archival as lifestyle
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.
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... See more
To collect well is to resist algorithmic influence. A true collection reflects deeply personal values and a genuine desire to... See more
Patricia Hurducaș • Archives: Anchors For Attention
Archiving / collecting requires deep and intentional awareness and attention
Building relationships between things is a form of authorship too.
Mindy Seu • On Gathering
Making connections between ideas (or curation) is a valid and robust form of creativity
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)
leananki.com • Zettelkasten Method: How to Take Smart Notes
Ideas aren’t static or finished. They are energy, waiting to be transformed by the context in which it presents itself.
‘...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... See more
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
From Maggie O’ Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, describing Lucrezia painting over her paintings
Gathering is the tender and thoughtful collection of goods for your kin, and a moment for reunion, for celebration, and for introspection around those goods.
Mindy Seu • On Gathering
Computer Science in the 1960s to 80s spent a lot of effort making languages which were as powerful as possible. Nowadays we have to appreciate the reasons for picking not the most powerful solution but the least powerful. The reason for this is that the less powerful the language, the more you can do with the data stored in that language . If you... See more
leananki.com • Zettelkasten Method: How to Take Smart Notes
The simpler the idea, the more potential it has