archival as lifestyle
‘...she takes a stiff-bristled brush and loads it with a dark greenish-brown, the colour of first shade, and with sweeping movements, she covers the image with darkness, obliterating the lovers, sealing them inside a tomb of paint...it is all gone, hidden for ever, the only sign the scene was ever there the slight undulations in the paint’s surface... See more
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
From Maggie O’ Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, describing Lucrezia painting over her paintings
This stems from the structure of the web — it’s a tangle of links, a jumble of interconnected ideas. It fractalizes our attention, nudging us to leave fragments of our mind trapped in open tabs like a thousand tiny horcruxes — open loops feeding off our attention until they wither away, replaced by our latest distraction.
There’s a bottleneck here:
... See morethesolarmonk.com • A Spacebar for the Web
How do you create context from a tangle of disparate ideas?
Collecting and archiving are ways to reclaim and own our attention—they are acts of meaning-making. These practices are rituals: habits and skills that demand time, patience, and a willingness to look beyond the surface.
To collect well is to resist algorithmic influence. A true collection reflects deeply personal values and a genuine desire to know... See more
To collect well is to resist algorithmic influence. A true collection reflects deeply personal values and a genuine desire to know... See more
Patricia Hurducaș • Archives: Anchors For Attention
Archiving / collecting requires deep and intentional awareness and attention
Instead of 'telescoping', how about 'kaleidoscope-ing' here, i.e. "To move in shifting (and often attractive or colourful) patterns." - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kaleidoscope
Adding shapes, spotting connections, meanings shifting as patterning and re-patterning continues through shapes being organised and connected in different ways. Like that ... See more
Adding shapes, spotting connections, meanings shifting as patterning and re-patterning continues through shapes being organised and connected in different ways. Like that ... See more
Kaleidoscoping vs telescoping | Are.na
Researchers & archivists build up a network of every-shifting ideas and meanings.
This process of exploring shifting patterns feels like looking through a kaleidoscope.
No memory is ever alone; it’s at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.
Kevin Horsley • Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive
A memory is not a singular event, but a trail of associations.
In the being mode, remembering is actively recalling words, ideas, sights, paintings, music; that is, connecting the single datum to be remembered and the many other data that it is connected with.
Erich Fromm • To Have or To Be? (Continuum Impacts)
Remembering is active.
Any one memory contains multiple references to other memories.
In ‘Zettelkasten’ note-taking, each note/idea captured is organised in a non-hierarchical way.
This way, we are able to retain the purity/full potential of an idea, rather than file it under a large category which pre-determines and limits its usefulness
Links are the “checkpoints” of your thinking process.
Remember that moment when you had a trail of thoughts and someone asked you a question? That train is good as gone, right?
Links allow you to store this “train” and continue it indefinitely later.
Also, the big benefit of these links is that your working memory becomes free to focus on developing ... See more
Remember that moment when you had a trail of thoughts and someone asked you a question? That train is good as gone, right?
Links allow you to store this “train” and continue it indefinitely later.
Also, the big benefit of these links is that your working memory becomes free to focus on developing ... See more
Al Khan • How to Take Smart Notes (A Beginner's Guide)
Creating trains of thought / links allow you to focus on developing the thought trail
In the old system, the question is: Under which topic do I store this note? In the new system, the question is: In which context will I want to stumble upon it again? (Ahrens, 2017)
Al Khan • How to Take Smart Notes (A Beginner's Guide)
Ideas aren’t static or finished. They are energy, waiting to be transformed by the context in which it presents itself.