Immanence in the Pixel: Traditional Cultural Origins of Math and Technology
An evening of film video and web screenings curated by Laura U. Marks
Presented Saturday, May 11th at 8 pm

The Library in Crisis
Julian Samuel, Canada, 2002, video, 7:00 excerpt

This history of libraries is also a history of bibliocides. The destruction of libraries such as Alexandria's, The Library in Crisis argues, anticipate the contemporary privatization of information; each case represents the need of the powerful to control access to knowledge. In Samuel's modest formal interventions, "attention is constantly drawn to the contrast between fragments of digitized information with their immediacy, and the organization of texts, which necessarily require more time and patience" (Vinita Ramani). The excerpt foregrounds the lively, ecumenical, and intercultural libraries in India in the 5th century.

Julian Samuel - Biography

Julian Samuel was born in Lahore, Pakistan 1952, lived in the UK as a child, and moved to Canada in 1966. He has since resided in Montreal, where he gained an MFA degree from Concordia University. Samuel has made numerous documentaries on colonial histories that extend into the present, including The Raft of the Medusa: five voices on colonies, nations & histories (1993), Into The European Mirror (1995), City of the Dead and The World Exhibitions (1999) and Fatwa 447 (1999). He is also the author of the novel Passage to Lahore.

jjsamuel@vif.com