This week, while conducting research online, I stumbled upon "Anarchive," a contemporary art archival initiative that resonates deeply with the work we are doing with Archivorum.
Rather than summarizing the project (I encourage you to explore their website where all the information is available: https://www.anarchive.net/indexeng.htm), I would like to share what particularly caught my attention and what could inspire the final form of our project with Nil – and perhaps even with Babs and Belén.
☞ Hearing Nil through and about her archives: Anarchive places great importance on the artist's "commentary" on their own archives. This "commentary" is essential to me and should constitute a significant part of the final archive. How does Nil speak about and reflect on her work 10, 20, or even 50 years later? How can we encapsulate her current perspective and convey it to contemporary audiences? Isn’t her current perspective also a form of archive?
☞ Interconnecting the archives: The digital platform hosting the artists’ archives allows for the weaving of multiple connections between artworks and across various fields of historical, social, and economic knowledge. The option for future users to create connections between works (we’ve considered using keywords and hashtags) is crucial for Archivorum. This is what will give the archive its "dynamic" character. I am delighted to see another example of "networking" that can serve as inspiration for us.
☞ Tapping into the possibilities of technology to see and talk differently: Anarchive leverages the potential of information technology to simulate, for example, the three-dimensional space of an installation. This is a great idea. While we have photos of Nil’s installation at the Venice Biennale, having an interactive miniature model would be highly engaging. It’s about offering a new perspective. The Anarchive team describes this approach as a "new form of description." So, telling Nil’s story in a different way – perhaps through interactive maps, timelines, and similar tools – is certainly a path worth exploring.
☞ A box set?: The final form of Anarchive is materialized in a box set that reflects the artist and the major works of their career. A physical, aesthetically pleasing, and carefully thought-out box – this idea excites me.
☞ Themes/Problematics filter: While browsing the Anarchive site, I discovered the archive of Jean Otth (https://jeanotth.net/works/). Besides the website’s design, which brilliantly reflects the practice and atmosphere of the artist’s works (the website is a kind of artwork in itself), I was struck by one of the search parameters: the "Problematics" filter. This is a concept I adore. I’ve already discussed this in a previous blog post, but it is imperative to me that future users of the archive should be able to explore Nil’s works through a thematic lens. These major themes or "problematics," as the term is used in Otth's archive, will need to be defined with Nil as we progress with digitization and as I delve deeper into her work.
☞ Daring design: Finally, still on Jean Otth’s online archive provided by Anarchive, I love this design and animation: https://jeanotth.net/problematic/. (You need to click on the black background to activate the animation.) Isn’t this another inspiring example that reinforces the future need to collaborate with graphic designers and web developers? I can’t see the site that will host Nil’s archives (I shall speak only of Nil, as I am convinced that Christianna and Stephen have their own approach and vision for this) being a simple "white cube," especially given Nil's anti-conformist stance. Let’s dare to incorporate animations, music, and creative interactions.
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