Dump Site

[Launching May 2024] Dump Site is a collection of files from the trash folder & recently deleted. It is a virtual landfill and digital recycling program: a multimedia compilation of files in the state between deletion and complete erasure. The things we throw away are candid shadows of the things we keep close: drafts, secrets, outtakes, likes and dislikes, significant memories, important people, inspirations. Dump Site is a public diary, a screenshot confessional. Exploring memory through the lens of discard, these second-hand files piece together a common past.

“In the search for a narrative, we inevitably create waste” On our devices, unlike in the physical world, we have an itemized record of what we deem forgettable (in the trash folder). Byt by byt, the ephemeral becomes material, the forgettable indexible. This site articulates a joint narrative out of individual discards.

Mission

Celebrate Mess

Although “digital trash heap” implies disorder, Dump Site is also a repository built with an intentional structure. Informed by the nature of its contents, this archive is designed to protect the inherent messiness of trash. This intent is expressed through the maximalist “conveyor belt” design of the homepage, community tagging features for each trash item, and the anonymous nature of trash upload. These features protect the candor of mess and embody a truth that only exists in disorder.

Create Hyperfictions from Trash

Dump Site follows a long term shift in the role of the archive: from state collections of bureaucratic documents, to community-run infrastructures for a shared past. The role of the archivist has transformed from “a selfless devotee of Truth” (Jenkinson) to “community facilitator” (Cook). This paradigm shift hinges on a critical change in focus from collecting evidence for the sake of proof to shaping memory for the sake of meaning and identity. Through community tagging, we welcome all who wade through the trash tag items with associations, definitions, fictions, stories. With tagging, we spin poetics out of waste.

Inspire Digital Nostalgia

Dump Site attempts to broaden archivability to its logical end, to the point of literally collecting trash. It is inspired by several other community archives and collections that have expanded definitions of what is worth archiving (e.g. LA Contemporary Archive, Internet Archive’s Gif Cities, Rebane2001’s record of youtube videos and their metadata.) We hope that people sifting through the site treat these seemingly useless pieces of new media as archaeological finds, and feel inspired to reconsider which of their own media is worth saving.