Tag Archives: Time

OHD_BLG_0044 To archive or to exhibit: A SPECTURM

This is the thing: WE CANNOT ARCHIVE EVERYTHING. We do not have the room or the resources. Now, one can think that in the case of oral histories that maybe we should not go around recording everything, especially when recordings have already been done of that community. An example of this that was recently mentioned to me was Chinese people in Soho, London. In America the Oral History Association warns people not to record people or groups that already have been recorded. In the UK however there is no such thing. Funding bodies AKA the people who own all of our heritage, do not care if a project has already been done, they only really care about community engagement (good for PR). This means people do projects that the people want to see, which is find but the public has bad taste and often just wants to see the same things over and over again. From an archiving standpoint this is not super fun. However I think there are two things I think we can do.

Firstly, archives need to be more picky. I know that this is super dangerous but there is a difference between having a lot different types of shoes and just having the same shoe multiple times. Archives should not be the dustbin of history because we cannot afford that resources to keep everything afloat. The second thing I think we can do is encourage more exhibiting of project results. So instead of archiving, people just exhibit their work for a set amount of time and then after that it is no longer available. You can then do an oral history of the project later on if you wish to do so. Another option is to only archive the exhibit and not the raw oral history recordings, this will probably also save space and time. Either way I believe it is always good to think about these things before you record your oral histories, even if it is just about managing expectations.

OHD_MDM_0032 Beasties of the Archive

The Ghost

The idea of archives being haunted I have talked about a lot. I do find it a rather beautiful and romantic idea but some people do not believe in ghosts or went to art school so they have a lower tolerance for bullshit. Let’s leave the bullshit argue for now and just enjoy the idea of ghosts of Seaton Delaval Hall floating around the archive telling their stories. The root the stories within a human and therefore more relatable setting. The story has a face and a personality so there is more room for the reuser to create a bond with the person.

However, ghosts are by their mythology rather static beings. Ghosts exist because they have unfinished business in this world. They live a rather selfish existence which is not too ideal for the space that I want to create where ghost and human collaborate together.

The Undead

Unlike the ghost the undead are able to stay in this world forever, adapting with society, taking on new trends etc. They are also human like but unlike ghost they have less of an agenda so are more likely to be open to ideas.

However humans do not generally like things that live forever, mostly because we are very jealous, so the undead are often painted as pretty gross. For example, rotting zombies or blood thirsty vampire, generally both are not very cool when it comes to fitting in with society.

The Robot

Here is another potentially immortal being, the robot! However this one might potentially die faster than all of us due to rampant capitalism, built in obsolescence and many many updates. But if it does survive it has a bigger brain than all of the beasties. However, it does not have a heart and unlike the above beasties this one is less of a metaphor and more of a physical system many of which already exists. My only addition is that we give this robot a name, which is not a particular new idea just ask Alexa. By the way here is probably the biggest problem – I do not really like Alexa, I think she is creepy.

The Garden

From fauna to flora here comes the archive as a garden. Originally this post-it was created because I was thinking about how I have memories attached to plants but it has now morphed into this… Archives can be viewed as an eco system just like a garden. The plants are the documents that live within the garden: some die, some live, some completely take over and some change with the seasons. The insects are the users of the archive: some users are bees they take and add to the archive, some are snails and just take take take, and some are flies who deal with the messy that is created. The whole thing becomes an eco system that needs everyone to help in order for it to keep existing. Take one thing out and it all falls apart.

Now I perfectly aware that I cannot use all these metaphors at once because then they do not work, but it is interesting to think about which metaphor can best encourage the mindset that I wish for the users of the archive to have. That mindset being one of care for those who donated parts of their lives to this public space. Are people more likely to care for ghosts, zombies, robots or plants? Or maybe I need to create my own supernatural archival being?

HERE LIES A POTENTIAL EXPERIMENT

OHD_BLG_0066 An Archival Impulse

No Ghost Just a Shell

This is why I want to work with some of the art students because you can get some of this lovely weirdness when you work in that space. I just think there is great benefit in looking at how artists approach archives. Do I think that this artwork is archival? Well the ‘shell’ AnnLee (the manga character) is indeed an archival source but the majority of the piece is artists building on this archival source. So the artwork uses the archive and builds the archive AKA makes the excavation site into a construction site. There is all sorts of interesting things happening around the copyright of this piece. First an artist buys the copyright then invites others to do what they want with it and then finally they block anyone using AnnLee.

The idea of AnnLee and No ghost just a shell got me thinking again about this idea of something living in the archive, a ghost, a shell, a figure; something that people can project onto, something that embodies their need for a story. Anansi-esque, forever changing with the times.

Which is why I say…

Kill originality its all about collaboration now.

The story of a single narrative, a lone genius, an isolated idea is silly, because that is not how the world works. There is not one story that can represent a large group of people. A lone genius is most likely someone with an extensive network where they are able to exchange ideas. An eureka moment is often the result of many smaller ideas coming together. There is no such thing as an original idea and all artists steal. So maybe it is a good idea to stop obsessing over this idea of originality because all it does it put people with great ideas against each other instead of getting them to collaborate. Collaboration is more sustainable. Time would have change AnnLee and she would have reflected the world as it progressed and different people manipulated her. She could have lived on forever. Allowing things to change through collaboration instead of preserving and protecting an idea will allow the piece to support society while at the same time keeping its archived versions as windows to he past. This seems a more favourable than it becoming an artwork that needs to have a plaque added to it that says something along the lines of “by the way this dude was a massive misogynist”.

Moving on…

Vandalism as AFFECT

Trying to capture affect is very difficult/probably impossible. But in the written piece Foster mentions the spontaneous creation of the Diana memorial in Paris.

This got me thinking about how this spontaneous shrine and other types of vandalism or sudden outbursts of marking is maybe the closest you could get to capturing affect. Think the tearing down of the Berlin wall or the Edward Colton statue in Bristol. Pure in the moment emotion.

Oral History’s Design

A creative collaboration. Maintaining and reusing oral history recordings – The National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall case study