AWA - Memories

Memories in the ArcticWorld Archive

2017

The Arctic World Archive (AWA) was inaugurated on March 27th 2017 in the decommisioned Mine no. 3 in Longyearbyen, on the arctic island of Svalbard. Sinceopening, AWAhas received significantmedia attention fromall over the world, frommedia channels such as TIMEMagazine (US), ABCNews (US), The National (UAE), Vice (US), Aftenposten (NO), the Hustle (US), The Sun (UK) and NRK (NO), just to name a few.

Mr. José Ricardo Marques, National Archives of Brazil, and Eric Cardoso, CTO – National Archives of Mexico, at the inauguration of the Arctic World Archive in March 2017.

National Archive of Brazil

National Archive of Mexico

The National Archive of Brazil deposited historical docu- ments such as the first Constitution of the Monarchy from 1824, the first Constitution of the Republic from 1881, and historical photos of the law abolishing slavery in 1888. this important moment; to deposit in the Arctic World Archive the most important documents from the 16th century until the 20th century. By doing this, we ensure that future generations will have access to this information. Mr. José Ricardo Marques, National Archives of Brazil “ We are proud to create history for Brazil by being part of

The National Archive of Mexico also deposited some of their most valuable assets; the Constitution of the Mexican Federation, the Independence Act of the Mexican Empire, fragments of the book “Chronicles of Michoacán in 1552” that describes the conquest of Michoacán, as well as histor- ical maps, drawings and illustrations.

kept safe for future generations Eric Cardoso CTO – National Archives of Mexico “

It is an amazing feeling to know that my nation’s memory will be

2018

On 22. of February 2018, 36 visitors from 7 countries deposited data from 15 organisations/individuals representing 9 countries. A wide and impressive range of data preserved on piqlFilm stored in the piqlBox was deposited.

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Other deposits

Digitized paintings of the Norwegian painter Edward Much (e.g. The Scream) from The National Museumof Art, Architecture and Design of Norway The manuscript of the "Divine Comedy" (La Div- ina Commedia) by Dante Alighieri, masterpiece of the 14th century Italian literature from the Vatican Library

• Historical movies from the city archives of Drammen

• A collection of the most important audio/video record- ings of the unforgettable Renata Tebaldi (a great Italian opera diva) • “Bhagavad Gita” – a more than 2200 years old Indian manuscript of Hindu tradition in terms of both literature and philosophy • Minna Alaluusua, Contemporary artist and Master of Arts preserved valuable photographs (some model and artwork photos) in digital and visual format

Photographic material from Alinari’ s huge and prestigious archives (Alinari is the oldest company in the world in the field of photography)

The history of Pele, Carlos Alberto Torres, Zico and Brazil’s World Class Players preserved to inspire our future athletes – a deposit made by

the Brazilian Football Confederation

Deep inside themountain

2019

Representatives from Diputació de Barcelona & Fundación felipe Gonzalez, Spain.

On 21 February, in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, over 65 people frommore than 25 organisations from 10 different nations gathered to contribute to world memory.

This was the third deposit and by the far the biggest and most diverse. On arrival, participants were treated to an introduction to Svalbard and its history by Sander Solnes from the Svalbard Museum. To celebrate AWA’s third depositing event, we held a ceremony at Mine 3, hosted by Store Norske Spits- bergen Kulkompani. Our gracious hosts welcomed us and provided tours for all our guests to the archive tomake their deposits.

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The National Museumof Norway made their second deposit to the Archive, featuring a diverse collection of the more valuable pieces they hold, providing a unique overview of Norwegian culture and history, includ- ing the masterpiece, Vinternatt i Rodane (Winter’s night in Rodane) (1914) by Harald Sohlberg Telia , in collaboration with a Norwegian start-up, Hidden , deposited a collection of Norwegian folk tales that capture the essence of traditional Norwegian folk tales, legends and myths. Documented stories of sea crea- tures, trolls, princes and unlikely heroes are now immersed in the permafrost conditions of the Archive forever. The European Space Agency (ESA) depos- ited some sample data acquired by its first Earth Remote Sensing (ERS) satellite launched in 1991, and a thorough description of the mission objectives and achievements. This history captures the moment that saw a whole new chapter opened for the world in continuously and consistently monitoring the health of our planet from space and should never be lost, a truly magnificent story. 2: 3:

The National History Museum of Norway deposit- ed the original digital files and the x-ray images of the world- renowned IDA fossil (scientific name Darwinius masillae), discovered some years ago (commonly referred to as the missing link). The original fossil is on display at the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo. The Brazilian Museum of the Person deposited an extract from the "Memória de Brasileiros e Brasileiras" collection, composed of more than 2000 digitized photos and 300 life stories recorded between 2006 and 2016. The stories were recorded in expeditions that passed through 42 cities in 14 states of the brazilian territory. In addition, by understanding the value of traditional knowledge for the development of Brazilian culture and the current threat to indigenous peoples, 11 interviews with indigenous leaders from different ethnic groups in Brazil will also be included. The content was chosen in honor of the International Year of Moderation and Indigenous Languages chosen by the United Nations for 2019.

The Diputación de Barcelona deposited the digital- ised copies of the first two books of plenary acts from 1812.

• The Vatican Virgil: It was copied in about 400A.D. and it is one of the oldest surviving sources for the text of the Aeneid and it is the oldest and one of only three ancient illustrated manuscripts of classical literature

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Fundación Felipe Gónzalez deposited im- portant political memories, including transcripts of secret meetings, photographs, letters and handwritten notes by the sitting President.

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Infinity, a service of MediaSet deposited one of the most iconic italian movies: “Mediterraneo” - directed by Gabriele Salvatores. The movie won

the Oscar for Best Foreign film in 1991.

The Vatican Library built on its previous de- posit with more ancient manuscripts, making it the

PisaUniversity depositedmanuscripts includ- ing those of the Egyptologist Ippolito Rosellini, which still constitute an indispensable tool for scholars of Egyptology and several manuscripts from the sixteenth century Pisan Botanical Garden containing pre- cious watercolor plates with drawings of flowers, plants, an- imals and prospects of gardens.

Archive’s largest contributor.

The 60 manuscripts are carefully preserved in a limited- access Reserve, within the vaults of the Library, where doc- uments that are particularly important, rare, or delicate can be attended to by the conservators. Including: • One of the most important and precious manuscripts of the Gospels, Hanna Papyrus 1 (Mater Verbi), It was copied in the early third century A.D. and it is one of the oldest surviv- ing witnesses of the text of the New Testament. • The famous De arte venandi cum avibus (On The Art of Hunting with Birds), it is a Latin treatise on ornithology and falconry written in the 1240s by Frederick II, and dedicated to his son Manfred. It's a two-column parchment codex of 111 folios now in the Vatican Library in the Palatina Collec- tion.

Gónzalez sworn in as president in 1982. Photo: Fundacion Felipe Gonzalez.

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Variety Communication, a film distributor with one of the largest Italian heritage film collections, deposited the iconic Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves), directed by Vit- torio De Sica (1949). This film, rated as one of the greatest films of all time by many critics, was chosen for its signifi- cance for Italian cinema. The Slovakian travel agency Bubo Travel has deposited their 25 year history from travels around the world. Being the biggest experience travel provider in central Europe, offer- ing tours to 195 countries including the Arctic and Antarcti- ca, the company sees significant value preserving its history. The deposit contains the best photos and videos from over 25 years of providing clients ultimate travel experiences, as well as new brochure for client for year 2019, where Svalbard will be first offered as a destination.

• Spike Jones This project archived and digitally preserved the extensive collection of music written by the comedic AmericanMusi- cian who captivated audiences in the 1940s. With the main objective of this project to share this audio, storing it in the Archivemeans it can also be shared with future generations. • Namibian Archive This project worked to digitally preserve the National Ar- chive of Namibia. Capturing the history of this nation com- plements the histories already in the Archive, namely the National Archives of Mexico and Brazil. • Namibian Women’s Issues In addition to historic Namibian content, this project cap- tures present day cultural challenges, featuring filmed inter- views with a variety of women. These interviews show the cultural shift that has taken place over just 20 years. This unique digital preservation project contributes a unique piece of worldmemory to the ArcticWorld Archive, creating a richer picture of our era. • Beit Lehi This project works to provide virtual reality capture of Beit Lehi, an active archaeological site southwest of Jerusalem. Storing these virtual reality files in the Archive ensures that these relics are never lost, and future generations can expe- rience the sites as we can today.

Utah Valley University • Earliest audio

This project restored, transcribed and digitally preserved the first audio recordings made on Edison cylinders. These recordings include classic tunes such as Goodbye Boys, It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary, Kiss Me My Honey Kiss Me, among many others. Digitally preserving these items has been made possible through the unique qualities of piqlFilm, allowing audio to be stored for an unlimited time.

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SGC Thailand , a leading business conglomerate has digitally preserved its history in the Arctic World Archive. This history, covering the inauguration of the organisation in 1913 by royal decree, features images and videos from 106 years in operation.

A Korean Artist, Yongseok Oh , is now storing an art project focussed on time, in the Arctic World Archive. Through his art, Yongseok Oh emphasizes the crossing of the past and the present, the real and the imagined, by creating a visual collage of stills and moving images. The idea behind the Eternal Pause project was to use old still photographs and bring the moment back to life through movement. To realise the project, he sought people who wanted to preserve their photos forever or want- ed to their photos to live beyond their life. He then wanted to celebrate the concept of time further by finding a way to preserve that now living moment into the future.

Top 10Heritage For the Future

To celebrate the European Year of Cultural Heritage, we asked the public to nominate and vote for items that deserve to be digitally preserved forever.

The winning top 10:  • Music for the Jilted Generation, The Prodigy provided by the The Prodigy  • Rembrandt’s The Night Watch  provided by the RijksmuseumMuseum • Gutenberg Bible provided by Goethe University Frankfurt amMain • Higgs Boson scientific breakthrough provided by CERN • Photos celebrating the life of Henrik Ibsen provided by the Norwegian National Museum • Ljudbänken, a Swedish sound project provided by Audiorama and StockholmArt • Photos capturing the history of Svalbard provided by Svalbard Musuem •

Architectural design of the Guggenheim Bilbao provid- ed by the Guggenheim Bilbao • Artworks celebrating Sami culture provided by the Norwegian National Museum • Photos capturing famous religious sites winners from Future of Religious Heritage photo competition  We also invited one lucky contributor to the competition to come with us and deposit the collection on behalf of the public. Our winner is Elizabeth Coelho, a Spanish Librari- an, who nominated an item of Svalbard heritage. Elizabeth joined us at the ceremony and deposited the top 10 into the Arctic World Archive on behalf of the public.

Piql’s customfilmand archiving technologies will allow us to written to this film, and safeguarded in the ArcticWorld Archive in Svalbard, for the centuries and generations to come. Kyle Daigle Director of Special Projects at GitHub. “ store terabytes of data on a durable mediumdesigned to last for over 1,000 years. We’re delighted that every active public GitHub repository will be

GitHub deposited 6,000 of its most significant repositories in AWA for perpetuity, capturing the evolution of technology and software. This collection includes the source code for the Linux and Android operating systems; the programming languages Python, Ruby, and Rust; web platforms Node, V8, React, and An- gular; cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum; AI tools Tensor- Flow and FastAI; and many more. GitHub also deposited all active public repositories on its platform into AWA in July 2020. On the 30-year anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF has deposited document in AWA both as a DNA file, which is an emerging data storage technology, and on piqlFilm to ensure fu- ture accessibility. A second deposit on piqlFilm will also be made with signatures UNICEF is collecting representing support for the convention

2020

On 21 October 2020, a diverse group of Norwegians gathered once again at Mine 3. Although many others also wished to be there, travel restrictions meant this was an intimate gathering, attended by representatives from The National Museum of Norway, UNICEF Norway, the Norwegian Defense Museum, and the Mjøndalen Sports Association.  Unable to attend but there in spir- it included representatives from Olga Tokarczuk Foundation and Literary Publishing, Moderna Museet, Finish Labor Archive, Martin Schøyen Foun- dation, CIASC and Sapio Analytics.  

UNICEF made their second deposit, featuring a petition of thousands of signatures in support of their previous deposit, of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, stored in AWA in 2019.  This completes the project and adds the personal con- nection and individual accountability of upholding these rights to the weight of such a declaration.   

The National Museumof Norway made its third de- posit in a row deposit, with important photographic col- lections from three female photographers: Harriet Back- er, BrittaMarakatt-Labba, and ElineMugaas.   Harriet Backer (1845-1932) is one of the foremost Nor- wegian painters of the 19th Century, with 2020 marking 175 years since her birth. She is also one of very few artists

View fromMine no. 3 entrance

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The Norwegian Armed Forces Museum deposited a significant part of its digitised photo collection including the complete collection from The Norwegian Resistance Museum (Hjemmefrontmuseet). This collection details the struggle and difficulty of life in Norway under occupation duringWorldWar II. The Museum is also the first client to receive Piql’s brand newsoftware platformfor their digital preservationwork- flow. Mjøndalen Sports Association , Norway, deposited its 110-year history, featuring cele- brated triumphs, rivalries, videos, photos and stories that have been treasured by the community. This is the first AWA deposit of sporting organisa- tion’s complete history. With sport such an integral part of life in our era, this represents the start of an important chapter in AWA. 2:

who will be presented with a separate room in the new National Museum inOslo, due to open in 2021. BrittaMarakatt-Labba (1951) is a Samí artist, especially known for her embroidered textiles depicting the cultural and political history of the Samí people. ElineMugaas (1969) has beenone of the key photograph- ic artists in Norway working with since the 1990s. In addition, the Museum also deposited its entire art da- tabase of 400,000 assets held by themuseum. This latest deposit also signifies an enduring collabo- ration between the Museum and Piql for the mission of long-termdigital preservation.

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Sapio Analytics deposited high resolution images of the Ajanta Caves in India, the first AWA deposit of a UNESCOworld heritage site.   The caves are situated in the Aurangabad district of Ma- harashtra state and constitute ancient monasteries and worship halls of different Buddhist traditions carved into a 75-metre wall of rock.   Considered some of the most significant ancient art in the world, these paintings and carvings hold immense importance for people in many nations. The paintings cannot be photographed with flash or lights, so a special low-light photographic technique has been used to cap- ture the art in high resolution. Deep learning AI is also applied combined with knowledge from historians to re- store any broken images.   Supported IndianMinistry of Culture, the capture of such a large and significant UNESCO heritage site is a major undertaking and will take years to complete.   This deposit includes a photograph of Ajanta Caves by Benoy Behl, showing a king renouncing all worldly pleasures, the paper Revelation of Ajanta Caves, support from Indian business leaders about the project, alongside initial high-resolution restored capture of the caves.  

Olga Tokarczuk Foundation and Literary Publishing (virtually) deposited the complete literary works of Olga Tokarczuk, a Nobel Prize Laureate, marking the first Polish contribution to AWA.   Tokaczuk is a highly celebrated Author through the de- posit of her 14 novels, also provides the first contempo- rary literary contribution to AWA.   “Together, we made sure that our founder’s books could survive any catastrophe and be an inspiration also for fu- ture inhabitants of the Earth,” added Izabella Kaluta, Vice President of the Olga Tokarczuk Foundation.  awarded last year, ensures the survival of Olga Tokarczuk’s works. Thanks to this technology, it will remain safe. “ Anna Zaremba-Michalska, President of the Management Board of Wydawnictwo  Literackie (Tokarczuk publishers since 2001), which financed the storage of the AWA deposit.  This is, in a way, a natural step which, apart from the Nobel Prize

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CIASC , a public provider of IT services in Brazil and in collaboration with Santa Catarina State Archives, virtu- ally deposited precious archival documents capturing the history of the State of Santa Catarina.   The collection portrays the political and administrative history since 1703 and highlights the actions and relations established by the government of the Island of Santa Ca- tarina with the regal or central power since the colonial period, passing through the province of imperial times until the middle of the 20th century. The documents show the peculiarities of governance, territorial, eco- nomic and social formation over time.  Added to this documentary heritage is a cartographic collection of more than 4,000 maps, plans and sketch- es, 9,000 iconographic images, 700 multimedia ma- terials and a support library that accommodates more than 5,000 textual bibliographic volumes, including rare works dated between 1752 and 1959. 

‘We have aworld-class collection ofmodern and contem- porary art, and we are deeply convinced that art says a lot about the world it was created in and the people who cre- ated it. We want future humanity to get an idea of who we were, by seeing the art we created today,’ says Gitte Ørsk- ou, director of ModernaMuseet.  The Finnish Labour Archive , Työväen Arkisto, the oldest labour archive in Finland holding political, trade union and other donated archives, deposited a photo col- lection fromthe history of the archive, including personal stories.   Martin Schøyen Foundation, holding the largest private collection of manuscripts in the world, deposit- ed the BibliothecaManuscripts Schoeyana as well as a nice collection of Buddhist manuscripts, curated by the University of Oslo. 

ModernaMuseet , Sweden, virtually deposited a copy of its entire art database of 140,000pieces, alongwith the descriptions and images.  

Copyright©PiqlAS - All rights reserved AWA 2020 If you would like to contribute your memories the ArcticWorld Archive, contact us today: info@arcticworldarchive.org.