Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TRANS.ARCH (Archives in Transition: Collective Memories and Subaltern Uses)
Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2023-08-31
Archives have a considerable influence on the formation of collective memory. As memory repositories, they can contribute to the transmission of information between generations. TRANS.ARCH has created a network of researchers, both young and experienced, who have been studying current uses and functions of archives in the context of globalization and digitalization. In relation to this, we have been examining the technical, cultural, aesthetic and medial aspects of the digitalization of knowledge, since the transition from analogue archives to digital archives is changing the relationship between the public and the private. In the current phase of globalization, in which times and geographical spaces are fragmented and interconnected again, the archival ratio is modified.
In the field of memory studies, there is a broad consensus that interrogating and amplifying national and transnational politics of memory can strengthen democratic structures. Discussions around the politics of memory reveal the centrality of archives, especially when it comes to the experiences and the knowledge of subaltern groups, historically excluded from public debates. TRANS.ARCH focuses on a relatively unexplored dimension of this field, namely the different political, judicial, cultural, and artistic uses of the archives deployed by migrant groups and sexual dissidents in Europe and Latin America.
In sum, TRANS.ARCH sustains a network of young and experienced researchers who have been examining the current functions and uses of archives in the context of globalization. While the transatlantic structure of the consortium of institutions involved in the project encourages a comparative analysis of the European and Latin American contexts, the innovative focus on the uses of archives by migrants and sexual dissidents has demanded that researchers create a new transdisciplinary approach, with a strong gender perspective.
In the field of memory studies, there is a broad consensus that interrogating and amplifying national and transnational politics of memory can strengthen democratic structures. Discussions around the politics of memory reveal the centrality of archives, especially when it comes to the experiences and the knowledge of subaltern groups, historically excluded from public debates. TRANS.ARCH focuses on a relatively unexplored dimension of this field, namely the different political, judicial, cultural, and artistic uses of the archives deployed by migrant groups and sexual dissidents in Europe and Latin America.
In sum, TRANS.ARCH sustains a network of young and experienced researchers who have been examining the current functions and uses of archives in the context of globalization. While the transatlantic structure of the consortium of institutions involved in the project encourages a comparative analysis of the European and Latin American contexts, the innovative focus on the uses of archives by migrants and sexual dissidents has demanded that researchers create a new transdisciplinary approach, with a strong gender perspective.
We have covered the different roles and functions of the institutional and artistic archives in the process of social memory’s elaboration of different regions, countries and historical context. We have verified and analysed how different archival initiatives as well as artistic works choose to construct the memory through other approaches to archives. This includes the affective, aesthetic, functional and ethical ones. These ethics tend to demand a certain collaborative engagement. We have also analysed the importance of the digital modalities of these proposals and, simultaneously, the new valuation of the analogue modalities. In this case, not in terms of access, but in terms of materiality and aesthetics.
We have made progress in the analysis of the artistic, cultural and political production of different minorized collectives. Furthermore, we have launched the creation of new archives: AREIA and AWOC. A general synthesis should be appreciated: the importance of renew the efforts towards the construction of the archives and their digitization. In this sense, we believe that archives that address the migration issues and diverse linguistic corpora in terms of methodology demand the work of a multinational research team. The analysis of these archives also requires elaboration of metadata in various languages covering not only the transcripts, but also the translations in order to share the documents with a wider academic audience and with general public.
The work carried out in these thematic areas can be characterized by a double perspective. On the one hand, there is the development of archival practices (editing and curating the archives and texts; philological sorting and curating of these documents, their digitization and dissemination), on the other hand, the theorical approach that consider these practices. We have analysed and restored the importance of aesthetics and ethics in terms of archives’ construction and their publicizing through artistic exhibitions and cultural activities. We have also developed a theoretic and methodological prototype for the digital construction of scattered archives based on the experience with the archive of Rubén Darío. This being the case, we focus on the philological curating, digital centralization, construction of multilingual metadata and the ethics of a collaborative work.
We have made progress in the analysis of the artistic, cultural and political production of different minorized collectives. Furthermore, we have launched the creation of new archives: AREIA and AWOC. A general synthesis should be appreciated: the importance of renew the efforts towards the construction of the archives and their digitization. In this sense, we believe that archives that address the migration issues and diverse linguistic corpora in terms of methodology demand the work of a multinational research team. The analysis of these archives also requires elaboration of metadata in various languages covering not only the transcripts, but also the translations in order to share the documents with a wider academic audience and with general public.
The work carried out in these thematic areas can be characterized by a double perspective. On the one hand, there is the development of archival practices (editing and curating the archives and texts; philological sorting and curating of these documents, their digitization and dissemination), on the other hand, the theorical approach that consider these practices. We have analysed and restored the importance of aesthetics and ethics in terms of archives’ construction and their publicizing through artistic exhibitions and cultural activities. We have also developed a theoretic and methodological prototype for the digital construction of scattered archives based on the experience with the archive of Rubén Darío. This being the case, we focus on the philological curating, digital centralization, construction of multilingual metadata and the ethics of a collaborative work.
We wish to highlight is the systematization of the theories and methodologies proper to the construction and curation of centralized digital archives. The prototype for these contributions dates back to the construction of the Archive around the work of Rubén Darío, initiated by UNTREF in 2016. The initiative sought to build a common virtual space to store and organize all the documents related to the writer. As Daniel Link and Rodrigo Caresani have clarified in a article devoted to this project (2018), the construction of this archive has enabled multiple actors and institutions to carry out a common archeology, to sustain an open and collaborative practice, and to establish a regime of spontaneous participation, one that implies unifying dispersed materials and combating the invisibility and inaccessibility that this dispersion provokes. We call this process of digital gathering of materials of the same nature - product of the collaboration between heterogeneous researchers and institutions - “centralization”. This criteria of digital organization and centralization has been replicated in our new project: Juan Rodolfo Wilcock Archive (AWOC).
The project has had a noticeable impact in our societies through the work with little known or totally unknown documents, which were thus incorporated into existing or new archives, adding thus new sources. A case in point is the papers and works of art created by Argentine artist Miguel Ángel Lens. During his lifetime he was barely known as a poet and as a a gay and anarchist activist. Once he passed, his small circle of queer friends kept and guarded his private papers, letters, books and experiments in visual arts. After hearing about the interest of UNTREF in documents and archives, and after getting to know Trans.Arch as a broader collaborative project, they decided to donate the state of Miguel Ángel Lens to UNTREF’s archive. All the documents and works contained in the state were then classified, organized and given archival form. They were later digitized and made available to researchers and the broader public. Researchers from Trans.Arch were also behind the publishing of a volume of poetry by Miguel Ángel Lens and the discussion of his life and work in academic journals and in the press. After this initial circulation outside the precincts of academic institutions, researchers from Trans.Arch decided to curate an exhibition based on the visual production of Miguel Ángel Lens, opening then his state, for the first time, to a broader examination by a very wide audience of students, artists, activists, writers, and curious citizens.
We plan to continue strengthening this line of action, and this committed way of creating and sustaining archives, both as repository and as treasure of resources and materials for different creative and political projects. We believe that in this way we will be contributing to the politics of memory already deployed by migrants and sexual minorities, and hence to an amplification of their voices in our public spheres, which in turns will strengthen their presence as full citizens in our changing societies.
The project has had a noticeable impact in our societies through the work with little known or totally unknown documents, which were thus incorporated into existing or new archives, adding thus new sources. A case in point is the papers and works of art created by Argentine artist Miguel Ángel Lens. During his lifetime he was barely known as a poet and as a a gay and anarchist activist. Once he passed, his small circle of queer friends kept and guarded his private papers, letters, books and experiments in visual arts. After hearing about the interest of UNTREF in documents and archives, and after getting to know Trans.Arch as a broader collaborative project, they decided to donate the state of Miguel Ángel Lens to UNTREF’s archive. All the documents and works contained in the state were then classified, organized and given archival form. They were later digitized and made available to researchers and the broader public. Researchers from Trans.Arch were also behind the publishing of a volume of poetry by Miguel Ángel Lens and the discussion of his life and work in academic journals and in the press. After this initial circulation outside the precincts of academic institutions, researchers from Trans.Arch decided to curate an exhibition based on the visual production of Miguel Ángel Lens, opening then his state, for the first time, to a broader examination by a very wide audience of students, artists, activists, writers, and curious citizens.
We plan to continue strengthening this line of action, and this committed way of creating and sustaining archives, both as repository and as treasure of resources and materials for different creative and political projects. We believe that in this way we will be contributing to the politics of memory already deployed by migrants and sexual minorities, and hence to an amplification of their voices in our public spheres, which in turns will strengthen their presence as full citizens in our changing societies.