Activity Report of the Center for Remembering 3.11

May 18, 2017

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We are pleased to announce the release of "The Activity Report of the Center for Remembering 3.11" (originally published in February 2015) on the web. In this report, we introduced our activities and records over the four years since the Center for Remembering 3.11 opened.

 
 

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Please download the activity report of the center for remembering 3.11 (pdf / 15MB) from here.

 
 

Introduction
This book aims to convey images of the Great East Japan Earthquake perceived through recorded materials contributed to “the center for remembering 3.11,” as well as activity of archiving itself.
It features 45 themes in four sections, which are structured with elements such as things that can be read from recorded materials, experience gained from archiving activities and experience of going through the disasters from a variety of people.

 

 

Legend

 

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Contents

 

About the center for remembering 3.11

 
 
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Before and up to 30 Days after the Disaster

1 Everyday Scenes p.010
2 Foreshock p.012
3 Respective 3/11 p.014
4 Confusion after the Tremor                            p.016
5 To a Safer Place p.018
6 To a Higher Place p.020
7 Snow p.024
8 Walking Home p.026
9 The Starry Sky p.028
10 The Following Morning p.030
11 Living p.032
12 Another Earthquake p.036
13 Cherry Blossoms p.038

 
 

Photographs, texts and sound-recordings as well as their making

14 Re-coding from the Same Perspective              p.042
15 Legends p.046
16 Stone Monuments p.048
17 Notices p.050
18 Personal Notes p.052
19 Drawing with Hearing p.054
20 View with Ears p.056
21 Voices for Reconstruction p.058

 
 

Moving Images and Their Making

 
 

Practices of Contextualizing and Utilization in Archiving Activities

 
 
 

In Conclusion
In order to convey the general outline of our archiving activities ̶recorder311, this booklet introduces selected contributions and activities we practiced. They are introduced in four sections; the first section presents them in chronological order, while the second and third sections are segmented by type of recording and content. The last section is organized along working processes of archiving activity.
In the enormous scale of the Great East Japan Earthquake, what our recordings show is only a tiny fraction. Yet however small they may be, they are firsthand fragments of the disaster that each one of us have experienced, seen and heard since March 11, 2011 up to the present, as well as the achievements of their attempt to pass them down to future generations.

In response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, there have been many different “disaster archiving” activities, conducted by various groups in various places. As goal, concept and methodology differ from group to group, the meaning of the word “archiving” slightly differs in each activity.
As for recorder311, when we speak of “archiving” we mean a series of collaborative activities that consists of “recording & collecting,” “organizing & storing,” “contextualizing,” and “utilizing,” through which our recordings activities are nurtured into “tools” to pass down the achievements to the future generations, sharing them with many different people and places.
In more concrete terms about recorder311’s concept, it gathers people who agree with its goal of making the recordings public and leaving them for posterity. They are the main group of people who do “recording & collecting” as “contributors,” sharing those recordings with In Conclusionrecorder311. It in turn “organizes & stores” them to be “contextualized” and “utilized” with the contributors and citizens, nurturing them into “tools.” Furthermore, in all of those processes, essential are
interactions with supporters, donors and audience.

At the beginning, recorder311 had not imagined the current dynamic situation in which diverse people gather around the archiving activities, taking part in them in a variety of ways. However, while groping for significance of our activities, little by little we came to the
understanding that the core of a community archiving activity is to provide opportunities and systems with which recordings are returned to each person’s everyday life, for even though they are recordings of a disaster, they fundamentally are recordings of one’s life. That is how recorder311 has grown to an “archive” at it is now, being sustained by multi-layered and circulating people.
For that reason, contributors in recorder311 are essential in every phase of archiving; from the act of recording ̶ the “seed” ̶ to the act of utilization for others and future generations ̶ the “fruit.”

As last year marked the 10th anniversary of the Mid Niigata Prefecture Earthquake in 2004, and January this year marked the 20th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, disaster archiving activities are still continuing at many places.
recorder311 aims at promoting “archiving as a cultural activity” ̶something that is everyday and open to everybody ̶ pursuing its directness and urgency with you, in diverse forms.

February 2015

 

 

activity report of the center for remembering 3.11
Published in February, 2015
 

Planning & Publisher the center for remembering 3.11 (sendai mediatheque)
Supported by Contributors, donors and supporters of the center for remembering 3.11
Collecting Photo Project conducted with the NPO 20th Century Archive Sendai
Translation Communa Translation Design, LLP
Design homesickdesign
Printing & Bookbinding ToyamaAoba Printing Inc.

 
 
 

Acknowledgement
Our deepest gratitude goes to contributors, donors and supporters of the center for
remembering 3.11.

 

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[18/05/2017]