Internet researchers are confronted with an instable object of study, the ephemerality of the object. The question is how to make the medium permanent so we can study it with care? The shape of the archive informs what I can ask the
Internet researchers are confronted with an instable object of study, the ephemerality of the object. The question is how to make the medium permanent so we can study it with care? The shape of the archive informs what I can ask the archive.
This perspective on archives is placed within Weltevrede’s research into National Webs. To think nationally with the web might seem counterintuitively at first because dominant ideas of the web are so global. This originates from the 90s idea of Cyberspace which is a universal space with ideas of disembodiment and identity play. Crucially, cyberspace is a place that is disembedded from reality. After 2000 cyberspace was confronted with what Weltevrede calls “the national turn.”
This may be seen in a number of places, probably most familiar is Google.com redirects you to the location you are at, for example Google.nl and you get a totally different result page. Another example is “This video is not available in your country” intellectual 