A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

Four Books On Cool Cartography, Video Games, Buying Stuff, & Finding Shelter

IMG_4226-(1)
Read This is a Scout column that details book selections by authorities, luminaries, institutions, and locals that share deep affections for the written word. To kick things off, we asked for four titles from Ken Laing, Jonas Emmett, Danuta Zwierciadlowski, and Larissa Beringer at The Emily Carr University Library.

1. Mapping It Out: An Alternative Atlas of Contemporary Cartographies / edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist (New York : Thames & Hudson, 2014)

KL – In a world where we plug a destination into our phones or GPS, how refreshing to return to the printed map to not only view places, but ideas as well. This book’s roots can be traced back to the exhibition Map Marathon, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 2010. Containing maps as diverse as Damien Hirst’s scribbled directions to his home, Tim & Mairead Robinson’s vegetable garden map, and Richard Hamilton’s maps of the ever shrinking Palestinian Territories. A visually rich and fascinating item that demands a not insignificant amount of browsing time.

2. How to Do Things with Videogames / Ian Bogost (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011)

JE – Just as photography can be used to create art, document atrocities, or snap mundane reminders, the breadth of uses for video games grows as the medium is more engaged across cultural lines. In twenty short essays, Ian Bogost explores a variety of ways video games, as computational models and performed experiences, are being applied: art and exercise, meditation and corporate training, texture and empathy. This is an accessible introduction to the theory of the medium and a wide-ranging survey for anyone interested or invested in its uses and potential.

3. Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today? / Kate Bingaman-Burt (New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 2010)

DZ – I enjoy drawing and journaling and this little treasure of a book inspires me to get out my pencils and get drawing. Kate Bingaman-Burt, a graphic artist from Portland, gives us a glimpse into her life by drawing something she’d purchased everyday for 3 years. It’s a shopping list diary of ordinary things from everyday life that tells a story everyone can relate to (do we all secretly shop at Wal-Mart?). Simple line drawings with hand printed captions convey the message – a great example of ordinary life used as source material for creativity. Inspiring, fun and playful.

4. Shelter / Henk Wildschut. (Amsterdam : Post Editions, 2010)

LB – From Post Editions in Amsterdam comes this compelling art book by photographer Henk Wildschut. The project gathers a series of photographic representations of people forced into the inhumane situations that many refugees face while trying to enter Europe. There is a dignity expressed in the images of “neatly folded or hanging clothes, sleeping bags and blankets, and the clean well-kept surroundings.” The artist has photographed the temporary shelters of migrants in Malta, Southern Spain, Madrid, Rome, Tenerife, Greece and Calais, France and effectively captured the simple, profound and all too recognizable act of creating shelter. His book resonates deeply in light of current refugee crises around the world.

———————————————————————————————————–

unnamedThe Emily Carr University Library is dedicated to supporting practice and research on campus and throughout Vancouver’s creative community. They specialize in collecting new artists’ publications, graphic novels, exhibition catalogues, and international art and design magazines. Emily Carr University of Art + Design (est.1925) is a world leader in education and research. Encouraging experimentation at the intersection of art, design, media and technology, our learning community merges research, critical theory and studio practice in an interdisciplinary environment.

Scout Book Club, Vol. 10

We like consuming words on the page almost as much as we like consuming food on the plate. Welcome to the Scout Book Club: a brief and regular rundown of what we're reading, what's staring at us from the bookshelf begging to be read next, and what we've already read and recommend.

Scout Book Club, Vol. 9

We like consuming words on the page almost as much as we like consuming food on the plate. Welcome to the Scout Book Club: a brief and regular rundown of what we're reading, what's staring at us from the bookshelf begging to be read next, and what we've already read and recommend.

Scout Book Club, Vol. 8

We like consuming words on the page almost as much as we like consuming food on the plate. Welcome to the Scout Book Club: a brief and regular rundown of what we're reading, what's staring at us from the bookshelf begging to be read next, and what we've already read and recommend.

Scout Book Club, Vol. 7

We like consuming words on the page almost as much as we like consuming food on the plate. Welcome to the Scout Book Club: a brief and regular rundown of what we're reading, what's staring at us from the bookshelf begging to be read next, and what we've already read and recommend.