Meanings of the Garden-Page 2 A Living Library would transform the energy of the park while preserving its original elegance. (Although built in 1934, Bryant Park is based on a 17th century French formal Garden Design.) A Living Library would also relate to its location next to the main library and in the center of New York City, with its international diversity and role as the world leader of communication and culture. It would also relate to the history of the site, where in the 19th century the Crystal Palace stood, housing the first exhibit of its kind in America of the "art and industry all nations." International culture has a fascinating precedence in Bryant Park. For the schematic design of A Living Library, a conceptual overlay of the Dewey Decimal System was placed on the existing peripheral gardens of the park. The Dewey Decimal System was chosen because it's the most accessible library methodology and it fit very neatly on the existing formal grid of the park. So, for example, there would be a Generalities Garden, a Philosophy Garden, A Religion Garden, a Social Sciences Garden, a language Garden, A Science Garden, a Technology Garden, a Garden of the Arts, a Literature Garden, and a History & Geography Garden - ten in all. In each garden of knowledge, there would be live plants corresponding to each subject. Plants have different cultural meanings as well as botanical, medicinical and economic values. There would be visual artworks that relate to the subject, as well as a multi-lingual program of lectures, demonstrations, workshops, and performing artworks, all connected thematically. In addition, there would be interactive computer/television capabilities so that more detailed information could be communicated. There would also be an interactive telecommunications capability linking the park electronically to other living libraries or like projects in different parts of the country and the world. In this way an international interactive network of creative living, learning centers would be established allowing the unique resources of a place to be interconnected locally and globally. (Although some may balk at the idea of having "technology" in a garden or park, two things need to be mentioned. First, creating a garden or a park is a form of technology. Second, the physical amount of hardware would be very minimal, housed in a sculptural way, in relation to the amount of growing forms. It is actually a wonderful opportunity to utilize the new technologies as the tools that they are, and to create a sensitive balance between the mechanized and non-mechanized forms of nature.) There are three component parts to A Living Library . They involve a professional staff of experts and volunteers who are also educators. First, there's the implemented form - what it would look like. Second there's the way it's maintained, and that would be through programming so that the park would become a living, learning laboratory involving a multi-generational public in its planning, nurturing and upkeep. And third, there's the way it's created. This is where the Research Institute component fits in. The changing, seasonal themes of the park would be developed in conjunction with the leading experts and educators in the area. In addition to stimulating and involving artists, historians, ecologists and others, the programs of the park would relate to the curricula of schools. Elementary, secondary, and college students would be involved in the creation of programs. They would use the library and other resources to research information on a given theme. This would then be translated into the information, visual and program forms for the park. Students could choose their special area of concentration, whether it be literature, history, or sciences. Technologies students, with staff and artists, would be developing the databases, computer graphics, software, holograms, and other technological possibilities. For example, let's say the whole park was devoted to the Middle Ages. Each garden area would relate to a different aspect of the medieval experience. The plants would be those that were popular during medieval times; the imagery of the artworks would be medieval in flavor. The literature garden would show the plants as they appeared tin popular poetry and prose, and there would be poetry readings from that period. The religion Garden would display plants with religious significance and feature events commemorating typical medieval holidays. The planting patterns too, would feature symbolic patterns. Traditionally, the medieval garden was a place of learning. Because the perspective of A Living Library is global, there would be an opportunity to experience analogies from all cultures. There would also be International Garden Beds demonstrating styles and methodologies from different cultures around the world. And, the History and Geography Garden might, for example show the medieval world view as it appeared to the Chinese, Indians, Europeans and others. Additionally, during this period, science, religion, art and philosophy were very close, if not identical. So the display materials and databases in each of these gardens could overlap, as well as the lectures, performances, workshops, and demonstrations. There would also be music, food, and costumes from this period. The whole environment would have a medieval flavor in its diversity of images, sounds, smells, information and programs. Let's say the next seasonal theme for the park would devote to the Renaissance While the medieval experience was in effect, The Research Institute, with its professional staff, working in concert with the schools and other organizations (cultural, environmental, historical, religious), the many students of all ages, local and international artists, and horticulrists, would be researching and developing the information, programs, visual forms and plants for the park. This would be going on in other locations - schools, libraries, churches, studios, greenhouses. The Students and others, would experience learning as exciting and practical because it would be transformed into functional uses for the park. Plus, the students would literally be able to see how ideas and events from different times and places area connected. It would also generate community-wide involvement and interest more people in coming to and caring for the park. Because of the many public sectors it can serve directly, A Living Library has a much wider range of funding possibilities available than most city parks, thus removing much of the burden from municipal resources. Merging portions of schools' budgets with grant monies solicited from public and private, local, national, and international sources under the educational, scientific, cultural, new technologies, urban studies, international relations, and environmental headings would generate a lot of support. Also in addition, there would be sales of displayed artworks, computer software, video and audio cassettes of events. The licensing of computer software, video and audio cassettes of events, the licensing of the name "A Living Library", and the rental of the various environments could bring in a sizable income. Furthermore, there could be many product spinoffs from books and curriciculm materials to foods, plants and international objects. Each locale is unique - site and situation specific, having its own special features to offer. Imagine a network of these environments linked electronically, in which the public open space could function as a site for live, interactive broadcast, with information and culture shared and communicated on a person to person, city to city and global scale! Last spring, a mini-demonstration for A Living Library was produced which was a traveling environmental installation called a Garden of Knowledge. The exhibit was in a gallery in Soho, New York and was part of the Houston Festival in Texas. The theme was the diversity of park and garden styles from different cultures, and the cultural and symbolic meanings of plants. As a prototype for A Living Library, it had the involvement of many people in its research, creation and implementation, including students, artists, horticulturists, computer/video technologists, and small and corporate businesses. Many artists and students contributed their own personally symbolically flowers as artworks, and the live plants, donated by local nurseries, were labeled with their symbolic meanings. Included in the installation was an electronic Tree of Knowledge embedded with an interactive videodisc brimming with information on the history of international parks and gardens, plant symbolism, how the installation was created, A Living Library and its many precedents in history, a bibliography, and other material. There was also a computer graphics opportunity for the viewers to create their own personally symbolic flowers and garden layouts while hearing a continuous soundtrack of birds, crickets, and music from around the world. A Living Library and A Garden of Knowledge point the way to the Urban Park of the Future in which many sectors of a community participate in the creation and maintenance of the landscape and the schools and parks are linked together. The park or garden becomes the site and the content, as it was in other times and places, for celebration and discovery, for meditation, communication and creation. The available technological resources are also incorporated, counterpointing the non-mechanized forms of nature sensitively and allowing us to communicate interactively and grasp detail at home and around the world. Thus, the park or garden becomes the healthy center of a community and the people and plants are nourished. “I believe that, in the long run, diversity is preferable to efficiency and convenience, even preferable to the serenity of absolute peace, Without diversity, freedom is but an empty word; persons and societies cannot continue to evolve. Human beings are not really free and cannot be fully creative if they do not have many options from which to choose.” -Rene Dubos Selected References William Howard Adams, The French Garden (Braziller, 1979) Elizabeth Barlow, Fredrick Law Olmstead's New York (Praeger Publishers, 1972) Julia S. Berrall, The Garden: An Illustrated History (Viking Press, 1966) Derek Clifford, The History of Garden Design (Faber & Faber, London 1962) Terry Comito, The Idea of the Garden In the Renaissance(Rutgers University Press, 1978) F.R.Cowell, the Garden As a Fine Art (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1978) Sylvia Crowe & Haywood, Gardens of Mughel India (Thames & Hudson, 1972) A.K.Davidson Art of Zen Gardens (J.P.Tarcher,1983) Rene Dubos , The Wooing of Earth (Charles Scribners' Sons, 1980) Rene Dubos, Celebrations of Life (McGraw Hill Book Company, 1981) Mary Durant, Who Named the Daisy ? The Rose ? (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1976) John Harvey, Medieval Gardens (B.T. Batsford, London 1981) August Hecksher, Alive In the City (Charles Scribners' Sons, 1974) August Hecksher, Alive in the City (Charles Scribners' Sons, 1974) Yang Hongxun, Classical Gardens of China (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982) Ebenezer Howard, Garden Cities of Tomorrow (Faber & Faber, London 1946) Anthony Huxley, An illustrated History of Gardening (Paddington Press 1978) J.B.Jackson , The Neecessity for Ruins (University of Mass. Press 1980) Dorthy Jacob, A Witch's guide to Gardening (Taplinger Publishers, 1964) Jane Jacobsm the Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961) Geoffry & Susan Jellicoe, The Landscape of Man (Viking Press, 1975) Maggie Keswick, "The Chinese Garden (Rizzoli, 1978) Elenor Anthony King, Bible Plants for American Gardens (Dover Books, 1975) Ernst & Johanna Lehner, Folklore & Symbolism of Flowers, Plants, Trees (Tudor Publishing Company, 1960) Kevin Lynch, the Image of the City (M.I.T. Press, 1959) Teresa McLean, Medieval English Gardens, (Viking Press, 1980) Anthony S. Mercatante,The Magic Garden (Harper & Row, 1976) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Living Library, Think Park & Life Frame are Registered Trademarks © 2000 - 2007 Life Frames, Inc. & Bonnie Ora Sherk