Feminist Approaches to Youth Sexualities

29/09/2021, 13:04

What really counts? A worm hole – Reanimating data

REANIMATING DATA
experiments with people, places & archives

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 BY ESTER MCGEENEY

What really counts? A worm hole
Rachel Thomson

One of the ways that we have been thinking about our methods of reanimation is
through the metaphor of the ‘worm-hole’ (thanks to Caroline Bassett at our kick-off
event for this). The definition of a worm-hole is something that connects two points in
space-time – allowing travel between. We think that this is a great way of thinking
about the different experiments that we have been making in this project – using
documents from the Women, Risk and AIDS project as a medium through which to
connect now (2019) and then (1989). Wormholes can take many different forms. Autobiography is one way of doing it – maybe the easiest for me: connecting me-then and
me-now. But it is a bit exclusive. Opening up a worm-hole so that others can join in is
where the action is.

reanimatingdata.co.uk/uncategorized/wormholes/

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29/09/2021, 13:04

What really counts? A worm hole – Reanimating data

On October 21st 2019 we showcased one of our worm-hole experiments as part of the
Brighton Digital Festival. We shared our work with fragments of original audio
recordings in which young men and sociologists talk about sex (collected as part of the
Men Risk & AIDS Project). The aim of this experiment was to communicate something
of the 30 years of time encompassed by the project – a period characterised by a
revolution in technology alongside spectacular yet elusive changes in sexual culture
and values. The question of ‘what really counts’ focuses attention on number and
marking time – including a sensitivity to timing in making a relationship; how the
passage of time makes things look different; and the struggle over time that underpins
an attention economy.

I

n creating this worm-hole we have layered and combined different practical
strategies for connecting moments. It is a ‘spell’ that brings together
heterogeneous materials with focused intention. We have included biographical
time (by inviting original interviewers to re-speak and record questions with questions
first asked in interviews in 1990). We have included material time (by changing analog
into digital and digital into analog), methodological time (counterposing two
generations of feminist methodology) and aesthetic time (connecting a 90’s ‘cut and
paste’ aesthetic to a contemporary cut and paste political economy). Paradoxically, the
intensity of the mash-up creates space – between questions and answers, between
contexts and media and between generations. We hope to have forged a worm-hole
that is inviting, inclusive and collective.
At the showcase we invited people to view our installation and talk with collaborators
Rachel Thomson, Alex Peverett and Janet Holland. A recording of the installation can
be viewed here.
What really counts?

reanimatingdata.co.uk/uncategorized/wormholes/

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Title	Blog: What really counts? - a wormhole.
Description	In 2019-2020 the ESRC funded 'Reanimating data: experiments with people, places and archives'. Part of the project involved staging a series of reanimations using data from interviews with young women from Manchester, conducted thirty years previously as part of the Women, Risk and AIDS Project (WRAP 1988-1990). Each reanimation involved a collaboration between young women, educators and researchers and used creative methods to explore the WRAP data and bring it to life in new ways. This item is a blog post written by Professor Rachel Thomson discussing the sound installation 'What really counts?', a collaboration by the Reanimating Data Project and Alex Peverett (Sussex Humanities Lab). The installation works with the archived 'Men, Risk & AIDS Project' (MRAP) dataset, a collection of interviews with young men in 1990 about their sexual behaviours and attitudes. Extracts from these interviews are revoiced by original researcher Janet Holland and by Isaac Thomson, the son of original MRAP researcher Rachel Thomson.
Identifier	WRC02/C
Date	25/09/2019
Creator	Reanimating Data Project, Sussex Humanities Lab
Publisher	Reanimating Data Project
Subject	Research outputs Sound installation Social change Generation gap Methodology Time travel Blog Wormhole Time Travel Masculinity
Type	Text
Temporal Coverage	2019
Spatial Coverage	Brighton UK
Rights	CC BY-NC 4.0
extracted text	29/09/2021, 13:04 What really counts? A worm hole – Reanimating data REANIMATING DATA experiments with people, places & archives SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 BY ESTER MCGEENEY What really counts? A worm hole Rachel Thomson One of the ways that we have been thinking about our methods of reanimation is through the metaphor of the ‘worm-hole’ (thanks to Caroline Bassett at our kick-off event for this). The definition of a worm-hole is something that connects two points in space-time – allowing travel between. We think that this is a great way of thinking about the different experiments that we have been making in this project – using documents from the Women, Risk and AIDS project as a medium through which to connect now (2019) and then (1989). Wormholes can take many different forms. Autobiography is one way of doing it – maybe the easiest for me: connecting me-then and me-now. But it is a bit exclusive. Opening up a worm-hole so that others can join in is where the action is. reanimatingdata.co.uk/uncategorized/wormholes/ 1/3 29/09/2021, 13:04 What really counts? A worm hole – Reanimating data On October 21st 2019 we showcased one of our worm-hole experiments as part of the Brighton Digital Festival. We shared our work with fragments of original audio recordings in which young men and sociologists talk about sex (collected as part of the Men Risk & AIDS Project). The aim of this experiment was to communicate something of the 30 years of time encompassed by the project – a period characterised by a revolution in technology alongside spectacular yet elusive changes in sexual culture and values. The question of ‘what really counts’ focuses attention on number and marking time – including a sensitivity to timing in making a relationship; how the passage of time makes things look different; and the struggle over time that underpins an attention economy. I n creating this worm-hole we have layered and combined different practical strategies for connecting moments. It is a ‘spell’ that brings together heterogeneous materials with focused intention. We have included biographical time (by inviting original interviewers to re-speak and record questions with questions first asked in interviews in 1990). We have included material time (by changing analog into digital and digital into analog), methodological time (counterposing two generations of feminist methodology) and aesthetic time (connecting a 90’s ‘cut and paste’ aesthetic to a contemporary cut and paste political economy). Paradoxically, the intensity of the mash-up creates space – between questions and answers, between contexts and media and between generations. We hope to have forged a worm-hole that is inviting, inclusive and collective. At the showcase we invited people to view our installation and talk with collaborators Rachel Thomson, Alex Peverett and Janet Holland. A recording of the installation can be viewed here. What really counts? reanimatingdata.co.uk/uncategorized/wormholes/ 2/3

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