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Preservation Ritual

Time Capsule as Ritual

Recently I participated in a workshop on time capsules. The workshop included three presentations; a historian discussed the process and uncertainties of transmitting our experiences, a conservator discussed time capsules as preservation mechanisms and teachers discussed how to do community history projects with students. Together it was an enjoyable program and on the surface covered all aspects of a time capsule project.

But it was during the question and discussion periods that I began to realize another fascinating aspect of time capsules. Much of the discussion revealed that a time capsule project was considered a social activity complete with rituals of community identity. The time capsule burial scenario with celebrations at the start and, in the future, at the opening anniversary fits perfectly into that interpretation.

Time Capsule as Preservation Ritual

If the a time capsule project is a ritualistic activity then the preservation concerns could also be considered in that context. I had already realized that the time capsule scenario is not necessarily a preservation technique. Just the opposite outcome was also likely. And participants who reported capsule openings to discover completely destroyed contents nevertheless mentioned how memorable the occasion had been.

If the time capsule project is a ritual activity could it also be a ritual preservation activity? I am thinking remnant ritual here in view of our current enthusiasms for change, transience and instant obsolescence and our obsession with the next news. Can there be such a thing as a preservation ritual today?

A past vitality of preservation ritual is suggested by famous finds of scrolls and codex format books preserved in ceramic jars and buried in caves where they were preserved for thousands of years. Evidence indicates that such burial was both prescribed and opportune in the besieged environment of sectarians. Such examples also evidence the awesome preservation technologies of antiquity.

Likewise, thoughout history both veneration of the past and responsible transmission of print collections and manuscripts indicates preservation values at work. The time capsule project is, however, a relatively recent activity first named and defined as a sealed container of memorabilia in the 1930's. In its current identity the time capsule project is seen as an edited sampling of the living environment realia of the senders who are fixed at one point in time, sent to the recipients who will be fixed in their time.

So, as I interpret it, the ritual mystique of the time capsule is actually somewhat anti-historical; it presumes that the senders and recipients are isolated in their islands of time and that the capsule will be sent through a lost-and-found limbo. Are time capsules sent from cultures that are adrift? Is the time capsule ritual a deference to preservation in a culture detached from a real sense of continuity?

The Ritual Revamped

What is needed is a preservation ritual that celebrates our interest in continuity and the long view. This approach is taken by the Long Now foundation. Visits to their Library and 10,000 year Clock can be counted a preservation ritual. But the visits are just that - observations of a continuity that sweeps over us and our place in time.

A long now makes sense and is worth our celebration and ritual. In our preservation ritual we do not want to encapsulate the present moment, we want to move with the present moment and feel its momentum. We actually need to unencapsulate our own time.

In a preservation ritual we would meet together at a specific time to witness the streaming of the present moment. It would be an excuse and obligation to get away from email and the next news. It would be an opportunity to set aside artifacts and things. It would be a vacation from flying saucers and mental possessions.

Distant objects in the universe are seen as they were millions of years ago in a time known as the present moment.

Conservators as Clergy

Now I do not see preservation workers moving to a priestly status with the advent of long now ritual. No sense lurching from one extreme to another. But I could see librarians and archivists as avatars of an information society. I can even see librarians and archivists mediating the contest between bionic and non-bionic consciousness.

A reason that I can see librarians and archivists assuming power is that they deflect their power to the systems they create. As a result, they are in little risk of the corruptions of power and have played their powerful role in history unnoticed. They quietly defuse Millennial traumas, connect revolutions and inform both leaders and followers. The culture is dependent on them and their systems manage the economy of ideas.

So if we do revamp preservation ritual and pay attention to the long now, will librarians and archivists get rich? Will they become famous? I think it is almost certain!

(The illustration is of a jar in which Dead sea scrolls were preserved. Note the highly effective, gravity sealed lid which rests on a raised rim.)

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