Retention & disposal policies in the bedroom closet…

Thank you Leisa for this very interesting series of thoughts. I moved in March 2013 and that brought up a lot of the issues your raise. I too am sorting as I unpack gradually, looking at books and clothes. On the more superficial personal side of it (apart from the professional issues I mean), there are also the T-shirts which are far too small to wear again, for alas I am somewhat larger than in the 1990s. I have a large collection of band T-shirts from obscure Newtown bands. What to do with them? I can't wear them. I can't give them away, for they are limited edition cultural artefacts from my life and they will not be recognised at the op-shop for what they are. I suppose I could return them (like an estray) to a member of the band, but would they want them? What if the band has broken up? Will they have a museum?! Perhaps I could have them framed like signed rugby jerseys are framed? Thus turning them into art. To go on the wall alongside posters form the era. Maybe. Expensive. Or perhaps I could have the central design cut out, mounted, and re-sewn onto a T-shirt which does fit me, and then wear the new T-shirt from time to time. I am very tempted by the last option. Which brings up another point: it is not the t-shirt itself which contains & triggers the memory, but the design on the t-shirt. The design is the time & site specific referrent which triggers the association and the memory, especially if it is a list of gigs on a particular tour in a particular year, or associated with a specific album. The remainder of the garment is merely the vehicle for the design, so the design could easily be put on a new garment and thus revived. Of course, the message, the data encoded, the 'souvenir' itself in the revived t-shirt is till never going to be as intense or redolent or meaningful as the original experience, even if it is your own experience. To someone who was not there, the t-shirt is almost devoid of meaning. Thus is the experience of the reader with the archival record: so distanced because you were not there, and you did not experience it, you can only read about it. It is one dimensional at best. Researchers, family historians, archvists: all trying to catch a whiff, a taste, a sliver of the experiences of the past through these artefacts the records (such as minutes of a meeting), and yet destined to experience only a mere fraction of it, because a moment in time passes so quickly, and is essentially ephemeral. Reading the archival records, we try to picture the scenes as if in a movie, but that is the best we can do, and each of us will be seeing a different movie......

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Leisa Gibbons February 3, 2014 at 6:47pm

Thanks for sharing Louise. Its so great we find archives everywhere and I love that archival issues really dotranscend format!
Louise Trott February 3, 2014 at 5:24pm

Thank you Leisa for this very interesting series of thoughts. I moved in March 2013 and that brought up a lot of the issues your raise. I too am sorting as I unpack gradually, looking at books and clothes. On the more superficial personal side of it (apart from the professional issues I mean), there are also the T-shirts which are far too small to wear again, for alas I am somewhat larger than in the 1990s. I have a large collection of band T-shirts from obscure Newtown bands. What to do with them? I can't wear them. I can't give them away, for they are limited edition cultural artefacts from my life and they will not be recognised at the op-shop for what they are. I suppose I could return them (like an estray) to a member of the band, but would they want them? What if the band has broken up? Will they have a museum?! Perhaps I could have them framed like signed rugby jerseys are framed? Thus turning them into art. To go on the wall alongside posters form the era. Maybe. Expensive. Or perhaps I could have the central design cut out, mounted, and re-sewn onto a T-shirt which does fit me, and then wear the new T-shirt from time to time. I am very tempted by the last option. Which brings up another point: it is not the t-shirt itself which contains & triggers the memory, but the design on the t-shirt. The design is the time & site specific referrent which triggers the association and the memory, especially if it is a list of gigs on a particular tour in a particular year, or associated with a specific album. The remainder of the garment is merely the vehicle for the design, so the design could easily be put on a new garment and thus revived. Of course, the message, the data encoded, the 'souvenir' itself in the revived t-shirt is till never going to be as intense or redolent or meaningful as the original experience, even if it is your own experience. To someone who was not there, the t-shirt is almost devoid of meaning. Thus is the experience of the reader with the archival record: so distanced because you were not there, and you did not experience it, you can only read about it. It is one dimensional at best. Researchers, family historians, archvists: all trying to catch a whiff, a taste, a sliver of the experiences of the past through these artefacts the records (such as minutes of a meeting), and yet destined to experience only a mere fraction of it, because a moment in time passes so quickly, and is essentially ephemeral. Reading the archival records, we try to picture the scenes as if in a movie, but that is the best we can do, and each of us will be seeing a different movie......

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