Philosophy & Approach

We approach archival and curation as community-centered practice aligned with alwaysbecooking values: embodiment over abstraction, local over scaled, creation over consumption. Our methodology is "fun but useful". Making archival work feel like community building and creative expression rather than academic drudgery.

Drawing inspiration from Aaron Swartz's open knowledge principles, we see information as power that should be shared, not hoarded. We extend this to democratic accountability, viewing transparency as a civic duty. Cultural preservation happens as living practice, not museum pieces, archives that serve present communities while preserving knowledge for future ones.

We also want to promote participatory documentation, where community members as cultural storytellers and archivists rather than subjects of study.