About the Artists

Rule No. 5 was co-created by Amanda Belantara & A.M. Alpin. 

A.M. Alpin is an award-winning filmmaker, librarian, and scholar who uses digital and analog technology to tell compelling stories. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, the Gotham/Independent Filmmaker Project, the Austin Film Society, the Southern Humanities Media Fund, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She serves as director of the Library Lab and Special Projects at NYU Libraries.



Amanda Belantara is an audiovisual artist-anthropologist, librarian and co-founder of the art collective, Kinokophone. She has worked as a creative producer and teaching artist, collaborating with cultural heritage institutions in New York, Japan and the UK to create interactive audio installations, audio tours, and oral history projects. Her work has been supported by Arts Council England, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Agency for Public Affairs, Government of Japan. She is the Instruction and Outreach Librarian for the School of Professional Studies at NYU Libraries. 

A.M. Alpin, with long dark hair, holds a beagle in a tintype headshot.
Amanda Belantara, with dark hair and light eyes, appears in front of a tree in the snow.

A.M. Alpin
Co-Creator

Amanda Belantara
Co-Creator

Project Collaborators

Paul Gregory filled a tall order to create beautiful, carefully crafted custom library-inspired objects designed to playback sounds all based on our whimsical ideas. Paul is an award-winning sound designer and engineer who has enjoyed a career working in theatre designing show sound, creating technical props and engineering live and recorded music. Now semi-retired, he makes beautiful boxes and small cabinets in his garden workshop. Paul lives with his wife and family in a former mill town on the edge of the English Peak District.

Jon Tipler  helped realize our audio dreams, creating custom, solid connections between playback devices and switches, buttons and drawers. Jon is co-founder of the artist collective Kinokophone. With a background in audio engineering and field recording, he has worked on documentary films, in the arts, with photography and in soundscape composition. He is the owner of Loaded for Bear Audio, an independent business creating bespoke audio cabling solutions and fx pedals and currently lives and works in an old mill town in Yorskhire, UK, with his partner, their two kids and a cat.

Illustration above by Takashi Tateoka.

Takashi Tateoka created custom miniatures commissioned for Collecting & Curating and illustrated a gorgeous bookplate for the project. Takashi is an illustrator, sculptor, and character designer. His work can be seen in films like Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Frankenweenie, Isle of Dogs, and Rillakuma.

Production & Behind the Scenes

Co-creator Amanda Belantara records a librarian giving a tour of the then newly renovated special collections reading room at NYU Libraries.
Co-creator A.M. Alpin speaks with Dean of NYU Libraries, H. Austin Booth while seated at a table.
Co-creator Amanda Belantara records an interview with colleague, Director of Scholarly Communications & Information Policy, April Hathcock.
Amanda Belantara speaks with library colleagues Ty Crawley and Benjamin Moskowitz whilst recording sounds around the library.
Cardamom, beloved companion beagle to A.M. Alpin, patiently oversees a recording session in the library's immersion room.
Sound artist Daniel Givens performs singing ringing bowls while Amanda Belantara sets up microphones to record in the library.
Early pencil design sketches created by carpenter Paul Gregory. The sketches depict early designs for "Radio" and "Cataloging & Classifying."
Early pencil design sketches created by carpenter Paul Gregory. The sketches depict early designs for "Curating & Collecting" and "Secrets."
Early pencil design sketches created by carpenter Paul Gregory. The sketches depict early designs for "Curating & Collecting."
Early pencil design sketches created by carpenter Paul Gregory. The sketches depict early designs for "Radio."
Early pencil design sketches created by carpenter Paul Gregory. The sketches depict early designs for "Impermanence."
Early pencil design sketches created by Takashi Tateoka for the miniature sculptures in "Curating & Collecting."
The construction of "Radio" - a painted wooden frame in the style of an antique radio.
The construction of "Radio" - a unpainted wooden overlay with a laser etched pattern of the Bobst library marble floor.
The construction of "Radio" - a painted wooden overlay with a laser etched pattern of the Bobst "pixel veil" scaffolding design.
An image collage of the construction of "Infinity" - a unpainted wooden bookcase, painted bookcase, and gold metal embellishment in workshop. Co-creator Belantara speaks to prop builders.
A Zoom screenshot of a 3-D miniature model. Alpin, Belantara, and Tateoka discuss the design.
The production of 3-D printed miniatures, ready to be hand-painted.
Various film reels, wire, and other supplies on a studio desk will soon be transformed into hanging lanterns.
35mm film slides in silver frames and small mirrors on a studio desk will soon be transformed into hanging lanterns.
Screenshot of an audio editing session in a digital audio workstation. Many layers of audio are shown on the project timeline.
A Zoom screenshot shows Alpin and Belantara talking with an editing timeline in the non-linear editing program "Descript" being shared on screen.