def. discovering information about oneself via “material culture”.

As I get older I remember less about myself. Where was I in a given year? Where was I living, who was I hanging out with? What were my interests? What am I not remembering?

Lately I've been doing a sort of archaeological dig on myself, investigating my own records, belongings, and digital traces in order to remember.

Where did I live?

Materials:

• Bills - these often have addresses
• Receipts - if digital (online shopping), almost always have addresses. Email in particular is a good source.
• Photographs - if you took them or are in them, they localize you to a place - metadata or memory can supply the date
• Google Timeline, Strava, anything that you use or used to use that logged your location

Who was I with?

Materials:

• Instant message logs
• Email
• Photographs

All of these show you who you were talking to or who you were with.

Where did I go?

Materials:

• Flight receipts - check google flights, credit card portals, airline websites, travel portals (expedia, hopper etc)
• Transaction history - credit card transaction logs always list merchant names; transactions can localize you to a place on a date
• Photographs - often contain geolocation metadata
• Google Timeline or other location services - scrub the timeline, see where you went