If you are in the New England area, consider attending the Book Arts Supply Market.
Book Arts Supply Market
June 7th, 2009
12:30-4:30
Arlington Center for the Arts
41 Foster Street
Arlington, MA
I will be there with a full range of tools for sale, including the infamous bargain box, which is quite full right now.
I also have prototypes of some new tools I am working on, for example, a portable, collapsible sewing frame that only weighs 1 lb, 12.4 oz (804 grams) including 5 Al sewing keys. It is 11 3/8″ (290 mm) between the uprights and packs flat at only 1 1/8″ (30 mm). Rubber feet keep it from sliding around on the workbench.
Also I have a reproduction of the boxed set of knives I made for Abraham Karastovsky, which I wrote about earlier and were featured in the book “Homicide in Hardcover.”
Please stop by and say hello!
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I will be presenting the following talk in NYC on Sunday, June 21 at 3:00. Please feel free to repost and contact me if there are any questions. I also have a half sheet flyer I can email anyone who would like to post it. I envision this talk as a type of outreach, since it contains information about book history and conservation. It should be a lot of fun.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TRASH PRESENTS:
THE OBSOLETE MAN AND THE OBSOLETE BOOK?
Sunday, June 21 at 3:00 pm at SculptureCenter in Long Island City, NYC.
The Free Skool at the University of Trash announce an Jeffrey S. Peachey’s presentation titled “The Obsolete Man and the Obsolete Book?” The University of Trash is an experiment in alternative architecture, urbanism, and pedagogy taking place in SculptureCenter’s main space. Throughout the summer there will be a mix of workshops, screenings, and presentations focusing on grass roots, self-organized urbanism, DIY architecture and the evolving aesthetics and politics of public space.
Peachey will screen an original Twilight Zone, “The Obsolete Man”, present a short lecture, then lead a discussion based on some of the issues it raises. Peachey is the owner of a New York City-based studio for the conservation of books. Because of his experience in examining and treating a wide variety of historic book structures, he is especially interested in how humans have interacted with the physical form of the book over the past 1,600 years, the importance of non-texual information and how the book has acquired such symbolic power. The images of books in this episode form a locus for a variety of issues—authority, freedom, history, truth, the state, individuality, identity and conformity—that are explored in a classic Serlingesque manner.
“I am nothing more than a reminder to you that you cannot destroy truth by burning pages.” Romney Wordsworth (Burgess Meredith) declares when the Chancellor (Fritz Weaver) pronounces him obsolete, and then condemns him to death. Wordsworth, a secret librarian, lives in a room not only surrounded by books, but virtually built out them. Considering aspects of book conservation, Peachey will deliver a short lecture touching on some of the ideas explored in the film, looking at how books are displayed in Wordsworth’s apartment, commenting on the various book structures portrayed and linking these to themes presented in the episode. Models of several historic book structures will available for handling. Then some more general observations on the value of non-textual elements of books will be made, along with the challenges of conserving these elements.
This will be followed by an open discussion. Possible topics include questions about the supposed death of the codex; the importance of non-textual elements in books; books as physical expressions of authority; books as moving, portable hand held sculpture; books as democratic instruments; the display of books as externalized knowledge; hand interaction in reading; and most importantly, how closely is our culture inexorably linked with the history of the book.
This event is free, and there is a $5 suggested donation to the museum.
Jeff Peachey:
https://jeffpeachey.wordpress.com/
SculptureCenter:
http://www.sculpture-center.org/
The University of Trash:
http://www.universityoftrash.org/
Attendees are encouraged to preview the entire Twilight Zone episode at:
http://www.imdb.com/video/cbs/vi759562265/
info@universityoftrash.org
Peachey Conservation 
Hi,
Your talk on “The Obsolete Man” sounds like it will spark a lot of interesting discussion. I’d love to go, but I live in Ireland. Is there any chance that it will be recorded or broadcast at all?
Thanks!
Jen.
I don’t have any plans to record or broadcast it, but it would be perfect because parts “The Obsolete Man” are broadcast live on TV.
How about a sewing frame were the uprights are at the rear of the platform with cantilever arms to support the cross beam that holds the cords/tapes? This would get the uprights out of the way while sewing.
The Germans invented this with their cantilevered uprights. Many old illustrations have the women sewing inside the frame/ table, which I suspect is why most of the old ones are so huge– often more than 32″ between the uprights. Tim Ely makes a sewing frame with cantilevered uprights. In practice, I find if the frames are small (or large) enough the uprights don’t get in the way.
OMG! You did it and I am only just noticing! Nice! When will you publish the story? On a separate blog?
I still have to work on the story. Any help is appreciated!