Last time out, this blog recorded the general consternation being felt not just in the USA, from where the story originated, but around the world generally and indeed everywhere where dedicated archivists and librarians pursue the careful work of recording the what, the how, and the where of how as a culture we make sense of our past and our present. If the why was ever in question, it would not have occurred within the American National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), where its leadership was singularly dedicated to its work in curating that nation’s story.

Or at least it was until, in one of its first acts, the incoming Trump Administration fired them. 

More recent news has seen the culture wars broaden their fields of fire, with tax breaks or funding being threatened or removed in the wider world of the “Arts”, on universities that are perceived to be “woke” and, most recently, in the world of galleries, concert halls, and museums. An excellent piece in the FT by writer and curator Helen Molesworth poses the question in detailing “Trump’s next war” (possible paywall): for how long can individual museums, concert halls, and the rest of them cower beneath the parapet and hope to escape the flames of this culture war? Is not the common front of the GLAM sector and the community of universities – where the USA and the UK lead the world – indivisible and immeasurably stronger when acting together?

Of course, the same can be said for the worlds of unions, law firms, media organisations, and financial services, but that can await another blogpost. The fact remains that the world is already seeing how a communal fightback can diminish perceptions of the bully’s swagger, giving cause for hope that people will awaken to the implications of cutting taxes for rich people and corporations, while cutting jobs and benefits for the poor.

So why do Museums and their cultural compatriots stand out at this stage of the battle between truth and enlightenment on the one hand, and chaos and disorder on the other? Could it be that the job they do is about more than just store-housing the artefacts of the past, and keeping the lights on in all those old buildings? One might see some hope to be had in the increasing number of stories arising from the digital twinning of artefacts and iconic locations, such as occurred following the catastrophic fire in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. But is there more: more than simply the employment of digital technologies in replicating for today’s world what was, back in the day?

Perhaps there is a deeper level of understanding to be derived from both the cathedral and from the artefacts it contains, whether in the case of the literal pile of bricks and ornamental glass and works of art, or in their digital representations. When we understand what these “things” come to mean when invested with holy moments, the hopes and dreams of centuries, the associations of time’s growing throngs for what renders the thing as a treasured memory: can all of that be rendered, or at least hinted at, digitally? What might provide a more evocative answer to the question as to what those walls might say if they could talk: the Digital Twin, or the Memory Twin?

Cradle of English is dedicated to defining the Memory Twin and understanding its value to our evolving cultures.