006—Archiving Is a Means of Remembering
Dear reader,
Here at Deem, we are always looking for ways to give you insight into our research process. We are never thinking alone. Rather, we come from intergenerational lineages of thought and intention. From the visions of place gathered by the community of students at Mycelium Youth Network to a conversation with Ramsay Taum, a practitioner and instructor of several native Hawaiian practices—ho‘oponopono (stress release and mediation), lomi haha (body alignment), and kaihewalu lua (Hawaiian combat/battle art)—Issue Four, “A Sense of Place,” is no different.
And as the journal finds its way to you over the next few weeks, we are running our very first Reference Room bundle giveaway. In addition to a copy of Issue Four, one winner will receive a copy of Belonging: A Culture of Place (1990) by bell hooks and Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need (2020) by Sasha Costanza-Chock—two texts that imperatively shaped our journey in creating this issue. bell hooks’s view of place grounded the editors’ letter:
“We are born and have our being in a place of memory. We chart our lives by everything we remember from the mundane moment to the majestic. We know ourselves through the art and act of remembering.“
—bell hooks, Belonging: A Culture of Place (1990)
Memory makes place. Archiving is a means of remembering. We do this work to build a place in time for you and for me.
Introducing Deem Audio & “The Sweet Flypaper”
In October, we announced the release of Deem Audio, an exploratory approach to audio interviews, oral histories, and storytelling. As a part of this initiative, we will produce an ongoing series of distinct, five-episode podcast programs that highlight voices and interests within our community—and, in some cases, focus on specific topics that have especially resonated in print and in our forums.
As a part of this, we’ve released five episodes of co-founder Marquise Stillwell’s podcast series “The Sweet Flypaper,” which borrows its name from “The Sweet Flypaper of Life,” a 1955 fiction and photography book by photographer Roy DeCarava and poet Langston Hughes describing life in the 1950s for Black families in Harlem, New York City. This conversation series responds to a growing need to reexamine how design powers the world and our lives, and its potential to thoughtfully, and poetically, influence societal change.
Listen to a conversation between Marquise and co-founder and creative director Nu Goteh about the potential of podcasts as a medium, and how this format aligns with the Deem ethos of centering process over output.
All five episodes are now live at the audio tab on DeemJournal.com.
From the Reference Room
“We’ve always thought of our heroes as having to do with death and war. And when we think of Joseph Campbell and the whole idea of the heroic journey, it’s rarely a journey that’s about love. It’s about deeds that have to do with conquering, domination, what have you. And so part of what I wanted to say to people is that living as we do in a culture of domination, to truly choose to love is heroic. To work at love. To really let yourself understand the art of loving.”
Listen to the full 2002 interview with bell hooks on Speaking Freely, hosted by Ken Paulsonat at the Newseum Institute, on our are.na channel linked here.
A question to close:
There are 196 questions in Issue Four, “A Sense of Place,” and to honor these journeys of thought, here’s one to take with you from, “Where We Are Invited to Enter: Sasha Costanza-Chock & Cara Page in conversation”:
“What can we reimagine around care that doesn't limit us to just bodies, but expands our relationship to land, to work, to spirit, to economies that are deeply rooted in traditions of survival, and to transcendental economies that are not limited to profiting off of one for the domination of another?”
—Cara Page
Thank you for reflecting with us.
Sincerely,
The Deem Team