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| John Hancock in Cursive (2015) by Leni D. Anderson |
“Only on condition of a radical widening of definition
will it be possible for art and activities related to art to provide evidence
that art is now the only evolutionary-revolutionary power. Only art is capable
of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social system that continues
to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in order to build A SOCIAL ORGANISM
AS A WORK OF ART.”
Joseph Beuys, 1974
Disappearing Artifacts began
as a research paper I had started while attending the University of Oklahoma’s
Master of Arts, Museum Studies Program fall semester of 2011 titled “Disappearing Artifacts: Challenges in
Collecting 21st Century Personal Correspondence and Photographic Images for
Museums, Archives & Special Collection Libraries.” I was investigating
how the evolution of digital technologies in communications (e.g. email,
texting, & twitter; social networking; and, social media sites) is creating
a void in our collections of cultural history because of the loss of analog
communication methods such as handwritten letters, notes and
doodles; postcards; documents; (still and moving) images, and audio recordings.
The constant changes in digital technology and the challenges it presents in
collecting and preserving digital born content; issues pertaining to
provenance, intellectual property, and copyright; and, last but not least, the
intrinsic value of analog communication methods.
My tenure at OU was [unfortunately]
brief because of health reasons, but the time I had invested there was much
valued, especially, in regard to the creation and cultivation of this art project. One of the required courses for
the museum studies program I had to take was titled "Introduction to Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies"; and, for the
class final project, each student had to select a topic of personal and/or
professional interest. Since I had already earned a Master of Library and
Information Science degree with a focus in archives and rare books librarianship
from Kent State University, a Bachelor of Arts degree in history of art from
The Ohio State University, and an Associate of Arts degree with a focus in
humanities and mental health studies from Columbus State Community College, I
chose to concentrate my efforts on a subject matter within my academic and
professional area of expertise and interest dealing with the collection of materials
that have both historic and contemporary importance and value, respectively.
The value and importance of the
materials I speak of, in the grand scheme, may not be appreciated as significant,
historically or worthy of collectability and research because it captures
everyday/banal moments in people’s lives, except to a small circle of experts
and enthusiasts. This does not diminish the value, and more importantly, the intrinsic
value the layperson’s personal correspondence and photographic images have in complimenting
both our macro and micro understanding and insight about society-at-large because
what it offers is a singular, subjective snapshot on and about the zeitgeist of
our time.
In tandem with the topics of
personal correspondence and photographic images, I am exploring the Common Core State Standards Initiative dealing
specifically with cursive writing. According
to the Common Core, an initiative to create a national teaching standard for
grades k-12, teaching cursive writing in primary school is no longer required. There
are 46 states that have adopted the Common Core according to the Academic Benchmarks website. Some states
have adopted it “verbatim, some partially, and others have made modifications” to
fit their state’s educational requirements and needs. There are states like
Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina that had adopted the Common Core, and then
decided to withdraw from it; and, other states like Texas, Nebraska &
Virginia that have not adopted it at all.
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| CURSIVE SCRIPT ALPHABET (2015) by Leni D. Anderson |
There are a plethora of issues
and concerns I can write about and create an independent art project that focus
primary on the Common Core, but I have decided to limit myself to the issue of
cursive writing. It is my belief a time will come when future generations of
young people in the United States will not be able to read or write cursive
writing. Basically, (this is taking it to the extreme) cursive writing may
someday be comparable to Latin, or Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphs. This may be
especially true for young people who live in lower economic urban and rural
communities, and attend public schools; whose glass half empty budgets are
being funneled to mainly fund students’ most basic educational needs.
As a result, future generations
may possibly lose the physical action
and mark that appears to be just
simple and inconsequential, but this simple, inconsequential action and mark has
more historical importance to personal identity than what contemporary society
gives it credit for. Like the uniqueness of a finger print or DNA, a person’s
signature is as unique as the individual person themselves.
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| MY FIRST SIGNATURE (2015) by Leni D. Anderson |
This may all seem trivial for
some, but one of the fascinating things that can be witnessed via a signature
is the evolution of a person’s distinctiveness; a person’s writing style, more
specifically, signature, changes as they mature into becoming themselves. But,
nowadays, we have become so dependent and co-dependent on digital technology, a
person can electronically sign most documents and contracts with the press of a
virtual button on their computer, smartphone, or e-pad.
Leni D. Anderson, M.L.I.S., B.A. ArtH., A.A.
Disappearing Artifacts: Challenges in Collecting and Preserving 21st Century Personal Correspondence
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2011-2015
