At the start of 2022 I began a long running Artist-in-Residence post at the wonderful Prelinger Library in San Francisco. For this post I set up a sound installation in the Library’s stacks. It continues to include six small computers, speakers, and software that I wrote to control the selection and playback of approximately a thousand different short (some longer) sounds. Some sounds are related to topics in the Library, others are not. I’ve come to call it my “Instrullation”; part installation part instrument.
When people visit the Library (or they don’t), on any given Sunday afternoon, I improvise and sculpt or shape the space. It’s live “soundscaping” and it becomes an audio annotation, a reflection, a contour or texture, or an expression of the Library. At times it’s the voice of and for the Library. Still I find it difficult to describe the actual experience of being there during these improvisations, while getting lost in the diverse collections (and the layout) of dated yet very relevant and revealing texts and ephemera. It’s literally charming… or can be.
Perhaps, I thought, a sound too is worth a thousand word. And so I tried to capture the sounds of and in the space, while the Instrullation was playing. The selected records were made in 2023 to 2025. Maybe they can serve as some facsimile of the experience — of the spatialized and often immersive quality of the sounds in the place. (I recommend trying listening to them on headphones.)
I’ve started a new series of releases that include these recordings (to begin with). It’s called “Sounds in the Prelinger Library”. Perhaps they’ll serve as a beacon, guiding you into the physical Library for a full-bodied experience some Sunday afternoon.
Available now
https://thomblum.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-in-the-prelinger-library-instrullation-improvisations
Available 4/19/2025
https://thomblum.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-in-the-prelinger-library-instrullation-pile-ups
Available 4/23/2025
https://thomblum.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-in-the-prelinger-library-instrullation-video-reels-and-ads
Here you can read more about the Instrullation.