Archiving starts with seeing.
The stories people repeat.
The things one person knows that nobody else does.
The way your grandmother
pronounces a name.
What your father remembers
about his first apartment.
The version of a family story
everyone tells differently.
A good archive starts with a good question
What did the kitchen smell like in the house where you grew up?
Follow the thread
“We never called it the blue house.
That was Aunt Lena’s name for it.”
One answer reveals a name. A place.
Something you’ve never heard before.
Why did Aunt Lena call it
the blue house?
KEEP THE ORDINARY
Don’t wait for the
important stories.
Move to remember
The ordinary is often what disappears first.
BUILD AN ARCHIVE
An archive grows
one question at a time.
No project to finish.
No perfect record to make.
Just keep asking while there’s something you want to know.What was your mother like when you were little?
What was your mother like when you were little?
00:47Start with one question.