Contribution short abstract:

A challenge for tradition archives is to document the sensory and embodied experiences of everyday life. Would the archives benefit in adopting methods from practice-based research? Would, or should, creative archiving imply keeping, bending or breaking the established rules of the archive?

Contribution long abstract:

The role of Tradition archives is to collect, archive and disseminate evidence of material and oral folk culture, everyday life practices and cultural heritage. In order to document the often ephemeral and intangible aspects of folk culture, the archives have employed a multitude of techniques such as fieldwork notes, sound recordings, photographs, drawings, video, online ethnography etc. But is this enough?

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in immaterial folk culture, not least due to the widening of the Unesco definition of Cultural Heritage to include traditions and living expressions. Importantly, when it comes to intangible cultural heritage the Unesco emphasis lies on safeguarding rather than preserving. Simultaneously, many researchers have questioned or expanded established academic frameworks in areas such as artistic research, art-based research, craft science and practice-led research. These endeavours are typically concerned with sensory and embodied experiences i.e. aspects that not easily conveyed in archive records.

Whereas there have been some attempts on the part of the tradition archives to document performance and craftsmanship in multifaceted ways, this does not always extend to the sensory and embodied experiences of everyday life practices. Would the archives gain in adopting methods and perspectives from art- and practice-based research? Are we bold enough to venture into creative archiving? This paper raises the question whether creative archiving would, or should, imply keeping, bending or breaking the established rules of the archive

Contribution short abstract:

The archiving of walks has been a topic of discussion amongst the members of the International Society of the Imaginary Perambulator for some years. This paper shares a sustained autoethnographic practice of perambulography, and songwriting that documents traditional paths of Cheshire, in the UK.

Contribution long abstract:

Whether formally recognised paths; the routes of political protest marches; religious pilgrimages; or, traditional holloways, the archiving of walks has been a topic of discussion amongst the members of the International Society of the Imaginary Perambulator for some years. This paper shares one members sustained practice of perambulography, that attempts to document traditional paths, or holloways, of a small part of Cheshire, in the UK. Specifically, how through arts-based practice as research the paths are recorded as experiential expressions; through song. Are they simply a solo-folklore preserved digitally through song, or can an approach situated within an autoethnographic paradigm present byways for archives?

Contribution short abstract:

This presentation offers a discussion of slow archiving framework as applied to folklore archiving. It questions archival practices prevalent in today’s fast world and oriented to more product less process, and suggests that if we truly care to build relations with communities, we need to slow down.

Contribution long abstract:

Many folklorists have indirectly and, sometimes unknowingly, engaged with the idea of slow folklore archiving. They recognize the importance of complex contextuality for the collection of cultural expressions in the fieldwork process. Geographical and temporal are two very obvious factors important for the creation of safe and comfortable space for sharing traditions. No less important and necessary to understand are personal and group dynamics which are significant for the creation of relations between the individual or group sharing their traditions and those with whom they share. We were trained to listen and observe. And while some fieldworkers have more aggressive interviewing style and clear agenda, many others do allow for the interview to take its course, and for the interviewee to lead the conversation. The themes and patterns emerge in this process and later transform into research questions and projects. While we acknowledge that such a respectful and reciprocal approach to folklore archiving is also the most ethical, how do we reconcile it with the world’s fixation on productivity, with shrinking budgets and growing workloads, with the constant demand of project-based work, and granting agencies requiring innovative ideas and concrete, quantifiable results? Can we allow ourselves to slow down when archiving folklore? How does folklore archiving during the pandemic impact our practices?

Contribution short abstract:

Digitization has made vast folklore collections, such as the Irish Folklore Commission's Schools' Collection, accessible and searchable in new ways. My paper tracks the racist counting rhyme 'Eeny Meeny Miny Mo' in Ireland, and asks us to consider some hard truths about the dark side of folklore.

Contribution long abstract:

The Irish Folklore Commission's Schools' Collection offers us a window into Irish society in the 1930s. Digitization has made 444,335 manuscript pages available, over 70% of which is fully text-searchable. For the first time, researchers can develop their own research criteria and can look for subject matter that would have been outside the archivists' and indexers' vision. Ireland of the 1930s was not immune to xenophobia, antisemitism or racism, and digitization has enabled us to track such topics. Such shadow sides become particularly apparent when we investigate the rich collection of children's games and rhymes that forms an important part of the Schools' Collection.

In this paper I will track the racist counting rhyme 'Eeny Meeny Miny Mo.' The rhyme is thought to have acquired its racist form in nineteenth-century America, and the Opies believed that the rhyme originally featured a tiger, at least in Europe. However, the Irish material shows that by the 1930s, the rhyme was firmly embedded in Irish playgrounds in its racist form, and was handed onto several subsequent generations.

My paper looks at the rhyme within the context of racist childlore, and asks how folklorists should approach this material today. What can we learn from it, how can we mediate it, and how can we make sure our open archives do not feed into popular contemporary racism?

Contribution short abstract:

Digital humanities have advanced tradition archives online. A more participatory archive that allows communities across a number of sectors to mark their contributions with archival holdings requires an appropriate digital platform. This paper will present a prototype of this platform.

Contribution long abstract:

It is not difficult to imagine the possibilities that keep traditional holdings and repositories relevant and engaging. Whether scholarly research, artistic endeavours or further educational purposes, folklore archives have a role to play in understanding the society they were created in as well as serving as a lens into an examination of the contemporary world. To address the past and seek to continue to explore how this material was viewed through their eyes, including the perceived wisdom of the time, and understand how material is seen today requires a stronger dialogue. A constant and dynamic process that, much like the creation of such archives themselves, requires as many voices as possible to strengthen and enlighten the conversations. A digital platform, www.ardan.eu, will allow multiple sectors to speak to and contribute to traditional holdings. An archive ‘check-in’ system where users mark how they have interpreted and drawn on material. Allowing layered cultural interpretations and insights. Accreditation for the platform will derive from the co-operation communicated from the archival users themselves, thus, it will be rooted in agency. It will allow for voices to be radical in acknowledging what has been excluded from the collections and give a platform for such material to be included. This virtual space will give recognition for the contributions traditional, archival material can offer at the same time allowing a platform for people to upload new collections. It is time to allow the imagination to create and develop the bold and innovative archives folkloristics merit.