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Creative Archives

Flickr can do things in ways traditional archives can’t: discuss.

Please note: This program ceased in December 2025.

About the program

The whole Flickr corpus is simply massive—tens of billions of digital objects, and growing every day. It’s one of the biggest image collections humans have ever created. Its huge scale makes it difficult to look after, let alone preserve.

Creative Archives investigates accessible tactics around ethics of care, decentralization, social or local archives, explorable formats, and machine-based support. 

We’re interested in archiving the foundation itself too, from the start.

Current Project: Digital Day Book

Our work these days is so diffuse. Lots of different digital services. The Digital Day Book is a project to record our work at the Foundation so it can be explored long after we have left. Read more

The Sustainability of Slowness

Listen to George Oates and Foundation research partner, Temi Odumosu, in conversation with Amanda Meeks at permanent.org, on the ways in which we can all preserve our memories within a changing digital landscape.Listen now
Letters spelling out TO SEE WORLD resting on a wall outside in front of a brick wall

Anil Dash - using community to build power

"The common theme was that belief that the web was about giving people power and a voice to hold the powerful accountable. It really did happen! We didn’t imagine it! And it got fully subverted."

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New Report: Death Is Not an Edge Case

On recommendations for improved digital legacy features for Flickr members.

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‘Threading Ephemeral’: Oreoluwa’s closing reflections on the Fellowship

As Oreoluwa's Fellowship project draws to a close, they share their concluding artistic output and critical reflections on image-making

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