La Biblioteca Nacional de El Salvador (BINAES) and The Affect Theory

Authors: Silvia Velarde, Melissa Forstrom

SUNY Campus: Purchase College

Presentation Type: Oral

Location: UUW 325

Presentation #: 8

Timeslot: Session C 1:45-2:45 PM

Abstract: This paper positions the Biblioteca Nacional de El Salvador (BINAES) and other metropolitan libraries worldwide as not just repositories and educational institutions but symbols of resistance. Possibly resisting rapid gentrification, building a library is more than a service; it is a powerful statement, an investment in the neighborhood and neighbors. Unlike elite art hubs, trendy shops, and other vehicles of gentrification, a public library can increase educational empowerment for local residents and possibly symbolize hope. Specifically, this paper uses Brian Massumi’s “affect theory” as a lens to examine the BINAES. As Independent Researcher Emre Sunter described, Massumi's works provide a conceptual toolbox to explore the powers of existence that affirm life potentials beyond a normative framework. Hence, today, BINAES and other cultural institutions around the globe have the potential to represent what Brian Massumi and other theorists envision as an alternative to hegemonic modes of power and an exclusionary society: a collective practice of experimentation guided by mutual aid and reciprocal care, in which everyone has a role to play. However, other fields of study have been taken into account and added to this work, such as neuroscience and its latest discoveries of ‘mirror neurons’, which are also connected to our qualitative perception and embodiment of the social world that could have the power to transform and counteract social subjection.