12.07.2009

What I've Been Making...

I'm posting this so that when I finish my 15 page research paper (it's all in my head at this point...don't worry) I will have to post the pictures of the books I've been making.  AND I will feel such public pressure to create more that I'll get right to work after my this paper is due on Tuesday night.

In case you were wondering, my paper is about "Archive as Political Tool" or something to that effect.  I'm writing about Archives as symbols of national or cultural identity and how that leads them to become tools of politics.  I'm also writing about Archives in Wartime - how they are often purposefully destroyed as a symbol of the new minority's oppression.  I'm really lucky in that I've been able to do a few first hand interviews and visit the places I'm talking about.

I'll be talking about Palestinian libraries over the last 100 years or so, specifically the Khalidi library (which I've been keeping a secret for reasons that can't be revealed yet), the Jewish National Library and sundry Jewish libraries, The Iraq National library, and the destruction of libraries in Kosovo during the '90's conflict. 

So, pretty much this wasn't "getting off track", this post was a good thinking exercise for my paper.  But I have made two books since I've been here and a few more will hopefully be born this week and the next.

...So I've been making a paper at this point 

2 comments:

  1. Have you read _People of the Book_? It deals with Kosovo and its archive.

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  2. I haven't read it YET, but it is certainly on my list. Thanks for getting me re-excited about it!

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