Go to the reception on the ground floor and ask for a CLASS AVES GAME TAG and a booklet to take home and make notes in.

Find the first Volume VOL I of an old book on a brown plinth on the ground floor near the shop.

OPEN carefully to page 3 and place your TAG on the TAG symbol on the page then FOLLOW instructions on the screen to play.

Using Your TAG

PLACE TAG on tag symbol in the book to load the screen

HOLD IN PLACE until progress is saved:be patient! the game writes your progress to the tag for you to carry around. If you don't let the game book write your progress to the tag, you'll lose data and your position in the story!

REMOVE TAG when finished reading the screen

REPLACE TAG for more... to read another screen page

REPEAT until a choice screen is presented

GO TO similar books on plinths labelled VOL I,II,III or IV matching your choice, hidden around the older parts of the library and leading you through the game and the building

REPEAT until you complete the game, collecting poems and noting down ornithological escapees from the past for your own slim volume to be published inside the game...

CLASS AVES arose from research around the origins of the library and museum on William Brown Street from the collections of the 13th Earl of Derby at Knowsley Hall, a patron of John James Audubon and Edward Lear. These two very different characters share this lesser known connection to Merseyside and are part of our early popular views of the natural world and how books became important objects of power and knowledge in science and art. The playful game will have periodic updates with cameos from researchers and writers in science, philosophy and art.

Maker Difference Orgins

CLASS AVES is a MakerDifference commission, supported by Arts Council England and led from a prototype displayed at Liverpool MakeFest in 2017 and evolved from workshops for the Arcade Of Babel project. It features a collaboration with local makers, the print finishers at Loughlin's in Liverpool, binding the city's books for over 20 years, to embed the work into the Library's public collections