FIELD MANUAL
A continually expanding archive of first-person testimony recorded for people living one thousand years in the future.
OBJECTIVE
Journey 1 preserves first-person testimony for audiences one thousand years in the future. Participants describe where they live, what they do, how they spend their time, and the technologies present in their daily lives.
The archive is not curated as a representative portrait of humanity. Participation remains open, and each record is maintained without ranking by geography, profession, social position, or historical importance.
JOURNEY 1
Journey 1 is the first field program of AutoIcon Laboratories. Its initial deployment took place at KVANTUM Festival in Podhradie, Slovakia, from 19 to 21 June 2026. Thirty-four participants entered the field recording station and recorded individual transmissions.
ARCHIVE VESSEL
The Journey 1 preservation system combines a four-sided pyramid cover, a flat archival base, and an internal tooth-form vessel. Together these components create a material counterpart to the public digital archive.
VESSEL BASE
The internal archive vessel is seated on the flat base before the pyramid cover is placed over the assembly. The base stabilizes the vessel and establishes the physical foundation of the preservation system.
PRESERVATION SYSTEM
A human tooth forms the innermost archival carrier. The project proposes encoding the digital archive into synthetic DNA housed within the tooth, which is placed inside the internal vessel and protected by the complete assembly.
INTERNAL ARCHIVE VESSEL
The tooth-form vessel holds the biological archive and is sealed by a separate cap. Its form links the physical carrier to the human body while distinguishing the archive as a purpose-built preservation object.
COLLECTION PROTOCOL
During recording, each participant temporarily assumes the status of an Auto-Icon: a deliberate act of self-representation produced for an audience outside the participant’s lifetime.
The participant enters an AutoIcon Laboratories field recording station.
The participant records a two- to three-minute transmission describing aspects of contemporary life.
The recording receives a permanent Record Identifier containing its Journey, year, and sequence number.
The record enters the public archive as an independent testimony.
NONHIERARCHICAL ACCESS
Records are presented through a randomized retrieval sequence. Each visit generates a new order, and every available testimony is played once before the sequence is reshuffled. No record is prioritized over another.
ARCHIVE LINEAGE
The term Auto-Icon originates with philosopher Jeremy Bentham, whose preserved body was intended to continue representing him after death. Donald Rodney later transferred the proposition into a digital and networked form. AutoIcon Laboratories extends this lineage through testimony recorded while the contributor is alive.
FIELD DEPLOYMENTS
The archive expands through temporary recording stations established in new locations. Only completed deployments containing accessioned records are represented.
Journey 1 and AutoIcon Laboratories created by
ELIZABETH WITHSTANDLEY
WITHSTANDLEY.COM
INFO@WITHSTANDLEY.COM
Institutional inquiries, exhibitions, and future field deployments
© 2026 Elizabeth Withstandley
DOCUMENT AL-J1 / FIELD MANUAL / REV 68 / INITIAL DEPLOYMENT 19–21 JUNE 2026