Reading Environment & BOOKSHELVES Program | Charlotte Taillet, “Global Intimacy”

Welcome to “Global Intimacy,” a radio-reading environment for Charlotte Taillet’s BOOKSHELVES residency at 3307 W Washington Blvd.

I’m Amanda Martin Katz, and I founded 3307 as a project and a space to explore relating through textual engagement. The core program, BOOKSHELVES, is a series of 3-month ‘thought-residencies’ that explore the integration of cerebral and somatic experiences of texts. I invite artists, writers, and curators to engage my collection of books and other text-based artworks that live at the entrance to 3307 on a floor-to-ceiling sculpture of moveable shelves. In addition to reorganizing both the shelving structure and the collection, each resident provides their own titles-on-loan for the duration of their residency. Together we design a unique reading environment through which visitors explore the texts and get to know a bit more about each resident’s creative practice and the intellectual life that sustains it.

Charlotte is the first BOOKSHELVES resident to have never physically visited 3307. She is a London-based designer who explores the impact of production typologies across print, digital and product design. We met last year at Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair, and instantly, or perhaps instinctually, connected a mere 8 hours before her flight back to the UK. From that initial meeting, we have sought to use the BOOKSHELVES residency program to develop an intimacy that does not betray the affective notion of “residence” – but perhaps abstracts its logistics – despite our physical distance.

Hi Charlotte. (Hi.)

Charlotte, we’re broadcasting right now on your radio platform, Comet Radio. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

(Charlotte describes Comet Radio.)

So, for this program, “Global Intimacy,” Charlotte and I will discuss her selection of titles-on-loan, which we have organized into four thematic broadcasts. This first one is titled, “The Transmission of Knowledge is the Origin of Design.” Each text presents a pathway to the next, and we can understand her selection as an elliptical argument, or perhaps, ground of inquiry.  

Let’s start now with the first title …