Memory is never filed away and reopened, like a file on a hard drive. It has to be re-inscribed through action and practice. The infrastructure of memory supports this: it consists of the stories we share, but also feelings, scents, and tastes, or returning to the places where things happened.
#ff24 #archives #ai4lam #dh https://cyberneticforests.substack.com/p/infrastructures-of-memory
But when we isolate the photograph, bird, person, or any object from the infrastructure of memory — transport into it a foreign context, or sever its relationship to the story — it loses its power, and memory can become distorted. This is a way to think about archives, and datasets, and the power of infrastructure to shape our access to memory.
This and other reflections on the Fantastic Futures Conference this week at the NSFA in Canberra:
#ff24 #archives #ai4lam #dh https://cyberneticforests.substack.com/p/infrastructures-of-memory