One of the highlights of the conference was outside my immediate objectives, although upon reflection, I realize now that it fits squarely within my interests in developing projects for my upcoming course. A tour I attended of the Amistad Research Center, an archive “committed to collecting, preserving, and providing open access to original materials that reference the social and cultural importance of America's ethnic and racial history, the African Diaspora, human relations, and civil rights,” reminded me of the power of archival material. Through looking at book designs, correspondence and photographs, I envisioned a project for my students that can use a visit to an archive as a starting point for something more, that even something as simple as letter written from one person to another – presented in context – has a wealth of information that can trigger creative ideas and form the basis for a contemporary work of art. 

Another highlight was viewing a work titled “REF” by a collective of five artists who call themselves, Shift-lab. Quoting from the text in the exhibition, “REF is an investigation into the erosion of the physical reference area of the library, and the fundamental shift taking place in the way we ask and answer questions.” I was impressed by the format of the “book” which was comprised of 15 separate components housed in a handmade box. It was inspiring to see a collection of objects, each treating the common elements of paper, binding, typography and imagery as curiosities to be explored piece by piece. 

As I am still in the development stage of my Book Arts course, it is too soon to assess how these aspects of the conference will impact my teaching, however I am excited to implement these ideas in my course next semester.

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