Repository for Oral History of Anogeia - Stories of everyday life in big data times .
Memories and experiences of people, as they become testimony, narration, and history, always hold their unique significance in shaping the imprint a place leaves for its era.
The active memory of a community arises from the recollections of its people, collectively creating its legacy across space, time, and generations.
It's a fact that from generation to generation, and through oral transmission, a caravan carrying the customs, traditions, and values of our places has journeyed through the ages.
In the times we live in, marked by rapid advancements and an increasing concentration on digital data, human memory weakens and increasingly relies on computer memory. A computer that is increasingly integrated into the functional needs of our brains, dominating our daily lives entirely.
But how much greater would the impact of a story be if it were brought back to life by the very person who lived it or first narrated it?
What value does the representation of a story hold when it is transferred to the digital realm, accessible anywhere and brought back in digital time anytime?
A story, a memory, an experience, which can be recorded through modern technology, can contribute to the writing of local history with its protagonists who bring forth elements from the past that oral tradition often interrupts or forgets to convey.
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the support of the Municipality of Anogeia, the Cultural Management entity Androidus Project Tank initiates the effort to create the first digital repository of oral history for the folk culture of Anogeia.
Our initiative is part of the actions of the Ministry of Culture and Sports for 2021, focusing on the study, preservation, and promotion of intangible cultural heritage. It was partly funded through a public call to registered cultural entities in the country.
Our goal is to implement a digital database of records serving as a collection and access point for stories, narrations, and experiences that shaped the folk culture and cultural identity of our region. With this folk tradition, the folkloric work of Georgios Spokos and the unique recordings in audiovisual and written content by Anogeians and friends of Anogeia over the years have left a valuable legacy.
All this wealth of elements and data that constitute our folk culture, leveraging the foundation laid by local folklore, is now ready to move to the next stage of local oral history.
The Anogeia repository will essentially be a local content aggregator with interviews and audiovisual material, sound recordings (podcasts), photographic archives, and written documents, gradually enriched by the people of the region themselves.
The importance of the repository lies in giving space to both the recordings collected and in activating the local population to record stories of everyday life from our folk tradition and cultural heritage.
For this reason, Androidus Project Tank extends an open invitation to anyone willing to contribute to the creation and collection of content for the Oral History Repository of Anogeia, whether by sharing audiovisual material or by participating in interviews on various topics related to our folk culture (customs, traditions, celebrations, gastronomy, music, weddings, and farewells) and the people of our region.
You can contact us:
Digitally through Social media FB: Androidus Project Tank and email: info@androidus.gr
In the Municipality of Anogeia, Pyrinas 8, Settlement area, Metochi, Municipality of Anogeia.
In a transitional era where data is highly valued, the oral history repository of Anogeia comes as an active node to recognize our region, putting people and the expression of the area at the center.
Thus, through the writing and oral discourse of the few who managed to write, leaving us such a rich legacy, the moment has come to move to the voices, memories, and narratives of the many and diverse individuals that rebuilt, nurtured, and led our region forward.
*Oral History is a documented scientific practice and a research methodology that deals with recording people's words, focusing on analyzing their memories of the past. This is because it puts the individual at the center and how they narrate, remember, and perform history, emphasizing not only what is said but how it is said, why it is said, and what it means.
