Saturday, June 20, 2015

PART I: Origin of Disappearing Artifacts: Challenges in Collecting and Preserving 21st Century Personal Correspondence



                                     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.”[1] 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”[2] 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.

        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.

              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
All rights reserved © Copyright 2011-2015


[1] Joseph Beuys (1994), The Work, Audio Arts: Discourse and Practice in Contemporary Art, page 6.
[2] Academic Benchmark (2015), 7 Common Core State Standard Adoption Map, academicbenchmarks.com/common-core-state-adoption-map.