Heritage Of The Future
Some Useful Data Forms and Templates Coming Soon...
This is a page about pre-emptive action... you see, we as a generation are uniquely positioned to appreciate the value of heritage. It has been the case historically that most of our local, everyday, personal heritage resources have survived completely by chance. With the knowledge we have now surely that shouldn't be the case for the heritage resources of the future. Let's give future generations a rich resource to use to define our own portion of history.
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If you want to send us one of the below tasks for the ArcHIVE, then drop us an email and we'll let you know how!
TIME CAPSULE
TASK
How To Create A Future Resource
Okay, so we know that this isn't exactly an original idea, but it doesn't need to be, why change something that works? Our version is a little different though, under no circumstances bury this treasure beneath the ground, instead you should either keep it somewhere dry that is safe/indoors. Or when we have the ArcHIVE up and running you could send it to us and we'll keep it safe forever. What do we mean by a Time Capsule? Well we mean a collection of small items, photographs, etc. These should represent your own personal experience of, well, whatever year it happens to be. You should also include a written explanation, your reasoning for selecting those items/photographs and what the year has held for you, this could be any length, a sentence, a page or an Homeric Epic we don't mind. Choose any format, poetry, a diary entry, a story, a field report, get as create as you want. You could even include a letter to a future researcher! Just make sure that you are true to your own feelings and experiences about the year, and hey presto! You've created a valuable heritage resource for future generations.
A Day In The Life
Recording History - For The Future
Okay we are equally aware we didn't create this one either, but hey why change something that works! This would be a brilliant task to do with the kids as a type of history lesson, it should give them more of an understanding of historical sources which they'll definitely need at GCSE and A-Level. Again, keep this one somewhere dry that is safe/indoors. Or when we have the ArcHIVE up and running you could send it to us and we'll keep it safe forever. Simply record your everyday, that means what you do, what you eat, what you think and what you may feel by the end of the day! You could include photographs, a diary entry, a recipe even, anything that is relevant to that particular day, a shopping list, a news article you found particularly interesting, the route of a walk you took, some music that really meant something to you, etc. Trust us this will be an incredible resource for future generations, just imagine what you would want to know about the day-to-day of someone 100, 200, 300 years ago and provide that information for future generations. Just remember to write what you did and say why you have included what you have i.e. what place whatever you've included had in your day.
DIARY (The Perfect Medium)
Record A Lifetime Of History
This one is really simple, you see, some of the most rich, wonderful and useful resources we have from past generations are diaries, they tell us not only what happened to individuals and societies at certain time in history but also how those people were effected, what they felt even. Yes, there is something truly beautiful about diaries, they are perhaps the easiest way of seeing how people have thought which is something that you cannot tell for certain even by the grandest or rarest of artefacts. So the challenge is to keep a diary if you can, write an entry every day, week, month, regularly or irregularly but write a diary. Put in it whatever comes to you, make it a record of national/international events and your opinions or make it about personal events in your own life, physical events or mental events whatever you feel you need to write. Apart from curating a wonderful heritage resource for future generations the likelihood is you're also bettering your mental health, as writing a diary is a method of management recommended for stress and anxiety by health practitioners. By all means keep your diaries personal but we just wanted to mention that this is also a resource you can send to us to be preserved on ArcHIVE if you're comfortable that is. It is the intention that ArcHIVE will have a sub-section dedicated to diaries. We are living in difficult times, by writing and preserving a diary you/we are one step closer to ensuring that the effects of this time upon us are not misunderstood by future generations.
The V&A - Rapid Response Collecting
The Collections Of The Future
This is an initiative set up by the V&A in 2014 and was/is quite a revolutionary way of thinking about Museum Collections. The initiative essentially entails the acquisition of contemporary 'artefacts' in response to what the V&A considers major moments in recent history. The V&A are particularly interested in objects that are newsworthy 'either because they advance what design can do, or because they reveal truths about how we live'.
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Items include a Refugee Flag (2016) designed by Tara Said and commissioned by the Refugee Nation supported by Amnesty International, the Flappy Bird App, objects associated with Extinction Rebellion, etc.
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You can view the collection HERE.
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Surely though the existence of such a Collection initiative supports even further our Heritage Of The Future Project and indeed the BIG ArcHIVE Project. The first because it aims to curate a collection of personal accounts of our present, the history of future generations. The latter as a base in part for these Heritage Of The Future Project resources.
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If you have a suggestion about what the V&A should Rapid Response Collect next, you can find a means of making sure they hear those suggestions HERE.