The Future Library, Oslo

I wrote a little piece about the Future Library for the Dec/Jan issue of Monocle— but I had a minuscule word count so couldn’t get in as much info as I’d hoped. Here is a nice interview with founder, Scottish artist Katie Paterson, who launched this project in 2014 in Oslo. The idea is simple yet intriguing — each year an author (Margaret Atwood was the first!) is invited to submit an unpublished manuscript, which is sealed away in the Deichman library, to remain unread until the year 2114. That’s 100 manuscripts collected over a century.

Obviously Katie won’t be around towards the end of the project, and it will continue to be administered by a special trust. But the endeavour asks interesting questions — who are we writing for, will the readers of the future understand us, and will there even be anyone left to read? Katie has also planted some trees outside of Oslo, which will provide the paper on which the 100 texts will be printed.

Here is Katie to explain more about the project:

Sub.urbanist: What sparked the idea in the first place?

KP: I had a very clear vision for Future Library many years ago — A forest of growing words — but at that point I could…