Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.11.2016, Page 48

Art Design For Children
Sjón To The Future
The Icelandic writer joins the
Future Library project
Words JOHN ROGERS Photo FUTURE LIBRARY
In 2014, Scottish artist Katie Pat-
erson launched a 100-year art proj-
ect called The Future Library. One
writer a year, starting in 2014, will
contribute a written work, which
will then go into a trust, until all
100 are published together as an
anthology of books in the year 2114.
This ambitious, century-spanning
artwork began with the planting
of 1000 trees in a forest just out-
side of Oslo. In 2114, wood from
those trees will be used for both
the paper to print the books, and to
construct a new room in the City of
Oslo library—touted as a "library
of the future," and due to open in
2019—where they will be stored.
The first two writers to take
part were Margaret Atwood in
2014, and David Mitchell in 2015.
The third was recently revealed as
Sjón, the prize-winning Icelandic
author behind 'The Blue Fox' and,
most recently, 'Moonstone: The
Boy Who Never Was'.
“It’s an interesting challenge to
grapple with writing for my read-
ers in 2114,” says Sjón, his eyes
twinkling with excitement at the
prospect. “Do I write something
that might be relevant to them? Do
I write something relevant to now,
making the text itself a time cap-
sule? Or do I simply write some-
thing that is a part of my general
oeuvre as an author.”
Moon scribbles
The only clue Sjón, or anyone, gets
about the previous writers’ work
is their book’s title. Margaret At-
wood’s contribution was revealed
to be called 'Scribbler Moon', and
David Mitchell’s 'From Me Flows
What You Call Time'.
“I can look at the titles of the
works they handed over, and try
to guess what they’re working
with,” says Sjón. “Maybe Margaret
is working with futuristic mytho-
logical elements, or maybe David
is working with time. It’s nice that
they tell you the titles. But one
thing you never want to be as an
author is obvious. I don’t want to
be obvious now—or in 2114.”
One interesting aspect of the
Future Library is how literature
itself might evolve during the 100
year timespan. “There are 97 au-
thors out there in the future who’ll
take part,” says Sjón. “We will see
in the next few years who of our
contemporaries is added to the
library. But, we have no clue what
writers there will be in 60 years
time. What will writing be like
then? Will it move from books?
I’m not sure we will leave the book
behind, simply because it’s such
a wonderful interactive tool for
delivering text. But it’s possible
that other forms of preserving
and distributing have come to the
forefront.”
Despite an obvious love for the
printed book, Sjón is very aware
that advances in technology could
make them anachronistic objects
by 2114. “It’s possible that it will be
a unique event to make books like
they made 100 years ago,” he says.
“It’s even possible they’ll have been
experimenting with iBooks, where
you upload text that appears, so
you can have the experience of
turning pages.”
“We’ll see,” says Sjón, before
bursting out laughing, finishing:
“Or, no, actually, we won’t!”
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48The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 17 — 2016
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