future memory – the archive is hypomnetic*

mo

As in a way I recently think a lot about memorizing, use of archiving and the point where nostalgia loses its worth and turns into an obsessive sentimental habit … this short excerpt form ‘ Mal d’Archive (Archive Fever)’ by Derrida (J. Lambier commenting on Archive Fever) was a very nice find (via):

In an enigmatic sense which will clarify itself perhaps (perhaps, because nothing can be sure here, for essential reasons), the question of the archive is not, I repeat, a question of the past, the question of a concept dealing with the past which already might either be at our disposal or not at out disposal, an archivable concept of the archive, but rather a question of the future, the very question of the future, question of a response, of a promise and of a responsibility for tomorrow.

The archive: if we want to know what this will have meant, we will only know tomorrow.
Perhaps. A spectral messianicity is at work in the concept of the archive and like religion, like history, like science itself, this ties it to a very singular experience of the promise. (excerpted)

*between commentary and memorandum

UPDATE: (04/03/06) Hm .. speaking of which – looking through my different sorting systems on this blog .. I need a better concept here: eventually a special page to collect posts favorite articles as I recently already thought about ..
.. and defintely a better display for the search .. one that is not only aesthetically nicenice …

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