Tag Archives: Feminism

OHD_LST_0128 experiments

Leave a Reply

In an attempt to create order in the chaos of my mind I thought that it would be helpful to also write all the ideas I have thoughout this process alongside all the questions, insights I have.

The Shelter for Phantom Voices

This idea came to me while I was doing a podcasting workshop (26/04/21 – 27/04/21). Combining the Last Archive podcast and the book Imaginary Museum and then ripping them off, I decided to make the Shelter for Phantom Voices: home of oral history. I thought it would be a good idea to used different oral history projects to illustrate the various challenges and opportunities that can be found in the field of oral history.

I don’t know whether I’ll make it into a podcast or just keep it as a mind palace for myself but either way it is a fun way to think about it.

Pop-Up Archive

I was zooming with Emma because we need our bi-weekly PhD vent. She had been busy with ethics forms which was driving her crazy and I had been thinking about reusing archives (duh). This combination led us to brain storm how you can make an archive pandemic and power-cut proof, while also sticking to GDPR regulations. Our conclusion, a pop-up archive where you can simply hear the oral histories live from the people without any recording. You see if there isn’t a document you do not need to worry about GDPR, power cuts or pandemics because the archive lives within the people. Inspired by oral tradition of Anansi the histories live within the generations through pop up archives. No collection, no storage problems.

PhD student seeking…

Since my roots lie with fine art and I am a strong believer in art as a frontier of exploration, I find it fitting that I should start this project with some type of collaboration with art students. I imagine this would involve me commissioning artists to create pieces that explore the ideas of: sustainability, audience participation, legacy, evolution, story telling, manipulation etc. Should be fun.

Continuing this idea but expanding it to software developers and architects.

The diverse feminist experience

I am currently (21/07/20) watching the drama series Mrs. America, which is about the ERA (equal right amendment) in 1970s America and the women who are both for and against it. The drama demonstrates perfectly how difficult it is for feminist unity because everyone has different life experiences. Women of colour have a different story to white women, young and old differ, lesbians and straights, rich and poor. It is a mess and the exact reason that when my brother asks why can’t women do what #blacklivesmatter protesters do, I reply with it’s just too complicated.

However what this particular situation offers is an extreme situation and extreme situations are very helpful in the case of designing something (Tim Brown, Change by Design). With this in mind I believe that an experiment involving the various opinions of a diverse group on the topic of feminism could provide an exceptional interesting source of footage. Something that could possibly be edited to fit any point of view.

I therefore imagine collecting this in a Photo Booth set up on, lets say, the university grounds and then later inviting people to create their own interpretation of the footage.

I think the aim of the experiment would be to see if you can edit any footage to fit your opinion even if you have collected a wide range of opinions.

Alternatively…

I could make a set up where you can answer a question and leave a question. Like a chain of opinions. Completely random. Could be a website or an installation of some kind.

OHD_BLG_0052 It’s all about the cleaners

Leave a Reply

I always get frustrated when I clean my fridge. There are so many little ridges that stuff gets into. I even have to have the door of my fridge open a certain way, which is not logical in the day-to-day of opening it but is the only way I can make sure that I am able to take out the shelves to clean them properly. This is an example of people designing a product without thinking about maintenance. The designers were not thinking about the cleaners they were thinking about the users. In a capitalistic and consumer driven world this is not surprising. We want to sell products to the users and cleaners are not important. Cleaning is after all a women’s job and who gives a shit about them. However cleaners are extremely powerful. If cleaners go on strike you have a big problem.

Waste disposal strike during the winter of discontent

However, cleaners do not generally go on strike. They are often women, who are most likely from a minority background and need the money. Striking is a privilege.

But cleaners are extremely powerful and this is proven by the new types of cleaners and maintenance workers. The computer guys. The IT department. The software developers. However unlike domestic cleaners our digital cleaners are mostly privilege educated men. This in combination with the fact the we view digital as our new god, means that we view these new, digital cleaners in a very different light. These types of digital cleaners are a luxury. Don’t get me wrong being able to employ a cleaner to clean your house is also extremely privileged, but this is a whole new level.

Now some might point out that the digital cleaners need way more training but then I would invite them to clean a university building. To be able to clean fast and well, while simultaneously being completely ignored by your fellow humans and having to deal with the disgusting things that come out of these humans, you need to be really good and have a lot of experience. The most elite cleaners, those who work in very fancy hotels, have to under go extreme training. They are different jobs but one is not harder than the other and the difference in pay a shameful.

But what does this have to do with archives, because that is what I am normally talking about. Well, in this article by archivist Charlie Morgan he talks about Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Manifesto for Maintenance Art 1969!, which is one of my favourite art pieces. With her work Ukeles brings to light the people to who have to maintain the work after it has been created. Morgan writes that as a society we are focused on creation and under value maintenance (not surprising as this is either done by women, or the working class.) This focus has led everyone including archives to become obsessed with collection. GIMME ALL THE STUFF! This is like my fridge completely ignores the maintenance staff. How are we going to look after all this? WHO CARES I WANT IT!

Not helpful. Especially when people are handling sensitive informative which many archives do (so does most of Silicone Valley, but that’s another issue.)

My work is about getting people to reuse oral history, to give purpose to the storing of recordings, but I must NEVER forget about the cleaners. I cannot design any thing extremely complicated because most archives cannot afford the luxury digital cleaners. They have to do all the cleaning themselves. Heck, I was talking to an archivist who said the they currently were not doing any archiving they were doing building maintenance. Archiving is not the job you think it is. Archiving is cleaning. Cleaning up the world’s information.