Dear Diary: A Celebration of Diaries and their Digital Descendants
Delightful exhibition at King’s College in Somerset House looking at the history and future of diaries. The show was based on the Great Diary Project started in 2007 which seeks to create an archive of diaries. It began by looking at the history including why dairies look the way they do and plotted famous diaries and technological changes on a timeline. The first use of the work diary in English was in 1581. This section also discussed modern diaries such as Facebook and apps. The show then looked at the various reasons people keep diaries and how the reasons haven’t changed even if the methods have. One section looked at diaries as a way to log our lives. I loved a quote here that “users of fitness apps are the moral descendants of those Puritans who turned to diaries to review their faults and aspire to virtues”. Guilty as charged! There was an interesting video about online health diaries made even more interesting as it was set where I live. Another room lo...