personal archive

"The starting-point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is, and is "knowing thyself" as a product of historical processes to date, which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory... Therefore it is imperative at the outset to compile such an inventory."

• Antonio Gramsci

The above quote of Antonio Grasci is taken from Julietta Singh's book "No Archive will restore you" in which she conceives of the body as an idiosyncratic, fleshly archive, which carries the marks of previous experiences and psychic imprints upon it.

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The etymological origins of the word "archive"

GREEK - ARKHE (Government) / ARKHEIA (Public Record)
LATIN - ARCHIVA/ARCHIA
FRENCH - ARCHIVES

(place where the records are kept)

in Greek "arche" also means "rule" and "order" and "commandment"

The etymological origins of the word "fragment"

LATIN - frangere (to break)
FRENCH/LATIN - fragmentum (broken parts/"Bruchstücke")

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To make an inventory of oneself is also to gain "self-composure", the ability to rule over the different (at times contradictory, irreconcileable) parts of the psyche.