Gathering Archival Materials and Doing Research of my Own

For the BAO project so far I have gathered or bought solid brass paperclips (archival - wont rust), post it note strips for book marking and note taking, small plastic ziplock sample bags, 3 pens; one red, one blue and one archival ink black pen, cotton tying tape (the type libraries and archives use to tie up bundles of documents and falling apart books), brown Fimo modelling clay (to make a tablet with inscriptions on to photograph) and two journals (as seen in the last photo; to use as the pretend researcher's diary and notebook).
As you can see from the images I have also been busy doing a bit of research into inscriptions, scripts, lost languages, and deciphering. Easy really as I work in a museum library by day! Can you see why this project is making me so excited?
I have decided that the pretend archive will consist of notes, photos etc..from a pretend researcher of the Library of Alexandria, and her name will be Miss Emma Robinson.
So, I now need to:

  • make up a script/language
  • create a clay tablet with that script inscribed into it using the Fimo
  • photograph that tablet
  • take rubbings from the tablet
  • start writing a diary and deciphering notebook as if I was Miss Emma Robinson (the pretend researcher in the Library of Alexandria)
  • find suitable, inexpensive A5 boxes 
  • perhaps set up a photo shoot of myself (or a friend) posing as Miss Emma Robinson at work; perhaps holding the clay tablet or writing her notes
  • find my old fountain pen and try to get black ink for it and make it work
There are probably many other things I need to do but I can't list them all; for one it would be boring for you all to read it and for another I would be here all day! Anyway, here is just a little taster of things to come. Hope you are enjoying the insights into the way I think and work. More soon. 

9 comments:

jackie said...

Sounds like fun and a lot of hard work. I saw that you had joined over at the book art blog. You have plently of inspiration where you work.Did you see my Cyrus Cylinder piece last year,using one of the clay cylinders as inspiration? I only made two though.

Abigail Thomas said...

yes I most definitely remember your Cyrus Cylinder piece; I loved it! yes it will be hard work but its finally something I feel really passionate about completing, plus it will be a great lead up to the other big project I need to complete this year (the Al-Mutanabbi Street project) as I intend to work from the same research.

yellow bird hats said...

I have to say that I am MOST impressed by your attention to archival detail - that's my girl! This project looks absolutely brilliant! x

Abigail Thomas said...

Thank you! Archives rule. ;)

Kevin Steinhardt said...

Mind if I help out with the language construction?; it's something I've been meaning to get into.

Abigail Thomas said...

Kevin; how would you do that? I'm not sure i'm going to really construct the whole alphabet.....

Abigail Thomas said...

Kevin; how would you do that? I'm not sure i'm going to really construct the whole alphabet.....

Chris Gray said...

..BOY!...you're going to have some fun here!...

...wish I had a bit more time to play along too...

...but I don't..so I'll watch you play instead :-)

Marian said...

Oh, Abigail, this one's going to be FUN. I look forward to sharing your progress. Isn't it grand to just lay out materials and dazzle yourself with the possibilities?

Marian Crane