Theories of the Archive
Embark on a journey with us as we discover the archives.
Through the course of this tutorial we will work together to investigate and collaborate to create an archive of archives. What does the archive mean to you?Readings
Introduction to various theories of the archive via close readings of Diana Taylor and Jacques Derrida, and an overview of other major theorists and scholars:- Diana Taylor, "Save As... Knowledge and Transmission in the Age of Digital Technologies"
- Jacques Derrida, excerpt from Archive Fever (in-class handout)
- Overview of theories of the archive (in-class):
- Ann L. Stoler (imperial underpinnings of archives)
- Ann Cvetkovich (affective understandings of archives)
- Michel Foucault (power and knowledge in the archive)
- Wolfgang Ernst (digital technology, memory, and the archive)
Brainstorming "the archive"
In our first session, we began by brainstorming and thinking about the definition(s) of the archive. Together, we came up with thoughts and questions that came to mind regarding our first encounters and ideas surrounding "the archive."Themes
- Access
- The level of access that an archive has is determined by those who create, guard and maintain the archive.
- Preservation
- How are the ideas of archive and preservation connected? What steps need to be taken so that the archived is preserved for centuries to come?
- Location
- The location of the archive is also important. Does it have a physical location? If so, what does it look like? How does the physical location contribute to the archive?
- Memory
- How is memory archived? What role does the archive play in our interactions with the past, and with history itself?
- Technology
- In Archive Fever, Derrida writes, "what is no longer archived in the same way is no longer lived in the same way." How do different forms of technologies change archival meanings, productions, and circulations, as well how we access and use the archive?
- Embodiment
- What happens when live performances or recordings are archived? Are they, as Diana Taylor suggests, beyond the archivable?
- Presence/Absence
- What is the significance behind what we choose to include in the archive and what we choose to eliminate or not include? There is undoubtedly a great weight placed on what the presence of materials in the archive but what weight does the absence of materials hold? In the creation of the archive, we must be sensitive to the impact of what becomes archived and what does not, and how both of these affect the shape of the archive.
The concept of the archive shelters in itself, of course, this memory of the name arkhe. But it also shelters itself from this memory which it shelters: which comes down to saying also that it forgets it. - Jacques Derrida
Key Questions
- What is an archive?
- Why do we live in what Taylor calls "the so-called 'era of the archive'"?
- Who are archives for?
- What are some examples of different kinds of archives?
- What are the limits to an archive, whether physical, or figurative?
- What are the differences and similarities between institutional/historical/personal/community archives?
- What responsibility is in the hands of those creating the archive? How can the archives serve the future?
