Archiving Pre-Internet Skateboarding History | Taking the truths about the throwaway + disposable nature of online culture + turned them on their head
As the Internet takes over all forms of media and print steadily disintegrates, Neil Macdonald of @scienceversuslife is here with the urge to archive pre-Internet skateboarding history. Sidewalk Mag interviewed the skateboard mag archivist…
Sample:
At one point in time, skateboard magazines acted as the benign dictators of global skateboard culture with decisions as to who made it into print conducted exclusively by small groups of enthusiasts crowded around light boxes peering at photos through loupes.
Since the advent of high speed Internet however, and its associated platforms on Social Media, the importance and power of the culturally-embedded curator has waned, and the chaotic democracy enabled by the likes of Instagram has taken over, allowing everyone and anyone to self-publish without the need for intermediaries.
Whether this development is ultimately positive or negative for culture as a whole, (not just for skateboarding) is a matter far too vast to be touched on here so instead, here’s an attempt to show the inner workings of somebody so in love with their own subculture that they decided to embark on an archiving project purely for the love of it.
Click to SIDEWALK MAG for the interview with skateboard mag archivist Neil Macdonald of @scienceversuslife
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