Unstable materials: memory, oral history & digital preservation - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Unstable materials:

memory, oral history & digital preservation

Penny Johnston Béaloideas & Digital Arts and Humanities

Image: "Sc 2". Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sc_2.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Sc_2.jpg

“…oral history is made primarily of such unstable materials as memory and language…”

Portelli, A. (2011). Review Oral History Theory. Oral History, 39(1), 109–110.

Memory as source of knowledge in oral histories

“I’ve great memories too of the old cinemas,” (Fergal Crowley) “I remember in the winter, Lavitt’s Quay was sloped…” (Mary McConville) “And I have strong memories of sailing on the old black and white Innisfallen,” (Michael O’Callaghan) “I remember characters.” (Marie Crean) “So I can remember the first time I tried it, and, ah, Jesus!” (Pete Duffy) Audio clips – all from www.corkmemorymap.org

Collective memory FRAMES individual memory

“Wrong” tales

Portelli, A. (1991). The Death of Luigi Trastulli and

• ther stories: form and

meaning in oral history. New York: State University

• f New York Press.

“…oral sources…are not always fully reliable in point of fact. Rather than being a weakness, this is however, their strength: errors, inventions, and myths lead us through and beyond facts to their

• meanings. ” (Portelli

1991, 2).

The accounts related in oral testimonies: “allow us to recognize the interests of the tellers, and the dreams and desires beneath them.” (Portelli 1991, 2).

The floating gap

Image by Albert Herring [CC BY 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A16LakeVesFD_TRW2961_(3665928054).jpg)

“All studies in oral history confirm that even in literate societies living memory goes no further back than eighty years after which, separated by the floating gap, come….. the dates from schoolbooks and monuments.” (J. Assman 2008, 112 -113).

“Canon” & “Archive”

Image: John Sunderland/Cork Folklore Project

Archive: “stores materials in the intermediary state of ‘no longer’ and ‘not yet,’ deprived of their old existence and waiting for a new one.” (A. Assman 2008, 103).

Flinn, A., Stevens, M. (2009). '“It is noh mistri, wi mekin histri” . Telling Our Own Story. In Bastian,

• J. & Alexander, B.

(eds.) Community

• Archives. The shaping of
• memory. London: Facet

Publishing.

“…the endeavour by individuals and social groups to document their history ….. is political and subversive.” (Flinn and Stevens 2009, 3).

Community archives

Screenshot: Cork Folklore Project homepage 19 January 2015 (http://www.ucc.ie/en/cfp/) Audio clip: link to documentary about CFP work http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2011/0816/646858-curious-ear-doconone-cork-city-memory-map/

Image: BitRot by P. Wheatley CC-BY-NC license - Created by the Jisc funded SPRUCE Project (http://wiki.dpconline.org/index.php?title=File:BitRot_web.png)

“…electronic data was simultaneously perceived as evanescent and ephemeral in some quarters, and remarkably, stubbornly, perniciously stable and persistent in others.” (Kirschenbaum 2008, 27)

Brown, A. (2013). Practical Digital Preservation: A How-to Guide for Organizations of Any Size. Facet Publishing. .

“…the main barriers to developing digital preservation capabilities are practical – money, skills, leveraging available resources…” (Brown 2013, 9).

Digital Preservation

Screenshot: Cork Memory Map 16 Jan 2015 www.corkmemorymap.org

Screenshot: Potential new memory map under construction 16 Jan 2015

Screenshot: A story map of North Main Street Cork under construction 19 Jan 2015

Issues & constraints

• Authoring tools emphasise the visual over the auditory
• Control of interface
• Potential cost implications
• Iterative
• Collaborative projects
• Implications for authorship of work included in

traditional scholarship (i.e. my PhD)?