SPECIALLY CRAFTED STONE CHAIRS, each fitted with a computerised time capsule that will not be opened until 2050, have been unveiled at 27 locations along the Monaghan and Fermanagh border in Ireland. Time capsules are old-hat to archivists and dreamers. Electronic time capsules, complete with audio and video clips, truly become a mosaic of social media. In a article in the Sunday Tribune 1, the Clones-Erne East Partnership involves placement of several computer memory sticks "with material on each of the 27 towns, villages and beauty spots, including essays by local schoolchildren about life in 2007, photographs and articles about community life." The idea involves being able to sit on a chair and look out onto an area that Bith, the son of Noah, and his daughter viewed along with 50 handmaidens before the biblical floods. I wish you could listen to the collection while seated on the stone chairs. That would be easy to do, if the collections were looping on a bluetooth jukebox linked to a solar power collector.
According to the project manager, Ann-Marie Fryers, "Our local schoolchildren have contributed essays and these will be stored in their own handwriting, along with pictures of the children." These cultural artefacts will offer a welcome snapshot into the post-troubles times of the border area of Ireland.
1 Conor McMorrow -- "Twenty-seven time capsule chairs loaded with memories" in The Sunday Tribune, July 1, 2007.
