has been practiced and presented in  books from the 16th century and the illustrations we have in our Library.

Hoto: Nils Kristian Th.Eikland

As known Alchemy was considered a mixture of Astronomy, Ancient Greek mythology, Metallurgy and mysticism combined with the creativity of the artists and the painters working back then to disseminate knowledge in an exciting topic for our new friends and us.

Two more weeks with scraping, discussing,coloring by using digital tools and creating a book using our bookbinding workshop stand on the program now. The 22nd of March all of that together with the experience of the workshops will be presented in an exhibition in our library. Art in the library is our title and the stories to be told are new stories. These are the stories the past creates in the minds of the young school students that have amazing knowledge and creativity inside them. For us as facilitators this is an extraordinary experience where we feel that we learn more every day.

Art in the library, a new concept for the library

Art in the library is an artistic project that intends to gain knowledge from the past through art activities and the development of different techniques that combines handwork and digital work.

Due to the fast development of technology and electronic devices in the last decade, it seems to be almost forgotten about the value of handmade art.

Art in the library is related to the ongoing project MUBIL that focuses on disseminating knowledge through today's technology and the creation of an educational platform where both the physical library and the virtual library become a place where learning is both interesting and fun

A workshop is a method for learning while communicating, sharing and developing skills.

As workshop leader, my idea and intention is to inspire rather than teach, as the content will be transmitted to the students and they will be the ones that will work and produce the results.

«It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.» Albert Einstein

The workshop wants to combine the illustrations exposed at the alchemy exhibition taken place at Gunnerus library in 2011 and the current experiment that Fredrik (need his second name here) is developing for MUBIL project.

The workshop will start with a short introduction into alchemy and history based on the book written by Adam Lonitzer (from the special archive at Gunnerus Library).

This is a journey back to 1700 and to an alchemist laboratory.

It is important to pass through the information and show to the new generations that men write history and in past centuries, they had to be taught and skilled in many artistic disciplines in order to register and document their experiments and discoveries with the best accuracy possible, so that future generations could learn and continue the research.

Therefor, the alchemist was not only at the laboratory room. To document their progressions they used to write diaries, journals and create their own catalogues to register different spices and subjects.

Mostly of them were good at drawing and very skilled in the art of typography. The combination of both has given as result amazing illustrated books for science and medicine, among many other categories.

Art in the library wants to recreate a journey to the past, into the life of an old alchemist with the use of both traditional and digital skills, having as main focus the production of a collection of illustrated books that will be exhibited after the workshop.

The exhibition intends to show the library as a new space for creation and dissemination of knowledge, in which the roll of the library can attract all ages to join a reawakening of knowledge through creativity and collective activities.

Therefor, the library will remain as a place for collective memory and knowledge for a present and future, together.

DAY 1

STEP 1,2

STEP 1 – The experiment – Introduction, demonstration and creation of a «sketch-experiment»

All students will attend the physical demonstration of the experiment, where they are not allowed to use mobile phones, cameras or any other electronic device, so that they need to pay attention to what is been told and be able to write down the information and make sketches of the procedures.

This first part wants to enhance the importance of listening, paying attention and being able to process information. Due to the use and abuse of mobile phones and smart phones among students since early age, it is interesting to document how do they manage to go through this first step.

The students will meet at MUBIL room to discuss the procedures and check out their notes and sketches, so that they can agree and help each other elaborating an A4 clean version of their experiment sketch using calligraphic pens on paper.

The sketches original sketches will be displayed in the book. mixing the handmade results with the printed images.

STEP 2 – The illustrations – Introduction, demonstration and creation of a set of illustrations Using scraperboards and calligraphic pens.

Before we start scraping, they will get a sketch paper to quickly rehearse the techniques for shadowing and line work.

Image 1 – Zoom

Every student will choose a detail from an illustration catalogue and will reproduce the scene using the different tools.

Image 2 – Instrument

Every student will choose an instrument from an illustration or used during the experiment procedure. Basic information about the object will be provided to the student so that every instrument will provide information to the viewer (name, origin, material, use, extra) Image 3 – Symbol Every student will again choose a symbol/icon from an illustration that will be reproduced by scraping on the paper foil and will provide information about the symbol/icon (name, meaning, use, extra) Those who finish earlier can start another image of type 1, 2 or 3.

DAY 2

STEP 3,4

STEP 3 – The digital lab – Introduction to GIMP, coloring the images and layout (Before they start working with the digital workshop, all images will be scanned, saved and prepare to be used in individual folders for each student – to be done after STEP 2 and before DAY2) Presenting GIMP to the students (Open Source software for image and edition, alternative to Photoshop).

Coloring by using bamboo fun and touch graphic tables and pen, so that the freedom for painting with computer can awaken a new generation of artists with digital skills too.

Working with layout and composition of the pages to be printed, combining both images and texts Preparing files to be printed implicate a basic knowledge about document saving options and printing possibilities for professional printing.

DAY 2 (will need a couple of extra hours for a DAY 3) STEP 4 – Bookbinding – Introduction to bookbinding - creating the book Introduction seminar and showing examples of bookbinding made at Gunnerus library Creating the book using the traditional tools can develop new skills in the students and will, for sure, teach them about the work behind a book production.

The fact of creating an own book that will be exhibited can inspire the students to achieve remarkable results with their pieces.

Bookbinding workshop may need a third day of workshop just to prepare the books, since they need to dry for more than 24 hours after using lime glue.

The last step of this workshop includes the decoration of the book covers with different materials.

Project leader

Irene D. Marquez

Mubil workshops 2013!

‘That which is presented to the eye, pictured on wood and paper, becomes fastened in the mind more firmly than that which is described in words alone.’

Mubil has already had a year of hard work. Now we are moving further on and we start enriching our activities with workshops. An idea that becomes a product is a very exciting process.
First we had a very effective week in Pisa from the 21st of February. While  Fredrik and Lise, our chemistry subject experts, were working on the distillation experiment that will become a 3D application, providing us with the details of knowledge hard for us to find, Peggy and Helmuth worked with the texts and Ingunn and Ove with the pictures. Irene with Aleka in Pisa working with Chiara, Marcello and Cristian worked with the actual 3D application of the experiment and the Alchemists lab to be ready by May.

Johann Heinrich Cohausen.
Lumen novum phosphoris accensum, sive Exercitatio physico-chymica, de causa lucis in phosphoris tam naturalibus quàm artificialibus. Amsterdam 1717

By Irene Dominquez Marquez

 New activities though are are initiated and Mubil enters a new phase where art will be used as communication tool for High School students! A collaboration with Namtaru creations was started in January 2013 as our proposal was funded by the Norwegian Art Council.

The workshop called  "Art in the Library". is a new workshop concept introduced by our library in collaboration with  Irene  Dominquez Marquez who is the project leader of the workshop and will also set up an exhibition together with the students. She brought colors into Mubil and enlivened the old contours from the Alchemy books of the 17th and 18th century and opened up new perspectives. The creativity brought in to the project by Irene D.M. has actually lifted up not only the esthetic possibilities of the Mubil project but it has brought us to a new phase. Arvid Karlsen will also be working with the website of the workshops where the products of the workshop will be presented. The workshop will bring High school students to the Mubil laboratory where they will learn about the illustration techniques of the past, bookbinding and digital storytelling with Irene, Arvid and our Chemistry expert Fredrik M. Kirkemo. Gunnerus library will be working together with the art class of Tron Rømo from Steiner school for an exhibition to be set up the 22nd of March at the library.


 

Today a new idea was finally born. An exhibition of rare books in 3D, an interactive workshop of tactile knowledge through experimentation. Knowledge from the past becoming live on the site.A day for interaction and learning. Today for the first time 40 students from Stabbburmoens school came for a Mubil workshop. Fredrik and Lise had put the fire on under the distillation oven at 6 o`clock in the morning. Behind Suhmhuset, Fredrik would show the young students how he worked in reconstructing a process of chemistry from a book written back in 16th century. The book of Adam Lonicer gave us the knowledge, the process description and the drawings you can see here. The book probably published in 1560, has coloured illustrations and is pretty rare and valuable.
Now you can browse through its pages and zoom into its text from the webiste of the special collections of the Gunnerus library here: http://www.ntnu.no/ub/spesialsamlingene/ebok/kreuterbuch.html

While one group was learning about the experiment and the practical solutions and materials they had to use back then like animal intestines, horse stools etc another group was inside the Gunnerus library with Stein learning about Alchemy. A small group of six, had their 3D classes on and were experimenting on a 3D power wall with the same book in 3D. The students enjoyed every minute, engaged in the tasks, had questions, learned and worked in groups in the first 3D laboratory of books..in the world, that was just born, yesterday, in Trondheim Norway. They were motivated and curious coming and satisfied and even interested when they left.
The school students were invited to be the experts for that particular day, and they will guide us through to the next level and help us develop the application.Our vision was to use 3D technology and support learning in a mixed environment. It seemed that the actual field trip in the site and the fact that they got to experience chemistry and history of chemistry through a reconstruction by Fredrik and Lise allowed them to grasp essential elements of what science can be about. They also experimented with 3D books and objects in an immersive environment. They said ..this is cool! And so did we!
I would like to thank the Gunnerus staff and Han Jørgen for their support and for improvisation on the spot, Ola and the kids for good will and excellent performance, Marianna for the music, Irene for inspiration and the video filming, Åge and VM for the space and support and most of all, Fredrik that has been standing out in the cold the last week for hours to set up the oven together with Lise and Richard.
 Out collaborators in Italy that has created the 3D version should also be thanked, Marcello, Chiara and Christian for problem solving determination the day before, and last but not least the Norwegian weather gods for allowing us to be outside. Next workshop in spring!

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Goddess Athena is watching over us!

Mubil is in a new phase: in two weeks School children will be invited to "perform" certain tasks in a  workshop organised by Mubil and the Chemistry Institute of NTNU. Working with a physical distillation first and a virtual reconstruction of an old laboratoryt he project will try to collect feedback on how school children interact, work and learn in the context of this kind of educational workshops, through observation, discussions, and surveys
.

The broader impact of the proposed pilot-project will be the enrichment of the current knowledge on digital media, enhanced learning and innovative cultural heritage dissemination. We will thus explore issues of digital managing for outreach educational activities from the user`s perspective.

At the back of the Suhm house the oven ..becomes!

The Gunnerus library in Trondheim enters a new phase!