This five year project, ‘Creating Future Memories,’ is a citizen-focused effort to identify and foster ongoing and new creative methods of regaining control of the ‘big data’ we regularly produce in our everyday lives. As contemporary societies become more saturated in digital and social media, it takes time and effort to track our own data, much less curate it in ways that might make sense for our grandchildren. This international project is directed by Annette Markham as part of the larger Future Making Consortium. It is supported by the Department of Information Studies and the Cultural Transformations Research Unit at Aarhus University. Beginning in 2016, Creating Future Memories is hosting a series of experimental workshops for citizens to think about what personal data is being collected by large corporations like Google and Facebook, and how this data is archived, packaged, and recycled back to us as if it represents the totality of our lives.This five year project is designed to find and foster innovative methods for preserving digitally-mediated lived experience of 21st Century events. Using interventionist and action research research design, it addresses urgent concerns about regaining control of our future cultural histories. The project was awarded 2.5 million DKK in startup funds by the Aarhus University Research Foundation.

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