Let's have fun with tutt!
So I had a great idea the other day while walking past Colorado College's Tutt library. It is generally accepted as one of if not the ugliest buildings on campus. No body really likes it. It doesn't have very many windows. It is kind of boring. Mostly just a big cube. I generally agree with most of this, though I think there are things to like about it. I like the fact that it has the tunnel underneath for getting to the other side. And the big open area on the second floor is pretty fantastic. Great place to see lots of people and be social. (while feeling like you are getting work done. I mean you are in the library!)
Well, I had a great idea to get students a lot more excited about it. They should open it up to tagging. Yep, that's right. Let the students graffiti it. However and whenever and wherever they like (with the exception of the windows). It is going to be torn down in two years anyway, and I think students would really get into it. Don't put any regulations about what they can do. Just let them paint it. And repaint. Anything they want. I would certainly like it a lot more. It would be constantly changing. Every week you could go see if it has changed or something.
I mean it can't get any uglier....
27 February 2007 04:46am UTC • 518 views • 20 comments
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20 comments
Peon Peetie
27 February 2007 05:48am UTC
that would be a lot of fun!Steve the Interloper
27 February 2007 03:25pm UTC
Man. I--quite predictably--hate that idea!
What does that say about the place of the library on campus? To me, it would look like a big "fuck you" to the library and what a library stands for.
Plus, it is completely untrue that it will be torn down in two years. I think it is likely that the main part of the library will be here for a long time, and even if the whole thing does go boom, I wouldn't expect that to happen for another ten years.
Likely scenarios:
But I'm part of a distinct minority that doesn't hate the building anyway...
Steve the Interloper
27 February 2007 03:26pm UTC
p.s. don't make me crash your site again, man!Boatswain The Fool
27 February 2007 03:32pm UTC
Interesting -- I'm still not sure which side I would take on this issue. To clarify: Steve, how is it a "fuck you" to the library and what the library stands for?Steve the Interloper
27 February 2007 03:53pm UTC
Graffiti is usually a sign of neglect. Imagine bringing prospective students to the campus. The library should be a center for learning, contemplation, and a monument to scholarship. Ours would look like the Berlin wall, circa 1985.
Thinking about this more, the idea of painting Tutt seems pretty cool. I'd like to see art students propose ideas to do something interesting with the exterior.
And I like the chalk cupid that someone has put on a pillar recently, and the graffiti-style mural in the tunnel is pretty good. But I think "tagging" would get ugly and out of control pretty fast. Sure, we say "not on the windows," but how long would that last?
Boatswain The Fool
27 February 2007 05:08pm UTC
*nod* I might be wrong here, and tell me if I am, Benjamin, but I imagine that things like the chalk cupid and the graffiti-style mural are more what Benjamin had in mind than the kind of tagging that is traditionally looked at as graffiti. It might be nifty to start some sort of project where people apply with an idea and a location on Tutt to do some painting, and if they're approved, the community can have at it, kind of like the project to redo the tunnel mural a few years ago, but hopefully more well-received. (A good example of something like this, if I remember it correctly, is Philly's Mural Arts Program, which is actually trying to decrease graffiti.Boatswain The Fool
27 February 2007 05:15pm UTC
). I like ending my parenthetical statements! Yay!Steve the Interloper
27 February 2007 05:31pm UTC
Boatswain, I guess my neat and tidy librarian's soul was responding mostly to this:
Boatswain The Fool
27 February 2007 08:09pm UTC
Right, I guess I should have made a clearer distinction between my idea (starting with "It might be nifty...") and my suspicion of what Benjamin was imagining.I can understand your fear of such a chaotic, deregulated system... but, in an ideal world where user contributions almost always support the larger project's goals (think: Wikipedia), it would still be really, really cool.
The Anonymous Poppy
27 February 2007 08:11pm UTC
Well, my first response to the idea was regarding the safety of the painters. There isn't that much of non-window Tutt Library available within arm's reach. The ugly part of the building must be reached by ladder. And that sounds incredibly dangerous, since I see Benji's repainting being done by large groups of happy, chatting students passing cans of spray paint around. This may just be my hatred of ladders talking, but that doesn't sound safe. I agree with Steve on some points -- the librarian deep within my soul rebels at the whole notion of letting students "tag" Tutt. (While the apathetic college student closer to the surface shrugs and says anything is worth a try.) And there's simply no keeping paint off the windows. Personally, I hate that mural in the tunnel. It's hideous, and meaningless. And I hope whoever painted it doesn't visit TSP, I guess, since I mean no offense. But I didn't think anything could be worse than the last mural in the tunnel, and I was excited that it would be repainted, but this one is so much worse. Blech. I really dislike the tunnel in general. It takes almost no time to go around the library instead of through the tunnel because the south "wing" isn't very large, the tunnel isn't wide enough so I'm always stuck behind someone who's walking _really_ slow and I can't get around them because someone's coming the other way, and you can't get from the North Basement to the South Basement because the tunnel's there and that's just inconvenient. In fact, the tunnel's probably the only thing that I really dislike about Tutt. That and there could be a few more isolated corners with comfy chairs to study in. (Although people would just end up having sex in them, and I hear we're having a problem with that anyway.)The Anonymous Poppy
27 February 2007 08:12pm UTC
Whoa -- what happened to my paragraphs! Sorry about that, guys.Dread Pirate Benjamin
27 February 2007 09:12pm UTC
A couple things. First, I haven't implemented a system for paragraphs since the downtime last week. I had to take out the implementation for Markdown (which added the paragraphs) and have yet to put anything in its place. You can still use HTML (which is how I am achieving paragraphs). Not limiting any html is probably unwise of me. But I am currently too lazy to fix it.
Second, I really do think that people would respect the one rule of no painting on the windows since we you'd already be giving them so much freedom. But maybe I have a little too much hope for peers.
Third, I didn't really think of this as a way to say "fuck you" to the library, but meant it more as a way to celebrate creativity on campus. Very similar in vein to the cupid.
But I can definitely see how a free for all might not be a good idea. I have just generally found that the more responsibility and trust you give to people the more they respect the rules back. So instead of it being just mindless graffiti, I thought by giving people complete freedom of expression they would put a lot of thought into it.
Forth, Omer, I really was envisioning a free for all. I was envisioning exactly what Steve didn't like. How about this, maybe, like one weekend there could be an organized attempt at it, with scaffolding and everything. I think the fact that it would be hard to do casually (as Poppy, pointed out, the walls are too high) requires this. Also, if people were given a section of the wall to paint, there could be a lottery for who actually gets a section. Or organizations could each get a section. This would make it so it isn't just an ad hoc mess. You could also require that they have a mock up in order to enter the lottery. This would ensure that people have thought about what they want to do.
I am not really sure what I am trying to say. Mostly just that I had envisioned it more as a respectful thing and a way for students to do something fun.
Steve the Interloper
27 February 2007 09:54pm UTC
Benjamin, just so we are clear, I didn't think that you were trying to say "fuck you" to the library; I just thought that the end result would look that way. I know you just thought it was a fun idea. And I, as a librarian, can't stand fun. ;) (I think that's a joke...)
Given that the chance that this would happen in real life is nil, it would be fun to see someone Photoshop what this would look like if it were done, and done well. There are photos of the library in our Flickr account, though I don't know if any of them are right for that.
Done right, it could look like the library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. (Hmmm, you say we can do any HTML here? Let's see...)
Cool.
Anyway, great post!
Boots
27 February 2007 10:20pm UTC
I don't know where I stand on this issue, but going through with it would give me the opportunity to paint Christopher Robin marching around with an open umbrella announcing, "Tut, tut, tut, looks like books!" ...which is something I've always wanted to do to Tutt.The Anonymous Poppy
27 February 2007 11:38pm UTC
Wow, based on the pictures in that Flickr account, Tutt looks a lot better in black and white. Hmmm....Tim
2 March 2007 02:31pm UTC
So in the 60s they razed the equivalent of Palmer to build Tutt and Armstrong... ...Carpenter Courtney
12 March 2007 03:07am UTC
So, here's my contribution:Carpenter Courtney
12 March 2007 03:08am UTC
Whoops! Sorry I left the wrong size in the image tag! (darn flickr!)Boots
12 March 2007 06:12am UTC
beautiful!Steve the Interloper
12 March 2007 04:23pm UTC
Love it. Flickr isn't behaving for me now, but I'll forward the link around the library once it is working better.