archival as lifestyle
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
‘...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
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.
“The concept of the sacred and the archival is being lost because of the novel environment of the internet.”
-Eric Weinstein
The inundation of information on the internet means meaningful ideas get lost.
Professor Mindy Seu on Cyberfeminisim, AI, and Information Inundation
open.spotify.comMindy Seu on Phoebe Lovatt’s Deep Read podcast
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction (1986), Le Guin posits the first human tool as the basket, not the spear, thereby recasting the first protagonist as a gatherer, not a hunter. Not only did this address the deeply gendered roles of these two parts, it also changed the singular hero to the plural collective, from he to we. “Before... See more
Mindy Seu • On Gathering
‘Gathering’ is a useful and powerful tool.
It generates community.
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.
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