Having studied sociology many years ago I have an enduring interest in society and history, and as one of millions of scrapbookers I consider the activity of scrapbooking to be nothing less than social documentation.
There are many themes and styles employed in the creation of scrapbooks and the keeping of journals, and sometimes there is apparently no theme at all, merely an interest in color balance, or found objects or an abstraction of some sort.
The creators of themed page layouts and books may concern themselves with the family archive: it’s history, specific members, events such as birthdays, weddings, births and deaths, pets and the recording of achievements in academia and sports. Work and related pursuits either in training or recreation, and hobbies from all areas of inquiry can be and are included in scrapbooks and journals – from ‘at home’ events like gardening including seasonal and planting observations, cooking with tips and recipes, needle arts and DIY home improvements… to notebooks recording findings and lessons learned on week-end retreats, educational trips and holidays.
In short, every aspect of our lives, loves and losses may be witnessed and preserved for a future generation to gain an insight into our individual worlds, all areas of our personal experience take expression in keeping notes,
taking photographs, collecting memorabilia and collating them into a cohesive whole.
But what does our work say about us? What will future generations see and read into our lives and the society we live in today? They will see a great need in us to be creative, there is something about the process of making something that absorbs us in a powerful energy, loses us in time and frees our minds, enriching our lives, giving us the opportunity to discover our own true original creativity. Conversely, I’m sure they will see a very commercial aspect, where caring people create books concerning their passions but will also witness a great similarity between the pages wrought by the multitudes of us who call ourselves ‘scrapbookers’. They may well be quite amazed at the huge industry behind the scenes of this domestic explosion, providing us with vast batches of printed matter to buy and use to make pages that are similar and formulaic.
So what will the sociologists and our future generations learn from us and our endeavors? Among other things they will learn about how we spend our leisure time, working singly, in family groups or ‘crop’ gatherings. Our individual works will reveal our interests and passions and fashions and our collective works will expose a wider picture for the sociologist to unravel. They will indicate our place in history, we do not stand outside of time of course, and so our works will be evaluted in world terms, i.e. – what events are (or were) considered politically relevant, economically attainable, environmentally important, socially acceptable and spiritually searching.
So – what do you want to say and what do your scrapbooking activities say about you?
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