THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC

RECOLLECTION

By

MARY JEAN ROTHLISBERGER

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF FINE ARTS

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITYDepartment of Fine Arts

MAY 2008

iii

THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC

RECOLLECTION

Abstract

By Mary Jean Rothlisberger, MFAWashington State University

May 2008

Chair: Nik Meisel

Bureaucracy is hilarity.

ARCHIVIST’S ADDENDUM: The Bureau of Public Recollection exists to collect every

memory in the recent history of human experience. The Bureau is confident that a

well-established collective consciousness will produce a higher level of

compassionate intellect within the intercontinental population. Theoretically, this

rapid evolution of thought and heightened sensitivity would bring about a cultural

change that would manifest itself in a global Utopia.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is an environment of words.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………………….iii

PROLOGUE: A RECENT INVENTORY OF MYSELF……………………………………………1

PART

I. ABOUT THE ARCHIVES………………………………………………………….5

a. THE REALITY ……………………………………………………………….….7

b. THE UNDOING OF REALITY……………………………………….………8

c. THE UNREALITY …………………………………………………………….10

d. THE SUBREALITY…………………………………………………….………14

II. ABOUT THE ARCHIVIST ……………………………………………………….15

III. FURTHER …………………………………………………………………………..17

v

LIST OF LISTS

page

1. LIST #1……………………………………………….…………………………………………..2

2. LIST #2………………………………………………………………….…………….,………..17

1

PROLOGUE1

A RECENT INVENTORY OF MYSELVES2

My first collection, undoubtedly, emerged inside of myself. At an early age, I assigned separate

roles to my routines. The origin of these personalities is unclear – they were born out of play,

loneliness, cowardice, nerve and necessity. I collected qualities often at odds with one another:

paradox personalities that would either interact or ignore eachanother3 at any stage on life’s

way.4 As I evolved, I tumbled in and out of myself:

somewhere along the line,

something happened to shatter my self into more selves,

like cells of selves:5

a cerebral ritual of self-cytokinesis.6

1 This is all best read aloud. Words how they look are nothing compared to words how they sound.

2 A Note on Notes: Footnotes, specifically content-footnotes as opposed to copyright permission footnotes, exist in aunique and nearly uneditable environment. The audience is obliged to read the main body of the text, but footnotesare the optional addendum that readers have permission to ignore. Because the interruption is voluntary, thediscussion is less inhibited and more conversational. The footnote provides the author with a liberated voice and thefreedom to disagree, to tangent, and to supplement her other selves.

3 eachanother /each•a•’no•ther/ indefinite objective pronoun used to refer to additional persons or things of the sametype though they are regarded and identified separately. ORIGINS: a combination of the adjective each (two or moredistinct objects) the pronoun another (referring to a similar addition), and the pronoun each other (referring tomembers of a group involved in reciprocal action). AUTHOR’S NOTE: Lexical validity is determined on a person-to-person basis. The author does not subscribe to any specific dictionary and remains open to innovative andexperimental language usage. Every word has to start somewhere.

4 This phrase is an intentional reference to the Søren Kierkegaard’s deliniated spheres of human existence (he calledthem “stadier på livets vej,” translated as “the stages on life’s way.”) He pseudonymously discusses this concept in theworks Either/Or (1843) by Victor Eremita and Stages on Life’s Way (1845) by Hilarius Bookbinder.

5 This is a calculated repititon. These four lines (from somewhere to cytokinesis) have fourteen S sounds. My motherand I both have a sharp S; we involuntarily turn a voiceless consanant into a whistle, making sound where there wasnone. When I read this outloud, it is more melody than words. I don’t think it’s complete coincedence that selves andcell share so much sound. S and L sounds are both alveolar consanants, made by touching your tongue to the edge ofyour alveolar ridge, the space between your teeth and your hard palette that holds your teeth sockets. Selves andcells are words that are mostly breath, forced from your lungs, ending and beginning with the tip of your tongue.

2

This is a recent inventory of myself. This is one self’s observations of the otherselves. This is whom

I have met, in equal parts, inside of me:

LIST #1

COLLECTOR7

NATURALISTARCHIVIST8

MUSICIANTHE SHAMANSCHOLARWARRIOR9

POETESSEXPLORERRINGLEADER10

RECLUSE‘PATAPHYSICIST11

ARTIST12

6 Cytokinesis is cytoplasmic division in the final stage of cell reproduction. In animal cells, the cell membrane pinchesinward until the halves separate, resulting in two independent daughter cells with identical DNA. As these cellsdevelop, mitosis occurs again (and again and again, exponentially and infinitely within the body). This is how wegrow: by getting smaller, by splitting our cells to make new cells and every cell is standing on another cell’s shouldersuntil their fingertips are scraping the sky. We are one self, but many cells. We are one cell with many selves.

7 I will call this one the first. Without the COLLECTOR, I never would have gathered myself up to be shelved withselves. Military life shuffled my family from place to place, and collecting became a measure of control and coping inmy shifting and unpredictable environment. I was always looking for proof of my existence, evidence that I had beensomewhere at sometime, whether or not anyone else could remember me. I had to find a way to remember myself. Myoldest and longest-running collections are small and portable and seemingly insignifigant: feathers, bottlecaps,photographs, leaves that have been rained on, the first flowers, ribbons, small rocks that look like pieces of meat,strands of yarn about the length of my hand, empty golden-colored picture frames, bedsheets, friendship bracelets,things that have been left in bibles, cheerwine bottles, tokens, nametags, statues of mice, scraps of patterned paper,cameras that are often dismissed as toys, and tiny decorated beads.

8 See PART I, SECTION B and PART II for further discussion of the ARCHIVIST. The Archivist is also referenced infootnotes [ 27] and [54].

9 One form of despair is defiance.

10 When I make friends is really when I feel the most alive. Sometimes I think that I breathe people. I fill up my lungs

and let the knowingness of knowing one another bring a rhythm to my bloodstream. And then my veins are pumpingpounding pushing with the existence of everyone that is not me. And I am no longer only myself, I am everyone andeverything and every infinity stretching my arms to the edges of the universe.

11 ‘Pataphysics is a French absurdist philosophy that parodies contemporary scientific theory. Alfred Jarry, the first‘pataphysicist, described ‘pataphysics as the science of imaginary solutions. A ‘pataphysicist is a practitioner of‘pataphysics, often engaging in contradictory or non-sensical rhetoric based on assumptions and exceptions.

12 An addendum to the original list, this heteronym has been added by request of the committee. My reluctancetowards including it stems from the strained and estranged relationship that I have with the ARTIST at this time.Before I moved to Eastern Washington, I willingly let the ARTIST umbrella my additional personas. But these days, in

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I am interested in the existence of artistic heteronyms.13 A pseudonym is merely a false name; a

literary heteronym is an entire character. Though they reside within one author, each heteronym

has a separate and unique title, personality, biography, philosophy, and language.14 Fernando

Pessoa had seventy-two heteronyms.15 I am only twelve.16

I liken myself to the creosote bush (Larrea tridentate), a desert shrub of western North America.

As it ages, it shatters and grows in rippling rings; every outlying plant has identical genetic

makeup although each exists individually as its own unique and microcosmic environment. You

couldn’t tell that two creosote were one if you met them in the record store. Maybe they’ll never

even meet eachanother, but they’re all the same dying surviving beginning bush whose fingers

this specific world, the ARTIST quiets and grows tired of talking. Sometimes I think that the ARTIST has disowned meand I am just the prodigal child of her imagination. She doesn’t speak to anyone anymore because her mouth is so fullof secrets. Sometimes I think I will never be an artist, I will just be everything else. Sometimes I think I don’t make art, Ijust make conversation.

13 A linguistic heteronym is a set of words with identical spellings, but different meanings (examples: resume, close,desert, tear). A literary heteronym is defined above. For the purpose of this text, all discussion of heteronyms arebased upon the literary definition rather than the linguistic definition. Naturally, the literary heteronym grew out ofthe definition for a linguistic heteronym and their relationship is duly noted.

14 Heteronyms are not simply pretended. They are simultaneous and separate and symbiotic. They interact with andwithin eachanother.

15 A Portuguese poet. His private documents were made public nearly 50 years after his death, revealing FernandoPessoa as the singular author behind over seventy heteronymous writers, critics, theorists, poets, playwrights, andpersonalities familiar to the public through print media. I recently finished The Book of Disquiet by Bernardo Soares(an autobiographical semiheteronym of Fernando Pessoa). Previously, I was only familiar with Pessoa’s poetic works.Scholars arranged and compiled The Book of Disquiet from written scraps and journal entries that Pessoa privatelywrote and attributed to Bernardo Soares. I found my selves hidden among his words and with this, Pessoa’s worksbecame a great comfort to me.

An excerpt from an entry dated December 30, 1932: “Each of us is various, many people, a prolixity ofselves... In the vast colony of our being there are many species of people, thinking and feeling differently... And like adiverse but compact multitude, this world of different people that I am projects a unique shadow.”

Excerpt from an undated entry: “In a grand unified dispersion, I situate myself within them, I cultivate them,and during every moment of the conversation I am a multitude of beings, conscious and unconscious, analyzed andanalytic, all deployed as if in an open fan.”

Excerpt from another undated entry: “I have cultivated several personalities within myself. I constantlycultivate personalities. Each of my dreams, immediately after I dream it, is incarnated into another person, who thengoes on to dream it, and I stop.”

16 See LIST #1 and footnotes [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], and [12].

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only ever touch underneath the desert earth. It took scientists a long time to figure this out.17 The

oldest known creosote is 11,700 years old.18 We were born on the same day.19

17 Previously, scientists assumed that each creosote bush was a separate and genetically independent shrub, growingin elliptical proximity to one another. Research in the past decade showed that creosote rings function much like treerings: evidence of a singular organism’s external growth.

18 This creosote ring, named King Clone, is located in the Mojave Desert. It is the oldest living organism on the earth.The former Guinness World Record holder was a Bristlecone Pine named Methuselah (4,789 years old).

19 This sentence is pure hyperbole.In traditional chronological terms, Mary Jean Rothlisberger was born on September 5, 1983 in Kileen, Texas,

the first child of CPT Lisa Salerno Rothlisberger and LTC Matthew James Rothlisberger. Both Jim and Lisa had recentlygraduated from Clarion University as Distinguished Military Gradautes, having earned the silver wings of US AirborneParatroopers. Lisa Rothlisberger was Airborne Qualified in 1980, among the first class of women to ever acheive thisdistinction in United States Army History. Mary has always been afraid of heights.

Regardless of the chronological demarcations within which we situate ourselves, we aren’t much more thanorganisms, recycled and reproduced across the centuries. In the morning when I step outside, I breathe in the bones ofeverything that came before me and for a moment I can feel the whole universe lodged in my lungs. I find aweathered bit of creosote behind my ear; I am looking down at Amelia Earhart’s hands; the sleep that I have justwiped from eyes came from the antarctic beard of Ernest Shackleton. We’re all made of the same dust of the dust ofthe very beginning of the earth. Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverim reventeris.

If earth is our universal body, then what constitutes our universal mind? In his metaphysical self-help seriesThe Secret of the Ages, Robert Collier suggests channeling the universal mind in order to achieve a positive andproductive lifestyle. He describes the “Life Principle” as a universal force that stimulates everything on earth, fromnature to man to the aura of objects. The “Life Principle” is unlimited energy, uninhibited thought, and infinitepossibility! According to Collier, this life principle, this universal mind, lives within each and every one of us. We canaccess the universal mind at any time if we have a diligently proactive attitude.

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PART I

ABOUT THE ARCHIVE20

Archives are inexorably linked to the Institution in that they are the documentary accumulation of

institutional construction, solicitation, and conservation. 21 The Bureau of Public Recollection is not

only an Institution, but it also acts as a satire of the Institution.22 Operating as both a paradigm

and a pataphor,23 the Bureau critiques institutional behavior via submersion in institutional

practices.24 Parallel dualities reside within the artist behind the Bureau and the Bureau itself –

poetic vs. ascetic,25 playful vs. practical, infinite vs. finite, and impossibility vs. reality.

20 Definitions of archive, as referenced and identified in Paul Ricouer’s Time and Narrative, Volume III:

“Archives are constituted by the set of documents that result from the activity of an institution.”Encyclopaedia Universalis (Paris, 1968) 2:231.

“The term archives designates the organized body of records produced or recieved by a public, semi-public,institutional, business or private entity in the transaction of its affairs and preserved by it, its successors or authorizedrepository through the extension of its original meaning as the repository for such materials.” EncyclopaediaBritannica (Chicago, 1971) 2:362B.

21 On the use of passive voice: the use of passive voice within rhetoric creates an illusion of an objective and fact-based discourse. Scientists and researchers often use passive voice to avoid repeatedly attributing findings toparticular agents. This practice allows them to place emphasis on the action and its results, rather than the personperforming the action. Writers also use passive voice when the given performative agent is unknown, insignificant, oralready obvious. Additionally, cultural propaganda employs passive voice in order to establish an ambiguous butauthoritative tone.

The author often uses passive voice in her discussion of the Bureau of Public Recollection. Most cases areintentional: to avoid over-using personal pronouns, to dilute the clarity of certain Institutional practices, to establish atone of fact-based discourse, to analogize propaganda, or even for the sake of an eloquent sentence-structure.Certainly, some instances might just be a matter or poor grammatical judgment. She will do her best to remedy these.

22 The Institution, within the context of these writings, is defined as an established set of laws and customs carried outwithin a community of people. The Institution is a framework of rules and regulations that govern the behavior of agroup of voluntary individuals. For example, Academia, with its traditions, restrictions, and social strata, is anInstitution. Other examples of Institutions are the Roman Catholic Church, Money, Marriage, the Museum, and theGovernment. Institution as a term is nearly as ambiguous as its definition: a jellyfish that floats abstractly withinsociety in order to promote itself. Institutions remain largely unchallenged due to their vocabulary and promotionalcredentials. You can build a structure out of solid-sounding and professionally authoritative words, but that doesn’tguarantee it is worth living in.

23 See footnote [26] for discussion of the pataphor. See footnote [11] for discussion of ‘pataphysics.

24 Institutional practices include everything from rite-of-passage rituals to daily working procedures.

25 Poetic and ascetic are not always opposites. I suppose it depends largely on the individual interpretation of poetic.For myself, poetic exists within the playful, within simultaneous complexity and layered extrapolation. I have always

6

Because of this, it is not enough for the Bureau to exist as an institutional imitation. An imitation is

reduced and relegated in order to deceive. Since the Bureau of Public Recollection is equally real

and unreal, it has instead been constructed as an institutional pataphor.26

The Bureau of Public Recollection will hereafter be discussed in three dissections in order to

examine the stratum it operates within. THE REALITY extrapolates the Bureau as it is experienced

by the Executive Archivist. THE UNDOING OF REALITY dissects the Bureau from a ‘pataphysical

perspective, offering observations and critique of the Bureau’s actuality. THE UNREALITY

examines the Bureau’s inevitable humanity and the often-unintended effects on the community.

preferred bending and boomeranging words in lieu of diagramming the sentences. While asceticism certainly offersits own brand of poetry (often found within a profound simplicity or silence), for the purpose of this discussion, Iinterpret asceticism as a one-dimensional sterility.

26 A pataphor is an extension of the metaphor. A metaphorical idea offers comparison of similarities, while thepataphor constructs a new reality out of a metaphorical similarity. This construction allows the original idea to inhabita twice-removed reality within which it can take on a life of its own. The concept of a pataphor grew out of thescience of ‘pataphysics, discussed in footnote [11].

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SECTION A

THE REALITY: The Archives According to the Archivist27

“The Bureau of Public Recollection is a forum for the systematic classification of cerebral surplus. In aneffort to illustrate the fleeting and transitory nature of the individual, we assimilate anonymous anamnesis28

into a public sphere. By dissecting and deciphering memories as text and object, great progress can bemade in determining a collective subconscious among the people of a particular region. Archivists,scientists, and scholars all over the world work together to amass evidence towards the substantiation of thehuman condition. To put it simply, the Bureau of Public Recollection is driven by the ambitious goal ofcollecting and cataloguing every single and specific memory in the recent history of human experience.”Modus Operandi, Bureau of Public Recollection29

The Bureau of Public Recollection is a mnemonic research-based institution. While it is related to

the idea of collective memory,30 the Bureau seeks to take this two-steps further in establishing a

collective consciousness.31 A collective consciousness is a universal awareness of outside

experience. The Bureau is confident that a well-established collective consciousness would produce

a higher level of compassionate intellect within the intercontinental population. Theoretically, this

rapid evolution of thought and heightened sensitivity would bring about cultural change that

would manifest itself in a global Utopia.32

27 The identity of the ARCHIVIST is discussed in PART II of this discourse. Her presence can also be noted in LIST #1and footnotes [8] and [54].

28 Anamnesis is often synonymous with memory, defined as a recollection of past experiences.

29 This statement was taken from the Official Website of the Bureau of Public Recollection. On the website, theBureau outlines its Modus Operandi, discusses the role of the Bureau Specialists, and introduces you to the ExecutiveArchivist. The website also serves as an online opportunity to donate memories to the Archives. Please visithttp://www.BureauofPublicRecollection.org for more information.

30 Collective memory is a memory shared by a group of people, whether cultural, generational, or regional. Theshared experience of the remembered event shapes the social interactions of the group. For example, the collectivememory of the Israelite exodus from Egypt is re-experienced in the Jewish celebration of Passover.

31 Collective memory has already been once-extended with the study of cultural memory. Cultural memory studiesestablished that memories are contained by both bodies and objects. It also went on to differentiate between memoryand history – in that memories are actuality while history is a subjective opinion on what is most memorable.

32 The Bureau intends to achieve these goals by archiving recollections and then hosting their public display. Asseparate individuals experience and explore the anonymous recollections, a hallowed and heightened space iscreated within the mind. Exposure to the universal experiences of others helps to construct a universal mind, asimultaneous creative visualization. See footnote [19] for a brief discussion of the universal experience.

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SECTION B

THE UNDOING OF REALITY: The Archives According to the ‘Pataphysicist33

The Bureau of Public Recollection is a functioning Institution entrenched in ritual and process.34 Its

methodology is characterized by superfluous paperwork, organizational ambiguity, open-ended

solicitation, jargoned language, indefinite identity, meticulous and tedious archiving practices,

and limited visitor interaction with staff. The Bureau blindly wrestles with infinity without even

recognizing its existence.35 The bureaucratic rituals produce faith and the process produces

tangible growth; with these results, it is impossible to suspect that the idea might be flawed.

Idealism outweighs realism in this Institution – the Bureau is so enamored with its self-assured

ed. Art historically, the Bureau parallels Joseph Beuy’s concept of Social Sculpture in that the Bureau’sexistence depends completely upon the actions, reactions, and interactions with the entire global population.

33 Another Note on Notes: The PATAPHYSICIST would like to point out the use of footnotes within this text as a‘pataphysical device. Another instance of twice-removal, the written thesis is first removed from the visual object andthe footnotes remove the reader once more to the underground of the page. Ideally, these underground discussionstrigger dialogues outside of both written texts, resulting in an interaction twice-removed from the original reality. Andthat is a ‘pataphysical conversation.

34 Bureau rituals include: counting and tallying every donation three times before officially recording accumulation;transferring every donation onto official correspondence stock (40#T lightweight natural smooth paper, black ink,press printed in collaboration with Parcell Press in Richmond, Virginia) via a designated Bureau typewriter (OlympiaPortable, chestnut-brown, crinkle-finish; Royal Mercury, light grey, matte finish; Sperry Rand Remington 333, black,glossy finish; Aztec 600, green, soft finish; Royal 590, light grey, crinkle-finish, made in Holland; Smith-CoronaSkyWriter, dark grey, crinkle-finish); stamping and dating each donation as it is archived; bundling each group oforiginal donations as backup; photocopying every archived memory as backup; dutifully integrating new memoriesinto the Archives by counting and sorting and reshuffling the entire Archive in groups of three; et cetera.

35 For example, the Bureau claims to exist for the specific purpose of collecting every memory in the recent history ofhuman experience. To our rational sensibilities, this is a task that is both impossible and completely unreasonable.When questioned about the reality of accomplishing such an infinite task, Bureau staff consider impossibility anincomprehensible idea. They will often answer such queries with statements like “Well, it is going to be a lot of work,but that’s why I’m putting in such long hours.” or “It isn’t impossible. It’s easy. Everyone just has to donate theirmemories.” The Bureau’s logic is based on a consequential if/then model (If everyone donates all their memories, theArchive will be complete. If the Archive is complete, then a global Utopia will result). This model fails to account forvarious societal and environmental truths (Is it physically possible to recollect all of your experiences? Is it logisticallypossible to interact with every single person on the earth? Is it possible for a visitor to read every archived memory?Would exposure to the entire archives really result in a compassionate intellect?).

9

purpose that it fails to acknowledge the futility of the task at hand. The Bureau dedicates

ineffective time and energy to an irrelevant and unattainable goal.36

36 See SECTION A for discussion of Bureau goals. Additionally, visit the Bureau Online, discussed in footnotes [45],[46], and [47], to learn more about Bureau of Public Recollection’s personnel, philosophies, and employmentopportunities.

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SECTION C

THE UNREALITY: The Archives According to the Artist37

The Artist is interested in the accumulation of narrative,

narrative bound by a pen and a page, the one-page short story:

the experience that blinks and then vanishes.

The Archive allows the Artist

to pull back the eyelids of experience

and examine our way of seeing,

which is,

how we remember

&38 what we forget.

Solicitation of memories remains open-ended39 for the specific purpose of examining what people

choose to donate. Instead of building a corral and separating the species of experience, the Artist

prefers to investigate the typology of memory. Does tragedy outweigh humor? Does emotion

outweigh imagery? Are we chasing youth or marking time? Do we falsify? And does it matter if

we do?

37 The Artist-author offering input in this dissection is not the same ARTIST of the heteronymous list found in thePrologue (LIST #1). This Artist’s perspective is of a general aesthetic and observational nature. She observes theBureau as it exists in interaction and unwittingly refers to the ARCHIVIST as an artist. Please see [71] and [72] forfurther discussion of the ARCHIVIST vs. the art-chivist.

ed. footnote [71] and [72] have been removed from this version of the text. Please see editor’s addendum onfootnote [66] for information about obtaining earlier versions of this text.

38 I have always been in love with the ampersand.

39 Donations to the Bureau Archives are not specifically solicited according to any typology. The Bureau encouragesvisitors to donate any and every memory, thereby allowing the donor to choose what is significant enough to beshared. Memory solicitation is like inviting customers to shop at a store that has no set prices -- the interaction doublesas a social investigation into contemporary systems of value. By allowing visitors to donate at their own discretion onany given subject, the Archives become a framework for studying and determining the value of human experience.

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The conversations and the non-conversations that happen within the temporary installation spaces

are integral to the Bureau personality. These social spaces leave ample room for residue, in the

form of memory donation, object manipulation, and social ritual. Oftentimes the audience cannot

be traced, and these interaction-absences are just as imperative to the project. 40

In each of its recent manifestations,41 the Bureau as a temporary installation created a

spontaneous community. Audience members settled in the space and took on specific community

roles within the Bureau environment.42 This sense of participation and connection continues within

the paper community contained by the Archive itself.43

40 The 6th floor Bureau is an interesting example of this. Not knowing the artist, the archivist, or the Bureau, visitorsinteracted with the intimate and haphazard space as a physical and mental sanctuary. Outsiders visited the space forlong periods of time, paging through the Archives and engaging the bottled anamnesis. The ARCHIVIST discoveredthese interactions after walking into the Bureau one afternoon and finding people there. During the construction ofthe Portable Archivist (discussed in footnote [44]), the ARCHIVIST discovered that the Memory Files had been stuffedwith nearly one hundred anonymous memory donations during the relatively untrafficked time in the 6th floorhallway. One hundred donations would be a landfall for a public exhibition, not to mention a make-shift andunpublicized hallway installation.

41 Intentional physical manifestations of the Bureau of Public Recollection: On March 2nd, 2007, the Bureau of PublicRecollection operated an Itinerant Headquarters for five hours in Room 121 of the Cougarland Motel in Pullman, WA.Starting on April 8th, 2007, the Bureau of Public Recollection managed a Field Research Laboratory for six days inGallery II on the Washington State University campus. On June 29th, 2008, the Bureau of Public Recollection hosted afour hour event in collaboration with the Elsewhere Avian Collective in Greensboro, North Carolina. From August2007 until February 2008, the Bureau of Public Recollection operated a transitional office in the hallways of the 6thfloor of the Washington State University Fine Arts Building. From March 4th thru March 9th, 2008, the Bureau ofPublic Recollection operated an Itinerant Headquarters for five days in Reed College’s Eliot Hall in Portland, Oregon.From April 18th through May 10th, 2008, the Bureau of Public Recollection donated a museological exhibition of thePublic Archives and the Portable Archivist to the Museum of Art in Pullman, WA.

The physical Bureau has a chameleon-like nature, shifting its shape to fit the attitude and limitations of thegiven space. These manifestations range from haphazard to administrative to elegantly ascetic. Because the Bureau ischiefly concerned with solicitation and participation, it makes an effort to fit snugly into its surroundings – as if it hadalways been there, but had only recently opened its eyes.

42 At the Reed College Bureau event, typewriters were available for the public to use. For the entire duration of five-day manifestation, different people willingly and without instruction, took on the role of the Archivist by sitting downat the desks provided and typing their donations onto the provided forms. Participants also went through the stacks ofdonations and sorted them into the appropriate memory files. Some participants took complete control over theinstallation by going so far as to explore the boxes and files, take out the official paper stock, retype their memory,stamp their donation, and incorporate the archived document into the installation.

Additionally, employment applications are available for those interested in pursuing further work with theBureau (the Bureau Online has provided downloadable applications). Applicants maneuver through a maze ofpaperwork before being hired on as official Bureau staff. They can apply for any position that suits their abilities.Currently the Bureau Staff consists of the following specialists: Executive Archivist, Assistant Archivist, Advisor to the

12

When the Archivist is in the act of Public Archiving,44 the Bureau functions as a community event.

In an effort to express that every story is worth sharing and every person is worth listening to, the

artist engages the audience on an individual basis with their donations: the individual often

intimately dictating their memory to the typing Archivist. This nearly sacred act of sharing and

safekeeping moves beyond the Bureau as an Institution and comes closer to exposing the Bureau

for what it really is: a love affair with humanity.

By means of their online presence, the Bureau also evolved into an outward collaboration. The

Bureau website45 defines the visual identity of the Bureau, discusses Bureau personnel, explains

the Bureau’s conceptual framework, and offers an anonymous online donation database.46 It

circulates invisibly in the infinity of cyberspace, interacting with previously unrelated individuals.47

Archivist, Senior Archivist Organizational Specialist Level 900.55.4, CryptoZoological Theorist, Document Mechanic,Patchmaker & Dreamweaver, Collector Et Cetera, Location Scout, Chief Calligrapher, Associate for Idea Collection,Cloud-Catcher & Question-Asker, Equi-Historian, Secretary for Unrequited Anamnesis Operatives, ConversationalCooperative Coordinator, and Chief of Object Analytics. All staff members dutifully perform their designated rolesand many serve as assistant Archivists during the Annual Memory Drives. They also get an official Bureau button.

43 Those that have made memory donations to the Bureau are often the most excited to visit the Public Archives.Visitors to the Public Archives have the opportunity for exploration, recognition, and searching for oneself amongstthe memories. Since the Archives are spontaneously arranged (in no particular order and consistently reshuffled),relationships between neighboring memories are constantly fluctuating, creating constellations of thoughts andexperiences that are redrawn with each manifestation.

44 Public Archiving ocurred more often with the introduction of the Portable Archivist. Though the Bureau is portableand transformable by nature, the small-scale office of the Portable Archivist allowed the Bureau to engage in allmethods of memory solicitation and archiving in virtually any environment. The only disadvantage of the PortableArchivist is that she does not come equipped with the entire Public Archive of the Bureau of Public Recollection. Shecan only encourage donors to attend a Bureau hosted event in order to experience the Public Archive.

45 http://www.BureauofPublicRecollection.org

46 The Online Headquarters for Memory Solicitation processes approximately twenty-five memories per month. Onlinedonations possess an added level of anonymity as they are donated without any trace of handwriting and without anyspecific interaction with the Archivist. This added-anonymity often results in deeply personal and intimate memorydonations that participants might be too self- conscious to submit in a more direct environment.

47 Due to the immediate availability of the Bureau Online, it allows for individuals to transform the project to meettheir collaborative needs. Since going online, multiple individuals have emailed the Archivist asking for permission toreference or collaborate with the Bureau of Public Recollection. Within the educational field, the Bureau has beenincorporated into the following academic curricula: Digital Media at the University of Idaho (in reference to web

13

environments), an Art & Architecture collaboration at the University of Idaho (in reference to immersive installationenvironments), and English courses in the DC-Metro high schools (in their study of narrative, short story, andparticipatory literature).

14

SECTION D48

THE SUBREALITY: The Archive of the Archives According to the Author(s)49

The Author(s) of the Archive of the Archives understand(s) that exploration is the most rewarding

form of explanation.50 Therefore, she has opted to submit a written installation.51

This is an environment of words.52 The Author invites the audience to investigate, examine, and

experience the fluctuating horizon line of the page, the vanishing point within a paragraph, and

the gestural qualities of sentence structure.53

48 If footnotes could be footnoted, this entire section would exist underground. Due to the increasing complexity of theextrapolation, the author deemed Section D necessary. Format limitations as set forth by the Graduate School prohibitthe footnoting of footnotes, as well as the footnoting of the footnotes of footnotes, and thusly, Section D is born intothe main body of the text.

49 Author(s) not heteronymous. This delegation is merely an authoritative title attached to any of the variety of voicescontributing to the discussion within the paper.

50 “The task must be made difficult, for only the difficult inspires the noble-hearted... What our age needs is an honestearnestness which affectionately preserves the tasks, which does not alarm people into wanting to rush pellmell intothe highest but keeps the tasks young and beautiful and lovely to look at and beckoning to all and yet for all thatdifficult and inspiring to the noble, for the noble nature is only inspired by what is difficult.” Journals and Papers,Volume I, Søren Kierkegaard.

51 Within literature, contemporary post-modernism challenges the traditional restrictions placed upon mass-marketprinted media by subverting conventional technical formats in order to offer a more immersive reading experience.Authors such as Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything Is Illuminated), DaveEggers (You Shall Know Our Velocity! and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), Barbara Hodgson(Hippolyte’s Island and The Sensualist) and Salvador Plascencia (The People of Paper) embellish the narrative andinvolve the reader by use of non-traditional typesetting, photographs, illustration, variable fonts, margin fluctuation,colored text, and other visual subtleties.

52 This text-environment is reflective of my conceptual process. I often think in a lateral non-linear system. I have thistheory that conditional wisdom is determined by our Teeth, specifically our third molars: the Wisdom Teeth. Even thename points to the fact that our mouth is a mirror of our mind and we can therefore look to this oral structure in orderto decode our more secretive cranium. My wisdom teeth have come in sideways and I’m not letting go of them. I thinkthat explains alot.

53 I situate myself among prose-poetic installation writers. This genre is characterized by playful grammaticalphilosophies, free-form post-structuralist style, emphasis on metadata, and magic-realist discourse strategy.

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PART II

ABOUT THE ARCHIVIST

The Archivist exists within the context of the Archive as a personification of the institutional

pataphor. She has a relentless and obsessive work ethic.54 She is a creature of ritual and

superstition that fervently believes if she faithfully performs the Institutional procedures,55 she will

finish the task at hand, no matter how infinite it might be.56 When the Archivist has been typing

without pause for twelve hours, she likens the recent history of human experience to Søren

Kierkegaard’s 70,000 fathoms57 of water and understands that drowning in this task might be the

54 The Archivist was born on September 5th. In Fredericksburg, Virginia, she befriended two people that shared hersame birthday: Paul Cymrot of Riverby Books and Joan Winter of the Lucas Farm. All three of them are archetypalVirgos. Paul Cymrot is notorious for his calculated daily archiving as evident in dozens of books squirreled away inthe office of Riverby Books. These books contain lists of foods consumed each day, books bought, sold, andexchanged, tallies of customer opinions on specified subjects, numerous computations of excessive store-relatedcomparisons, well-documented correspondences, and records from various competitions created in order to obtain anassortment of data that could later be organized. Every year, he makes a list of everyone he knows and ranks them inorder of the quality of their friendship. After making the list, he mails a form letter to everyone on the list, notifyingthem of their specific placement and what they can do to improve their standing. Paul is also an obsessive and self-deprecating perfectionist, sacrificing mental and physical well-being for the sake of completing tasks that very fewpeople will ever even take note of.

Joan Winter also records and dissects her life by means of collections, lists, and documents. She amassesspecific collections that can be organized, re-organized, displayed, and examined: baskets, books about dancing,afghan rugs, brass trays, books about etiquette, tarot card decks, and a complete financial history of Lucas Farmdating back to 1900. Each day, she engages in ritualistic list-making of tasks that need to be accomplished, oftenincluding tasks that stretch far into the future. Virgos often become frustrated with their inability to accomplish everytask perfectly, and thusly, consistently destroy the evidence of their failures in an act of self-preservation. As they areintensely self-critical, this simultaneous creative/destructive act often morphs into destruction of self, i.e. throwingaway journals, diaries, and photographs that remind them of their many shortcomings. And so they turn to collecting,list-making, archiving and academics, invulnerable acts where compulsive attention to detail is desirable.

55 See PART I, SECTION A and footnotes [24], [34], and [35] for discussions of institutional procedures.

56 See footnote [29] for a discussion of Bureaucratic consequential logic.

57 “Spiritual existence, especially the religious, is not easy; the believer continually lies out on the deep, has 70,000fathoms of water beneath him. However long he lies out there, this still does not mean that he will gradually end uplying and relaxing on shore...” Stages on Life’s Way, Søren Kierkegaard.

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only way to find redemption. But the sea of thought is instead a sea of memories, and none of

them are her own. 58 And thus, she is reduced to madness.59

58 Everett Ruess disappeared into the desert (1934), Amelia Earhart disappeared into the sky (1937), and Bas JanAder disappeared into the ocean (1975). I just disappear (2008).

59 Reduced to madness is a faulty expression. I cannot believe that it is all downward.

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PART III

FURTHER60

The Bureau of Public Recollection aligns itself with the following projects: 61

LIST #2

Center for Land Use Interpretation62

IAMER (Institute for the Advancement of Metatemporal Education & Research)63

Institute for Applied Autonomy64

Institute of Cultural Inquiry65

60 Part III: FURTHER is constructed for readers who would like to FURTHER their understanding of the Bureau of PublicRecollection by virtue of independent exploration of conceptual relationships amongst other organizations. Theorganizations discussed are suggestions for independent research. For those interested in drawing relationshipsbetween the Bureau of Public Recollection and issues concerning a contemporary artistic practice, the editor (ed.)provides an overview within the footnotes of LIST #3. The editor’s notes within the footnotes are not officiallyendorsed by the Bureau of Public Recollection or the author(s) of this text.

ed. LIST #3 and the accompanying footnotes were removed from the final version of this text. Contact MaryRothlisberger if you are interested in obtaining Draft #5 of the Thesis text, which includes LIST #3, footnotes [70] thru[77] and an Epilogue. Retrieval of this draft may cost you a nominal fee and some unwarranted paperwork.

61 The Bureau of Public Recollection publicly recognizes these organizations as conceptual, intellectual, and artisticallies. The Bureau believes that these projects are innovative, interesting, and utterly indispensable because theyeducate and involve the populace in issues of contemporary cultural significance.

Bureau staff members feel a degree of conceptual camaraderie with the agents behind these variousorganizations. In due time, the Bureau of Public Recollection will invite these agencies to engage in professionalconferences and future collaborations.

62 “The Center for Land Use Interpretation is a research organization interested in understanding the nature andextent of human interaction with the earth's surface. The Center embraces a multidisciplinary approach to fulfillingthe stated mission, employing conventional research and information processing methodology as well asnontraditional interpretive tools.” Mission, Center for Land Use Interpretation

Please visit http://www.CLUI.org for more information

63 “The Institute for the Advancement of Metatemporal Education and Research (IAMER) is an advisory committee toseveral supranational leadership organizations. We aid in the development of more effective socioeconomic policy bymaking recommendations based upon our empirical metatemporal research, which is conducted in a variety ofdifferent time periods. We will be installing the IAMER Field Museum—part of our Public Education & Outreachdivision—in the Midwestern United States, circa 2008.” About Us, IAMER

Please visit http://IAMER.org for more information.

64 “The Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA) was founded in 1998 as a technological research and developmentorganization dedicated to the cause of individual and collective self-determination. Our mission is to study the forcesand structures which affect self-determination and to provide technologies which extend the autonomy of humanactivists.” Mission, Institute for Applied Autonomy

Please visit http://www.AppliedAutonomy.com for more information.

65 “The ICI explores the visual methods used to document, categorize, expose, and conceal the events that definecontemporary culture. Many ICI projects focus on long-standing mechanisms that through time have become lost,forgotten, or suppressed. Other ICI activities focus on current methods of thought that operate almost invisibly

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Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles66

Le Musée Patamécanique67

Museum of Jurassic Technology68

RACER Institute (Researching Animal Cognition to Establish their Rights)69

because they are so commonplace. systems and methods of thought that have guided Institute research includeexcavation, curation, hypnotism, souveniring, animal and botanical revisionism, ventriloquism, divination, aerialnavigation, and museum installation.” Statement, Institute of Cultural Inquiry

Please visit http://www.CulturalInquiry.org for more information.

66 No statement available. Please contact Marcel Broodthaers for more information.

67“The primary goal of Musée Patamécanique is to explore the meaning and possibilities of Patamechanics whileeffectively integrating Patamechanical methodologies within the scope of our core program. Le Musée Patamécaniquesees itself as part of the history of semi-domestic spaces scattered throughout different countries and eras that arepart of the culture of the Cabinets of Curiosity. We feel privileged to have become a destination for those who yearnfor the sense of the marvelous, the magical, and the unknown that existed before the demise of the Wunderkammen.”History and Foundations of Patamechanics, Le Musée Patamécanique

Please visit http://www.MuseePata.org for more information.

68 “The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California is an educational institution dedicated to theadvancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic. Like a coat of two colors, the Museumserves dual functions. On the one hand the Museum provides the academic community with a specialized repository ofrelics and artifacts from the Lower Jurassic, with an emphasis on those that demonstrate unusual or curioustechnological qualities. On the other hand the Museum serves the general public by providing the visitor a hands-onexperience of ‘life in the Jurassic’” Introduction & Background, Museum of Jurassic Technology

Please visit http://www.MJT.org for more information.

69 “Despite popular willingness to treat animals in a humane and dignified manner, a consensus for the legalestablishment of their rights has not yet emerged. To gain widespread acceptance, we need to treat different speciesdifferently. People will not pass laws that treat mosquitoes the same as the great apes.

The Racer Institute seeks to advance a system of animal rights that the public will be comfortable with, byconstructing an animal rights scale based on intelligence. To determine animal intelligence, the Institute is researchingand exploring many facets of ethology (the study of wild animal behavior), ecology, physiology, and anatomy. Theresults of these studies will further point out the uniqueness and special characteristics of each species. This projectwill provide scientific justification for laws mandating humane conditions in various industries, in laboratories, inhomes, and in the wild. It will also strengthen society's enthusiasm for preserving biodiversity and for environmentalprotection.” Mission Statement, RACER Institute

Please visit http://www.RACERInstitute.org for more information.