Attendees

• Jenni
• Ashley
• Zachary

Websites

https://www.miracmn.com

https://www.whitehouse.gov/aliens

Notes

• personal archives
• ICE and being online, discovering and saving online resources like miracmn.com
• we wonder what part of a story is or isnt told
• archiving it provides a degree of permanence, and validity
• personal archives
• the precarious state of the interrnet
• the precarious state of our personal data — moving data every so often to avoid storage failure
• Ashley — it’s like trying to describe a shadow (talking about photos versus videos)
• get more engagement with a website as opposed to a summary
• Jenni — the aesthetics of a site
• how it feels
• too much info versus clean
• eg, the Open Market website is unclear
• how does a website feel?
• referencing things like dan grahams schema
• schema-type execution provides the ‘bones’, but not the interior
• how do we describe the inside?
• Ashley — Dan Graham’s schema is like a recipe
• arbitrary system
• like a haiku or limerick
• Ansel Adam’s has a system, he created his own limitations
• are we better with or without such limitations?
• Jenni/Ashley — who gets to determine what to archive
• what utility does it serve?

Poetry

storytelling as grandiose as space in 139 words

a less than competent guide shows me data and information

“look here, this is where you live”, says the guide

“it’s pretty dangerous out there”

my faith in the guide is further diminished upon seeing a country i’ve never heard of in their list of countries they’ve found people to be from

the guide shows me more data, the same place, and different numbers

get me out of here

finally proper space to gather my thoughts

the guide is seeing me out, reassuring me that things will be okay

things were okay before I got here. No, I dont want to give you a tip

I’m finally free and the guide is shouting after me, something something “the cover-up is over” 

creep

I need a shower

– Zachary Hurdle

More Experimental Archives:

Session 005

I've always been pleasantly surprised by who shows up at these archival sessions. We started a little late, but we were still able to observe and ruminate on several websites and create a group poem. I'm excited about using other artistic practices to archive a website.

Session 004

I had a website building class at This & That Art Gallery in South Minneapolis scheduled for the past month. A day before the event I decided to invite people who I had been inviting to Experimental Archive Sessions. It was a blast.

Session 002

On the heels of the United States' 250th anniversary, I was recommended to host an archival session at a community gathering space, the Open Market. I arrived an hour into the event and found nobody there because all of the food was distributed! An Open Market win.

Session 001

Not everybody has time to commit to waxing away the day and musing about the past, present, and future. Amongst the various feelings one feels when pulled away from the steady hum of daily activities, I can imagine feeling that our time could be better spent, a feeling of slacking off, or as I'm discovering, a discomfort with publically creating poetic works.