Unstable materials: memory, oral history & digital preservation Penny Johnston Béaloideas & Digital Arts and Humanities
“…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. 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
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 “…oral sources…are not always fully reliable in point of fact. Rather than being a weakness, Portelli, A. (1991). The this is however, their Death of Luigi Trastulli and strength: errors, other stories: form and inventions, and myths meaning in oral history . lead us through and New York: State University beyond facts to their of New York Press. 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).
Community archives Flinn, A., Stevens, M. “…the endeavour by (2009). '“It is noh mistri, individuals and social wi mekin histri” . Telling Our Own Story. In Bastian, groups to document J. & Alexander, B. their history ….. is (eds.) Community political and Archives. The shaping of subversive.” (Flinn and memory. London: Facet Stevens 2009, 3). Publishing.
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)
Digital Preservation “…the main barriers to developing digital Brown, A. (2013). Practical preservation Digital Preservation: A capabilities are How-to Guide for practical – money, Organizations of Any Size . skills, leveraging Facet Publishing. available resources…” . (Brown 2013, 9).
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)?
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