Week Two Process

Archive in Use

As discovered during Week 1 of Positions through Essaying, The Palimpsest Archive must be physically used to understand how the documents interact with each other. A large portion of the visual relies on the palimpsestic archival process.

Script

The Written Response guides the script to follow the sequence, tempo, and form of Georges Perec’s (1999) ‘The Street’ in Species of Spaces.

Dual Narrative

Similarly to the written response, the video essay conveys two narratives: The 1922 Fire that destroyed The Public Records Office of Ireland, and, the past, present, and future of The Stone Cottage. These histories exist concurrently within The Palimpsest Archive

Irish Voices

Although large portions of the narration is my own voice, it feels important for Irish voice to be included. I primarily narrated the description about the project, whilst the chorus of Irish voices instruct the use of The Palimpsest Archive. This change in the narrator reflects the fourth subchapter of Perec’s (1999) writing, whilst also implicitly suggesting my own position within Irish historiography. 

Layering

As the audio uses the chorus of Irish voices, this was also reflected within the visual of the video. Layered video footage is used to mimic the unbinding of the archival documents to disentangle the history of The Stone Cottage. 

Document Scans

To illustrate the work put in to creating the archival documents, scans of the artefacts are included within the video essay. 

Found Footage

The video essay includes found footage of The 1922 fire.

Typewriter

The sound of a typewriter is used to punctuate keys moments of the video essay. These sound objects were created by me. The typewriter harks back to traditional methods of writing seen in many of the archival document references used within the project.