The Bureau of Public Recollection

Pullman, Washington (2006-2008)

✳ Institution ad Perpetuam Memoriam

“The Bureau of Public Recollection is a forum for the systematic classification of cerebral surplus. In an effort to illustrate the fleeting and transitory nature of the individual, we assimilate anonymous anamnesis into a public sphere. By dissecting and deciphering memories as text and object, great progress can be made in determining a collective subconscious among the people of a particular region. Archivists, scientists, and scholars all over the world work together to amass evidence towards the substantiation of the human condition. To put it simply, the Bureau of Public Recollection is driven by the ambitious goal of collecting and cataloguing every single and specific memory in the recent history of human experience.” Modus Operandi, Bureau of Public Recollection

The Bureau of Public Recollection is a mnemonic research-based institution. While it is related to the idea of collective memory, the Bureau seeks to embody this 'pataphor (two-steps further) in establishing a collective consciousness. The Bureau is confident that a well-established collective consciousness would produce a higher level of compassionate intellect within the global population. Theoretically, this rapid evolution of thought and heightened sensitivity would bring about cultural change that would manifest itself in a global Utopia.

Full theoretical texts pertaining to the Bureau of Public Recollection can be explored in the thesis compiled by Executive Archivist Mary Rothlisberger while in research/residence at Washington State University. Available for download here.