Archiving Giessen

The Arctic World Archive is a secure subterranean vault housed in a decommissioned coal mine, 300m below the surface and sunk into the permafrost of Svalbard. It offers long-term – at least 1000 years – storage for both personal data and, as they call it, ‘world memory’: the planet’s cultural history and human accomplishments safeguarded for future generations. Data is stored on specially designed ‘Piql’ film are analogue, non-hackable, and self-contained. Deposit options are flexible, ranging from periods of one year, to ‘all eternity’.

The Arctic World Archive is one of a number of cryobanks that have emerged in recent years: frozen storage and preservation institutions that promise to safeguard material that is subject to threats in the face of climate change and increasing political unrest. Whether these are for biological specimens – such as the seeds held in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault – kept as backups in case of extinction or ecosystem collapse, or for intellectual property that inscribes cultural memory, like the AWA does. Regardless of the type of cryobank, their ultimate aim is the same: to buy time for their contents and preserve whatever is being stored there in an era of global upheaval.

Accompanying the idea of the cryobank is the question of value. The Arctic World Archive claims it “is more than a repository; it's a sanctuary for the collective achievements of humanity”. Whilst it is undeniable that the Taj Mahal, or books written by Nobel laureates, are integral to human culture, an archive by its nature must always be selective. What, then, is achievement enough to warrant entry into the AWA? Whose memories are deemed significant enough to be preserved for eternity? It is with these questions in mind I am collecting submissions from the people of Giessen that focuses on the personal, the ephemeral, the subjective, and the silly. The collection, alongside documentation of my time as a fellow at the Panel on Planetary Thinking, will form a time capsule that captures the intensely local, but also speaks to broader themes of memory, temporality, truth, and value.

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