brainstorm, feb 15

Digitized and mildly organized version of the brainstorm/mindmap the team created on the first day. It's a mix of initial ideas, preconceptions, and interests.

Why Search an Archive?

The results of our exercise in categorizing why an archive is accessed. This classification can help serve as a starting point for understanding the steps/experience/ritual of accessing archives under different circumstances.

How does technology change the nature of what an archive is/how it is accessed/what and for who it is for?

*Digital analogies of physical archives include YouTube (a public archive) or external archives owned by individuals.

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1. Research (targeted)

- Assignment

- Personal Interest

- Authority of Source Material: The authoritative version is somehow the curated and saved knowledge and can help in the search for confirmation or validation

- The archive can help us understand/interpret the present through our search of the past

2. Curiosity (exploratory)

3. Learning (exploratory/targeted)

- Status

- Identity building

4. Entertainment (exploratory/targeted)

- Nostalgia

- Kill time

5. Content Sourcing (targeted/exploratory)

- For the creation of new media

6. External Memory/Knowledge (targeted)

- Collection impulse

7. New Ways/Reasons

How does technology change the nature of the archive?

- Alternative classification, i.e. infographics, information aesthetics. Infographics help us understand a large amount of information at one time.

- Novel experience of search

- more fulfilling (?)