In her practice, UTS Visual Communications Honours student Megan Wong celebrates the hidden and unnoticed traces that are left when humans interact with books. The three projects that were presented investigated different elements of the traces that accumulate on library books over time. By visualising unseen elements of human interaction, Megan's practice draws attention to the ways objects change through use.
Megan collaborated with UTS Library curatorial staff to cultivate the microorganisms found on UTS Library books using agar gel. Students and staff from across the university were asked to swab books that were being borrowed and returned. The resulting installation was a unique visualisation across the Dewey Decimal cataloguing system utilised globally by libraries. The exhibition builds on Megan's work with public libraries to grow and display the microbial traces found on their collections.
