Abstract
I will discuss the digital materials that we do not want to archive, or that do not want to be archived, that are particular to Internet history: the trash, cruft, detritus and intentionally opaque hoard of documents and artefacts that constitute our digital middens. Middens are pits of domestic refuse filled with the discards and by-products of material life: the gnawed bones, ashes, fruit stones and potsherds, shells and chips and hair and drippings which together constitute the photographic negative of a community in action and an invaluable record for archaeologists. Using this analogy, I will discuss two from my own research: the archives of spam, which we would all rather forget, and the records of the communities and marketplaces of the so-called “Dark Web,” which would prefer to be forgotten. I will also address the challenges of research with other kinds of eccentric, troubling or speculative archives, like blockchains, ephemeral imageboards and doxxes. I will close by discussing ways that we can think of digital historiography, in particular, in terms of these accidental, unwanted, averse archives.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 138-145 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Internet Histories |
Volume | 1 |
Issue number | 1-2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2 2017 |
Keywords
- Dark Web
- Internet history
- blockchains
- digital archives
- spam
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science (miscellaneous)
- History