I definitely didn’t feel this utopia growing up in a suburb of Hartford. Except for a bit around how we actually went to each other’s houses or met up at the library or Friendly’s. But it does give me hope to be reminded that good things once existed that we can bring back so much more easily than we think.
100% – I was surprised to see how much existed around Hartford and the state specifically in the 70's and 80's, and how much my own experience just a few decades later did...uh...not match up with that at all, haha.
PSA: If you're not listening to Elise's voiceover you're missing out!
You know I like archives... when I've been experiencing the feeling your describe when looking in archives the past few years, I try to keep in mind that hindsight and the hand of the archivist plays a big role in making things in the past feel coherent. Lots of materials are not saved, or never collected. The archive is concentrated down to a core idea that gives weight to and makes the history feel cohesive and well-defined.
So I try to remember that at the time these cultural moments were probably felt, at the time, just as incoherent, stop-and-start, suddenly exploding or imploding, or just dripping along, as the groups/movements/spaces I see today. Just as now, there were moments of triumph and moments of stagnation - you just don't experience that once it's compressed the past.
I think it also feels so tangible because of the physical materials you get to hold and touch - the printed flyers and resource guides and posters. This is one way into talking about the sea change happening in archives which were built to house physical materials - how to capture, save, curate, and make visible born-digital materials?
Every few years a student radio show on KZSC (the UC Santa Cruz radio station) pops - the DJs realize the power of radio to talk to their community, they get better at hosting their shows, they start organizing local parties, creating new nights at old bars, featuring new bands, interviewing their influences - and I'm like "they're making a moment happen." There's one going on right now - https://www.instagram.com/themothership.connection/ But I mostly experience it through my car radio, audio archives that only last for two weeks, and fleeting Instagram stories. How will future Elises and Bennetts find these cultural moments in the archive?
WOW yes. I think that's why, more than anything, it made me crave a zine/classifieds-style listing of everything happening just to compile these snapshots. And while those are curations in themselves, they seem more objective too, less prone to the "it used to be so much better" or "we have reached new heights of social fun that have heretofore been unrealized, we are the first people to ever throw a dance party in town"
I definitely didn’t feel this utopia growing up in a suburb of Hartford. Except for a bit around how we actually went to each other’s houses or met up at the library or Friendly’s. But it does give me hope to be reminded that good things once existed that we can bring back so much more easily than we think.
100% – I was surprised to see how much existed around Hartford and the state specifically in the 70's and 80's, and how much my own experience just a few decades later did...uh...not match up with that at all, haha.
PSA: If you're not listening to Elise's voiceover you're missing out!
You know I like archives... when I've been experiencing the feeling your describe when looking in archives the past few years, I try to keep in mind that hindsight and the hand of the archivist plays a big role in making things in the past feel coherent. Lots of materials are not saved, or never collected. The archive is concentrated down to a core idea that gives weight to and makes the history feel cohesive and well-defined.
So I try to remember that at the time these cultural moments were probably felt, at the time, just as incoherent, stop-and-start, suddenly exploding or imploding, or just dripping along, as the groups/movements/spaces I see today. Just as now, there were moments of triumph and moments of stagnation - you just don't experience that once it's compressed the past.
I think it also feels so tangible because of the physical materials you get to hold and touch - the printed flyers and resource guides and posters. This is one way into talking about the sea change happening in archives which were built to house physical materials - how to capture, save, curate, and make visible born-digital materials?
Every few years a student radio show on KZSC (the UC Santa Cruz radio station) pops - the DJs realize the power of radio to talk to their community, they get better at hosting their shows, they start organizing local parties, creating new nights at old bars, featuring new bands, interviewing their influences - and I'm like "they're making a moment happen." There's one going on right now - https://www.instagram.com/themothership.connection/ But I mostly experience it through my car radio, audio archives that only last for two weeks, and fleeting Instagram stories. How will future Elises and Bennetts find these cultural moments in the archive?
WOW yes. I think that's why, more than anything, it made me crave a zine/classifieds-style listing of everything happening just to compile these snapshots. And while those are curations in themselves, they seem more objective too, less prone to the "it used to be so much better" or "we have reached new heights of social fun that have heretofore been unrealized, we are the first people to ever throw a dance party in town"