My Data, Myself - An Archival Workshop

Images by John Hill

Paris, France – February 2026

In February 2026, I hosted a hands-on workshop that brought together participants to materialize their Instagram archives through craft. Over three hours, we explored what happens when digital memories become physical objects, and who controls our personal histories when they live primarily in corporate databases.

Participants arrived with phones logged into Instagram and shared with one another posts from Instagram’s “archive” — images hidden from public view but retained in the database of the platform. Participants then printed the images and worked with annotated collages, embroidery, and zines to create physical objects from their digital traces. The workshop positioned craft as a deliberate, labor-intensive act of reclaiming memories from platforms that make them increasingly difficult to access or export.

emotional_metadata

A central concept emerged throughout our conversations: what I have deemed “emotional metadata.” While Instagram captures technical metadata—timestamps, locations, engagement metrics—it can't archive the felt experience behind each post. Why did you share it? Who were you at the time? Why did you archive it? Through the slow work of making, participants excavated these layers that exist only in their own memories, writing them directly onto printed images or sharing them in group discussion.

Beyond individual archives to take home, we created a collective database of shared memories. Participants consented to contribute their work to an evolving archive that documents how we're all navigating platform memory together. This collective piece extends my ongoing Archival Quilt project, building a counter-archive that is collaborative, material, and outside corporate control.

This workshop is part of my MFA thesis research, My Data, My Self: Memory and Materialization in the Age of Social Media, which examines artistic interventions into platform-controlled memory and explores craft practices as acts of data sovereignty.