16/12/25 Default_0001

In the Default_000_ series, Joe Marner researched the intersection of digital archives on YouTube, personal memory and identity, and experimental listening practices.

Before platforms like TikTok and Instagram, Apple's “Upload to YouTube” feature (2009 – 2012) enabled the sharing of personal videos, often titled generically like IMG_0001.MOV and IMG_0284.mp4, etc. These videos, along with other home cameras, simply uploaded with a click of a button, act as archives of everyday life, capturing ephemeral moments through sound and imagery.

By solely focusing on the auditory elements of the videos, new layers of meaning emerge. What do the background noises in these videos uploaded to YouTube many years ago tell us about the environments they were recorded in? What stories can these sounds tell when revisited and reused? How can we reinterpret sound to uncover new meanings? Drawing from sound studies theorists like R. Murray Schaefer, Michael Bull, Pauline Oliveros, and more, this research puts YouTube as an evolving sonic archive, where private moments become collective memories.

Through experimental listening techniques, this study seeks to transform forgotten sounds on YouTube, henceforth known as the YouTube Graveyard, into living soundscapes, demonstrating that even the most ordinary recordings hold the potential to tell profound stories about modern life and memory.

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