Share Your Lullaby with ELAR at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften

An event is scheduled during the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften where the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) and Landesmusikrat Berlin will host a recording session from 17:00 to 23:00. The event invites participation by sharing personal lullabies—whether sung, spoken, hummed, or played—that have accompanied an individual since childhood or were created for a loved one. Participants are encouraged to share the story behind their lullaby. Recordings will be archived and featured on a digital map of Berlin showcasing lullaby diversity. The event will take place at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 8, in the Akademieflügel. Time slots can be reserved via an external link.

The framing positions personal, intimate cultural artifacts—lullabies—as objects worthy of public archival and spatial representation within a major cultural event. This shifts the focus from private memory to public contribution, utilizing the spectacle of the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften as a context for emotional sharing. The mechanism involves transforming ephemeral personal expression into tangible, locatable data points on a digital map, suggesting that individual heritage possesses quantifiable, collective significance. The invitation implicitly relies on the viewer's willingness to contribute to an archive that maps "lullaby diversity," which raises questions about how intangible cultural heritage is quantified and presented in public digital spaces. It asks whether the act of sharing such deeply personal material serves a genuine archival goal or functions as an exercise in curated emotional performance for a specific audience interested in Berlin's cultural landscape. What is the nature of the archive itself, and who controls the narrative when private sentimental history is mapped onto civic geography?