BOOK HIVE
In our emerging digital and virtual age, what value does the embodied nature of our libraries and their physical books have? Rusty Squid answered this question with Book Hive.
Books at play in a digital realm.
Date
| Bristol Central Library: | December 2013 - March 2014 |
Genesis
Lining the vaults of Bristol’s Central Library, four hundred robotic books inhabit the cells of a hive which seems to emerge from the fabric of the building itself. Created for the library’s 400th anniversary, Book Hive merges the technology of Swarm robotics with the traditional medium of the printed book to bring the physical nature of libraries to life. When people inhabit this space, a vitality emerges; they become part of something larger, more powerful than themselves. The visitor disturbs the hive, setting the books into a swarm, a moment of wonder.
Design
The installation, consisting of an expansive interlocking network of hexagonal wooden cells, decommissioned Library books, Depth of field cameras and swarm robotics engulfs visitors as they entrance the library.
Deliberately referencing bee-hives and the possible extinction of bees, this living sculpture reflects the library as a social creature within a changing social technological landscape.
Through Book Hive, Rusty Squid is essentially researching embodiment of a conversation between people in a physical space interacting with an emergent robotic system.
Book Hive provides a visual counterpoint, bringing together the old and the new, the physical and the digital, the individual and the community. The work emphatically reasserts the book’s here-ness, in a euphoric dance with pervasive digitalism.
Process
Developed collectively through an integrated process between engineers, artists and researchers Book Hive is not only a public artwork but an expansive research project. Rusty Squid investigated how arts, technology and design can work together in order to increase social inclusion in conversations about technology’s influence on civil society.
The investigation looked at how the book is an emblem of the earliest and most transformative technology, the printing press. Rusty Squid questioned how emerging digital technologies are affecting us all, influencing the ways we think and read, and relate to each other in our public institutions.
Technology
Our original software investigation captured the physical presence and movement of the public using a series of depth of field cameras, mapped on to a virtual swarm simulated on central computers.
The software is now being decentralised to embody the intelligence within the physical installation itself; each Book Hive module will be self-contained, artificially intelligent and interact directly with its neighbouring books and environment. This brings the software architecture poetically in line with the modular design of the physical build itself.
The key goals of Book Hive is that it can be quickly assembled by anyone, without the need of glue or fastenings; that it can be organically moulded to any space, or quickly change shape and be easily manufactured by Local communities, honouring the collective nature of libraries.
Emergence
The relationship between the public and the Books is an emergent property arising from the interplay of the space, the form the hive takes, and the physical relationship between the books.
When no one was present the swarm found a resting state where the books appeared to gently breathe. When the space was entered, this equilibrium would be disturbed: If the public moved too fast or aggressively approached the hive, books recoiled; If they took their time they would slowly discover that they could enter into an evolving embodied conversation.
Public and Space
The modular hive and wooden mechanism consists of bespoke Twist Lock plywood forms that can be designed to be laser cut on location and easily assembled by the local public, without the need of glue, screws or tools.
Through a series of workshops the public are invited to build these mechanisms and assemble their own robotic book module. In this way, they learn of the hive’s underlying technology and participate in collective construction.
Evolution
Our updated hardware replaces depth of field cameras, PCs, and servo motors with a design for a single Swarm Board, which is then replicated for each Book Hive cell.
This board will drive a novel linear actuator currently under development replacing the noisy, unreliable and un-touchable servos with safe, compliant, silent and lifelike movement technology.
The advantages to this new approach is removed dependency on central computers and complex wiring, allowing true scalability and spatial flexibility. This is a significant design improvement toward the logistics of touring and capacity for community involvement where individuals are now able to assemble their own independent robot.
The new architecture is now infinitely scalable, as there is no single ‘communication highway’ or simulation limit, instead, behaviours will emerge and propagate across an expandable Book Hive in direct response to the real world
The Tour
Our initial installation at Bristol Library was an opportunity to investigate not only the underlying technology and the public’s experience, but to explore its potential to evolve into a touring project with broader reach across Europe and the world.
Credits
The Squids:
| David Mcgoran | - Robotic Artist and Designer |
| Paul O’Dowd | - Swarm Robotics Researcher and Artist |
| Robert Stephenson | - Robotic Designer |
| Sebastien Valade | - Software Developer and Interaction Designer |
| Roseanne Wakely | - Conceptual and Structural Designer |
Creative Producer:
| Vivienne Kun |
Bristol Libraries:
| Andrew Cox | - Reading Manager |
| Kate Murray | - Head of Libraries |
Embedded Researcher:
| Sarah Eagle |
Power Engineer Consultant:
| Russell Cooper |
Mechanical Design Consultant:
| Andrew Batchelor |
Laser Cutting:
| Andy Dingley | - YourLaser.co.uk |
Structural Engineer:
| Peter Beresford |
Design and Illustrations:
| Ben Goodman |
Lighting Design and Fabrication:
| Rod Maclachlan |
Book Mech Fabrication Team Leader:
| Elizabeth Johnson |
Technical Support:
| Kyle Hirani |
Fabrication Team:
| Leon Boydon | Jasmine Butt |
| Sarah Edwards | Greame Hogg |
| Katie Hood | Helena Houghton |
| Jo Lathwood | Mae Voogd |
| David Snoo Wilson |
Generously Supported By:
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Special Thanks to the Bristol Central Library Public
The Book Hive Keepers of Bristol:
| Victoria Ale Adaralegbe | Rosie Robertson Bailey |
| Judit Barea | Rachel Bedford |
| Marie Chaplin | Judith Clark |
| Ana Rodriguez Crespo | Oluwalayowa Elegbede |
| Esther Goh Lee Ern | Yifei Fu |
| Jacqui Furneaux | Ms Jill Harris |
| Philip Henley | Jane Hunt Cynthia Kam |
| Sandra Kington | Sophie Leather |
| Lisa McClymont | Samantha Murphy |
| Paul Nash | Elisabet Prieto Orellana |
| Alexandra Paulett | Francesca Perrone |
| Francesca Pullinger | Anum Rizvi |
| Maria Isabel Perez Rubio | Hilary Self |
| Mohamed Soliman | Deborah Temple |
| Pratima Tiwari | Eleanor Vowles |
| Oliver Watkinson | Hilary Williams |
| Carol Wood | Steve Wood |
