April 07, 2004
Proposal for an Archiving Open House
A Play of Archiving
I propose an open house where guests are invited to archive the physical material from Digitales 2004 by way of a play of encounters. I propose that this open house will take place on June 2nd or 3rd, 2003 from 9h-17h. In the house I will set up media stations where guests can access the material ( audio station, video station, digital image station, text station, photographic image station). Guests will receive an invitation to the event in advance and will be asked to come prepared with a character profile; this could be accurate or fantasy. Guest will be asked to confirm if they plan to attend.
Upon arriving, each guest will receive a small booklet within which to record their profile, encounters, and archive material information. Guests will be able to browse the archive material at the various stations. In order to play, guests will be asked to find something which interests them in a specific record, find someone to share and discuss that interest with, and record the item (including a brief description of the item), the subject of the discussion, and with whom the discussion took place in their booklet. Guest may record more about the discussion if they like. This play can be continued for as many items as the guest wishes. To finish playing, guests will be asked to summarize their experience by writing a brief reaction in their booklet.
The Physical Archive(s)
This system works through a collection of people. When one wishes to access the material in the archive, one does so through people. The archive is therefore more accurately described as a collection of archives. Material will be stored in relation to a person, so that instead of having sections based on subject, or media, there will be sections based on people. In a section based on Ms. X, for example, one would find her booklet (mentioned above) and the various materials that Ms. X had used in play. A search tool, conceived much like the index of a book, would be made available for those persons who would like a faster access to the material in the archive. This index would lead to the profile of each player’s archive. For example, an index of subjects ( made from the description that each player had made for a record) would lead to a page containing the profile of the player and listing each of their archive objects with additional information such as: the media of the items, the encounters, the descriptions, the titles, the running time... this index would have to be compiled by a ‘resource manager’ after guests had played the game and filled in their booklet.
Project Goals
This system is meant to work as a tangible parallel to the online system, which is outlined on the blog site. For June, 2004 I plan to hold the open house, prepare a prototype search/ index booklet, and prepare a prototype html venue for the online play of archiving. This html prototype will not have the programmed functionality or a database. The idea is to prepare a prototype ( for both a physical and online venue) which will facilitate the search for additional funding to complete the project.
May 25, 2004
The Archiving Open House
The Archiving Open House (2004) is a prototype venue for archiving the physical traces from the Digitales Meeting Days by way of encounters between people (a process which I refer to as a play of archiving). The physical archives of the Digitales Meeting Days include minidisks, audiocassette tapes, CD’s, miniDV tapes, VHS tapes, floppy disks, and texts. Guests have been invited into my home to use media stations that I have set up there to access the material. Guest are invited to discuss their interest in an archive item with each other, and to record a brief indication of these discussions in booklets that I have prepared.
May 26, 2004
images from the archiving open house
these are some images of the media stations at the archiving open house...
the audio cd station
the minidisk station
the snack station
the text station
the video station
more images and text are coming soon...
May 27, 2004
some text from the archiving open house
This is a little text I made for people who attended the open house to introduce the play of archiving. As soon as I scan some of the booklets that people used I will put them online too.
Welcome to the Archiving Open House
During this Archiving Open House we are archiving material from Digitales 2004, which took place this past January. In order to participate you can take part in a play of archiving. To do this, first fill in your profile information on the front page of your booklet. This information can be your age, your gender or sex, your nationality, the languages you speak, etc. Then find something which interests you in an archive item from any of the five media stations in the house. The stations are: mindisk station, audio CD station, VHS station, miniDV station, and text station. Next, find someone to share that interest with. Then fill in the following information in your booklet:
1. Record the date, the archive item and a brief description of the archive item.
2. Record the name of person you encountered to share your interest with, the place you encountered them ( the minidisk station at the archiving open house, for example), and the subject of the encounter (this would be your interest in the archive item).
4. You can record more details about the encounter in your booklet if you wish.
This play can be continued for as many archive items as you wish.
This archiving open house is part of the development of a prototype for archiving the traces gathered from the Digitales meeting days. The Digitales meeting days are several days of conferences, workshops, forums, and art presentations where people come together to talk about women and technology. Digitales days are organized by Constant, in partnership with the ADA network. This prototype is part of my postgraduate research in the Transmedia program. The idea of the prototype is to create an archive that is connected to people. The way that this is done is through the play of archiving that is recorded in your booklet. After the open house is finished the booklet represents your personal space in the archive.
If you have any questions about the prototype, the play of archiving, or the archiving open house please ask me.
Thanks to: Constant , Transmedia, ADA
