Public Authors is an interactive art project designed to explore the enduring use of books and libraries in today's digital climate. In summer 2009 we will insert 2,500 bookmarks into libraries throughout the city of Philadelphia. When found, the bookmarks invite library users to contribute to the project by sending coded text messages to publicauthors.com. Each message that we receive corresponds to a singular book, sitting on a bookshelf somewhere in Philadelphia. Tags allow Public Authors to document the physical library location from which the message was sent. By inviting library users to tag collections that are localized, we are hoping to create a site that maps they ways in which people are interacting with books in Philadelphia.
Public Authors is being created in collaboration by Katie Murken and Alex Gilbert.