Introduction
"Media and the Archive: Motions and Transformations" is a Summer 2016 undergraduate tutorial taught by Viola Lasmana, PhD candidate and Digital Humanities Fellow at University of Southern California, as part of the USC-Mellon Digital Humanities Program.
For the list of participants, please see our Authors page.
In Archive Fever, Jacques Derrida writes, "But where does the outside commence? This question is the question of the archive. There are undoubtedly no others." Where the outside begins is a question that persists and must continue to be asked, particularly whenever one accesses, uses, and works with an archive. What is at stake is the issue of agency: who and what is the archive for? What gets left out? What is the relationship between the archive and the public, as well as between institutional and community knowledges?
The 21st century has seen a burgeoning of various kinds of archives—personal, community, institutional, and hybrid—facilitated by the affordances of digital technologies. This course examines the theoretical and practical facets of the archive, with a focus on how digital media impacts our relationship to the past, present, and future. We will begin with some definitions and foundational concepts, and think about how understandings of the archive have evolved. More than a closed system, the archive has lodged within it both instability and the potential for disruption; the archive, therefore, is always in flux, and should be understood as a process, or what Michel Foucault describes in The Archaeology of Knowledge as "the general system of the formation and transformation of statements."
We will emphasize the social and cultural aspects of archival productions, as well as the digital representation of diverse voices whose stories exist on the margins of archival formations. Sessions will include explorations of a variety of multimedia archives, and each analysis of a specific archive will be accompanied by theoretical readings. At the end of the course, we will take a tour of the ONE Archives, the oldest existing LGBTQ organization in the United States, and the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world.
As a dynamic, media-rich, and collaborative space in which students can generate and curate content related to the course themes and materials, this book is where we discuss and come up with thoughts and provocations together (sometimes ending up with more questions than answers!). Each page contains the texts and key ideas for a specific unit, and also serves as a platform for students' reflections and extensions of the themes discussed in the unit.
Our book is meant to be a critical and creative exploration of what the archive means, as well as a collaborative workspace.
We invite you to read along, and we welcome comments, feedback, and collaborations on topics related to the question of the archive.
For the list of participants, please see our Authors page.
Course Description
The archive comes from the Greek word arkheion, a repository for official documents, and a place where the archons, the rulers, reside. In other words, archives are places of power and authority where specifically selected materials are kept; they are places enclosed by walls and security, ensuring that only those with permission can enter.In Archive Fever, Jacques Derrida writes, "But where does the outside commence? This question is the question of the archive. There are undoubtedly no others." Where the outside begins is a question that persists and must continue to be asked, particularly whenever one accesses, uses, and works with an archive. What is at stake is the issue of agency: who and what is the archive for? What gets left out? What is the relationship between the archive and the public, as well as between institutional and community knowledges?
The 21st century has seen a burgeoning of various kinds of archives—personal, community, institutional, and hybrid—facilitated by the affordances of digital technologies. This course examines the theoretical and practical facets of the archive, with a focus on how digital media impacts our relationship to the past, present, and future. We will begin with some definitions and foundational concepts, and think about how understandings of the archive have evolved. More than a closed system, the archive has lodged within it both instability and the potential for disruption; the archive, therefore, is always in flux, and should be understood as a process, or what Michel Foucault describes in The Archaeology of Knowledge as "the general system of the formation and transformation of statements."
We will emphasize the social and cultural aspects of archival productions, as well as the digital representation of diverse voices whose stories exist on the margins of archival formations. Sessions will include explorations of a variety of multimedia archives, and each analysis of a specific archive will be accompanied by theoretical readings. At the end of the course, we will take a tour of the ONE Archives, the oldest existing LGBTQ organization in the United States, and the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world.
About This Book
This Scalar book is written collaboratively by the instructor and participants of the course, and is meant to be a mini archive of the class.As a dynamic, media-rich, and collaborative space in which students can generate and curate content related to the course themes and materials, this book is where we discuss and come up with thoughts and provocations together (sometimes ending up with more questions than answers!). Each page contains the texts and key ideas for a specific unit, and also serves as a platform for students' reflections and extensions of the themes discussed in the unit.
Our book is meant to be a critical and creative exploration of what the archive means, as well as a collaborative workspace.
We invite you to read along, and we welcome comments, feedback, and collaborations on topics related to the question of the archive.
