Early Internet Memories zine

Other type

Author(s):
Katie MacKinnon

Year: 2022
Language(s): English

While historical research is comfortable working with primary sources from the deceased and works well to reconstruct narratives and imaginaries, historical internet research must adapt to engaging with the liveliness of the research subjects. Despite the experiential and conceptual distance between contemporary internet research and web materials from the 1990s, there are overwhelmingly strong connections that put people at risk of harm through engagement with decades-old material. A feminist ethics of care for archived web data might thus insist on new ways of engagement with the creators of materials held in web archives. Bringing participants into the research about their own digital traces is more than just obtaining informed consent; it also creates opportunities to design methodologies that involve participants’ eagerness and excitement over revisiting, remembering and unearthing their digital traces, and significantly, exploring opportunities for reclamation.

https://katiemackinnon.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/early-internet-memories-6.pdf

Post created by: Lymor Wolf Goldstein