The Pararchive Project

Loss of control of the personal archive means a loss of societal control of the cultural record. … The job of an archivist is work outside interfaces, working with the documents outside their native context, often to make sense of a previous generation’s cast-off data for the interest of the current and future ones. thenewinquiry.com/essays/the-collection-and-the-cloud

You might think of it as a “secret decoder ring” for information we leave for the future in human language form. hopesandfears.com/hopes/future/technology/168465-future-of-libraries

Back in November, Erica Ramsay from the University’s Cultural and Creative Industries Exchange asked Simon to present a five-minute lightning talk on the origins of Pararchive in the Leeds Creative Labs as well as our progress so far… … the Impact in 5 talks also included a talk from Fiona on her research on Communicating Feminism. Check out all six…

With this approach, libraries have: Developed new spaces that promote play as a central part of childhood learning Engaged teens in maker­-oriented events that encourage deeper, long­lasting connections with librarians Created new programs that facilitate users to teach one another about digital media resources Design thinking is a creative approach, or a series of steps,…

“In some ways, we’re opening up that vast warehouse and saying here are the tools to bring together really meaningful collections and expose them to the world,” More at… nie.mn/1Eu71Pn

“Would you ever consider loaning out items in your collection? If so, think about whom you might make a loan to and how you’d want to handle any such transactions.” More at… unclutterer.com/2015/02/19/personal-collectors-can-learn-museums

“…it’s a framework in which to create. I’m a big designer. When I write a screenplay, I’ve diagrammed the architecture of the story. There’s really got to be a structure; art demands it.” More at… Boyhood director Richard Linklater shares his keys to great storytelling

Adam Curtis’ stylish and thrilling documentaries, The Power Of Nightmares and All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace were early influences on the Pararchive project. His experimental works illustrated how the BBC’s archival footage could be remixed into radically new narratives, often challenging the original readings. His works do have a tendency to reframe history as a series of conspiratorial…

“When you think about the quantity of documentation from our daily lives that is captured in digital form, like our interactions by email, people’s tweets, and all of the world wide web, it’s clear that we stand to lose an awful lot of our history,” More at… Google boss warns of ‘forgotten century’ with email…

It’s easy to become cynical about the current fashion of story as the metaphor for everything from politics to religion to marketing to design. Indeed, I find myself rolling my eyes as another story-centric service is launched at us. However story is at the heart of Pararchive and Yarn and for a good reason. Dean…