I agree in being curious about the nature of future historiography. I predict that the documented history will not look anything like anyone think it will. There was a point in an essay “The Historiography of New Media” where I was speculating scholarship that would modify itself as its online references did. This is a fairly neutral position; the speculation that future histories not being anything like we’d imagine.
In response to Pall, there’s no way that we can speculate how future historians will value our work, but having spent time with historians for 20 years, I find that what gets covered is more linked to their interests and desires than what we feel is important, although that sounds pedantic. One antidote for that is to document the present-as-future-past in order to at least preserve an epistemic trace in conventional channels. The preservation of digital archives, I find is less dependent on scholars and institutions but IT departments and ISPs. From: netbehaviour-boun...@netbehaviour.org [mailto:netbehaviour-boun...@netbehaviour.org] On Behalf Of Pall Thayer Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2015 10:23 PM To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] the ever-present-present The notion that we might be "erasing our historical past as we create it for the digital future" sounds somewhat absurd and escapist to me. If we are not recognized for our efforts in the future, we should chalk it up to a failure of our present to find a means to preserve our work? We all think we're creating important and relevant work but if the future doesn't come up with a way to extract and preserve it, then it probably didn't mean that much to them. On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 9:50 PM, Kath O'Donnell <alia...@gmail.com> wrote: yes, that's likely true. we hope the future might be interested but who knows what they'll be thinking of by then. On 4 March 2015 at 13:29, Pall Thayer <pallt...@gmail.com> wrote: It's interesting to consider what we, in our current ever-present-present, might think future generations will be interested in. We're probably wrong. On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 12:26 PM, Randall Packer <rpac...@zakros.com> wrote: Kath, you’re last remarks are particularly relevant in regards to the emerging digital natives and millennials. My teaching is centered around the study of the digital native as a kind of anthropological research. It seems there is a clear trend towards giving up on privacy, and a growing lack of concern for preservation, as you suggest. Of course when you are 20 you might not think it is important to save anything, but in fact, we have a social media industry focused on information as more and more transient. The social media of today is about the NOW, what is at the top of our feed, which comes to our screen in the Moment, and then fades in descending chronological order into a past we are no longer interested in. As Douglas Rushkoff has written in Present Shock, we live in an ever-present-present tense, our abbreviated attention span revolving around the here and now. >>> I suppose it's really up to how much people care about these things, and >>> whether they work towards saving some of it or preparing for the future. >> What in fact are we leaving behind for future generations on our hard drives >> and cloud repositories? And how will the technological culture of today be viewed when these values are no longer decipherable. Are we in fact erasing our historical past as we create it for the digital future? I think this is a real issue. though we try to save some things using archives, the changing formats and technology (and speed of change) is causing data to be lost or at the very least, harder/longer to recover/republish (especially if they need converting later on). it's covering both net art and personal items such as home photos which are generally no longer printed, and home videos. I also wonder what future archeologists will think of our surviving buried rubbish. so whilst I love the net, I think it's important to go back to hand made physical art and craft too. if there is some pulse in the future which wipes all the technology we'll be left with a gap from our digital/online years. let's hope the libraries survive. I've heard of projects such as printed copies of Wikipedia, but I wonder how many they print and how distributed these are. (plus how often as WP changes so quickly). in smaller communities such as music communities (for one example), there's less event flyers printed out - they are all online or (worse) only on Facebook as event listings, which means they are lost over very short times. I suppose it's really up to how much people care about these things, and whether they work towards saving some of it or preparing for the future. looking forward to this month. checking out the artworks now - they're looking great thanks On 3 March 2015 at 06:17, Randall Packer <rpac...@zakros.com> wrote: [snip] Here are some questions to consider: Are we in fact producing a cultural history that emanates from the language of computers? Are the cultural references of today increasingly coded in numerical values that will need to be compiled and encoded in the far future by curious historians of the 21st century? What in fact are we leaving behind for future generations on our hard drives and cloud repositories? And how will the technological culture of today be viewed when these values are no longer decipherable. Are we in fact erasing our historical past as we create it for the digital future? Randall [snip] _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour -- ***************************** Pall Thayer artist http://pallthayer.dyndns.org ***************************** _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour -- ***************************** Pall Thayer artist http://pallthayer.dyndns.org *****************************
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