Mark Allen Soderstrom

Tracing is an intimate project consisting of a CD-ROM that is interactive both in its digital format and within the actual F.W. Olin Mills Library at Mills College in Oakland, California.

 

The project is the result of a systematic filtering of the libraries collection for elements users have left behind. Common items have all been removed (scraps of paper, paper clips, etc.) and the most intriguing items have been documented, cataloged, and returned to their original locations. These items were then organized into their own seemingly inherent categories that can be perused by collection. The CD-ROM is a navigable computer program that introduces you to the library project and allows one to examine the different collections of relics. A few examples of each collection are presented along with call number listings of where to find the full range of items in that specific collection. With these call numbers, participants can go to the library and examine the collections in their entirety.

 

Tracing inspires one to think about the history of the library in light of these fossilized traces of its past users. Stories of the personal lives of former students and faculty are glimpsed through these artifacts. With Tracing I strive to inspire participants to personally explore this archeological dig of a small corner of our contemporary society.