Twitter Archive of Ianina Ilitcheva

The “Twitter Archive of Ianina Ilitcheva” project is dedicated to digitally preserving and making publicly accessible the tweets of Austrian author Ianina Ilitcheva, who passed away in 2016. Her literary short-form texts, originally published on the accounts @blutundkaffee and @weissekraehe, are at risk of permanent loss due to the uncertain status of inactive accounts on the platform X (formerly Twitter). The project is a contribution to safeguarding born-digital literature and makes an important contribution to the preservation of research data and source materials in line with the Digital Humanities Austria Strategy 2021+ .

Project Information

Within the scope of the project, tweets from both accounts were extracted, processed, and enriched with metadata in order to display interactions and a simulated timeline. This work is based on data retrieved from the platform as well as materials provided by the literary estate administrator.

The technical implementation includes the development of a dedicated website as well as the provision of tools and scripts that enable the extraction of tweets under the current technical conditions of platform X.

For the presentation of the archive , the domain ii.at is being used – a reference to Ilitcheva’s initials and her former blog.

In the long term, the aim is to ensure institutional preservation of the archive. In addition to the archive website, technical documentation is being developed to support research, editorial work, and engagement with digital literature.