The atomic knowledge base of the Historiotheque: one concept per card, tens of thousands of them, on anything.
A Refcard is a single atomic unit of knowledge — a concept, definition, distinction, quote, question, or method — captured on one physical index card and mirrored here as one Markdown file. Refcards are universal: a card can be about anything, but it must be atomic.
One card = one concept. If a card needs the word "and" in its title, it is two cards.
Cards link; they don't contain. If a card wants to become an essay, the essay belongs
in a project's theory/ directory, and the card becomes its pointer.
RC-YYYY-NNNN — e.g. RC-2026-0001. Sequential within the year; the year prefix
keeps every ID globally unique. IDs never change; titles may.
Cards live in cards/RC-YYYY/RC-YYYY-NNNN.md — one directory per year. If a year ever
exceeds ~2,000 cards, split into RC-YYYY-A/, RC-YYYY-B/ thousand-blocks. Never put
tens of thousands of files in one directory.
Each file records physical_location in its frontmatter (box and divider), so the
digital card always knows where its physical index card lives.
concept | definition | quote | question | method | reference | distinction
seed | developing | stable | superseded
A note on what this is. This repository belongs to an ongoing research-creation project at the intersections of art, history, and philosophy — the open working record of one artist-researcher's practice. It documents a method, not a manual: nothing here is instruction, counsel, or advice on running an art operation, a studio, or a creative life, and nothing here is presented as a model to follow. What holds in this laboratory may not hold in yours.
All works are offered in good faith as contributions to public discourse and aesthetic reflection. Take what is useful and leave the rest — the responsibility for interpretation, and for whatever is done with it, remains with each participant in that dialogue.
All Rights Reserved.