Archival Objects Research Articles

Chairy tales

This article addresses three issues of what I suggest here should be regarded as the shifting technological and matter-based apparatus of animation: first, the meanings and affect of objects and materials actually used in animated films; second, the visual dramaturgy made possible by objects and materials for animation screenwriters; and, third, the status of animation process materials as archival objects. The analysis looks at a number of animated films and specifically at their design form, material association, and narrative function to define what I will call the “scripted artefact”, and an “Animated Object Cycle”. This overview will also operate in a spirit of thinking about theories of practice and practices of theory in animation, and refer to both established theoretical perspectives as well as primary practice idioms.

Disrupters, This is Disrupter X: Mashing up the archive

Abstract This article reflects on the conceptual and aesthetic practices engaged in the development of a performance work by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi and Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum titled DISRUPTERS, THIS IS DISRUPTER X. Nkosi/Sunstrum liberally describe this multimedia performance work as an ‘anti-opera’. In 2014, the Iwalewahaus African Art Archive at the University of Bayreuth invited Nkosi and Sunstrum to make further developments to an anti-opera they had been conceiving since 2013. The invitation formed part of ‘Mashup The Archive’, an artist residency encouraging contemporary artists from Africa to engage with the Iwalewahaus Archive. The resulting performance was presented at the Schokofabrik, Bayreuth and was a tour through a ‘maquette’ of the anti-opera. It was a ‘living maquette’ in which audiences (termed ‘Safarists’) travelled through stations illustrating sketches of scenes, histories of characters, and other fragments of narrative exposition. The artists illustrated these stations using both ‘relics’ from the Iwalewahaus Archive, and newly generated digital and analogue content. Using a common tactic found in electronic music known as ‘sampling’, Nkosi/Sunstrum recontextualized and reinvented these artefacts to form part of the anti-opera narrative. The world of the anti-opera was created by video projections, sound streamed live to Bayreuth from Johannesburg, handmade replicas of archival objects, original music created from archival instruments, live performers and a professional opera singer. South African literary theorists Delphi Carstens and Mer Roberts suggest that the sci-fi genre ‘offers a potential vehicle for expressing the African oral mythical mode and a (re)writing of the continent’s marginalized oral histories in the mythopoeic mode’.1 Nkosi/Sunstrum are interested in the radical implications of this view and are using sci-fi as a tactic for imagining and ‘occupying’ new African futures.

Witnessing horror: Psychoanalysis and the abject stain of lynching photography

This article engages Lacanian and Kristevan psychoanalysis to examine lynching photographs and picture postcards that were disseminated throughout the southern United States between 1890 and 1940. I argue that these photographs are not only archival objects intended to incite racial terrorization and propagate white supremacy, but also unstable signifiers that expose the concerted meconnaissance of whiteness as wholeness. Introducing the concept of the abject stain, I indicate how lynching photographs inaugurate an unsettling encounter with the extimate horror of racial alterity, which is experienced as an intimate ethics of witnessing.

Archives Behaving Badly

The archive has been theorized as unstable and even fever-ridden, but what might it mean to deploy it in ways that counter its logic or to activate it in ways that we might call queer? Using the example of Leah DeVun's photographic exploration of the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives (the world's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender research collection), this essay traces the manners in which an archive, as a repository of information, might always shore up certain histories while delimiting others. In contrast, the authors imagine using the archive badly—that is, not as a historian would but through interpolation and anachronism, focusing on the archive's feel and “mere” form. Rather than reconstruct the ways that archival materials inhabit a discrete historical period, this essay explores what it means to focus on the human agents that pull archival objects from circulation, as well as how such objects might circulate again. Ultimately, the authors consider an archive as an accretive space that continues to build up, and as a history in which we might live, rather than as a document of an already finished time.

은제 행정박물의 표면 클리닝에 적용되는 금속광택제 실험연구

This study, by selecting 3 kinds(Polish T, H, C) of metal polish being frequently used for silver archival objects treatment at present, a polish having excellent conservative property that minimizes damage of silver surface while effectively removing its yellow discolored layer by each using tool was intended to be discovered by comparing performance of tarnish inhibitor, corrosion inhibitor contained in each polish. As a result of analysis, it was confirmed that specimen that was cleaned with cotton swab and lint-free wipe by using Polish C provides not only uniformed surface expression and minimum damage but also removal function of corrosion layer. In addition, even though tarnish inhibition film should be formed after polish treatment, discolored phenomenon is unable to be prevented but among those polishes, Polish C was represented to be most stable against UV and yellowing and it showed relatively better features than that of Polish H and T in terms of hydrophobic, dispersive property. Through this, it is confirmed that Polish C would show the most excellent performance among polishes being used for conserving silver archival objects.

Flexible data model for linked objects in digital archives

In this paper is presented a pragmatic data model for creating and managing linked contextual and material objects, the design process and the reasons why it was developed. The model was created to meet the needs of private archives and digital archive services. The design goals were flexibility, cost-efficiency and suitability for daily use. The basis of the model is to use contextual objects to describe the archive objects; should they be text documents, moving image, audio or any other type of content to be preserved. By linking the contextual objects such as events, places, agents and actions, the redundancy of archive data can be minimized. The objects gain more informational value because the linking forms a network of connected objects. The data model was based on the national and international metadata standards as well as best practices from private archives. It was implemented using Fedora Commons' object modeling features as a part of the ongoing Open Source Archive project.

대학기록관 박물의 통합검색을 위한 기술 요소의 선정 및 적용에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to select and apply description elements for the integrated search of archival objects in university archives. For this purpose, the act of public archives management and the research literature were reviewed, and a survey was conducted on related institutions. Moreover, this paper made a comparison by using the archival description of ISAD(G), DACS, RDA, and CCO and referred to the descriptions that are being used at university archives. Based on these analyses, we suggested the description elements for the integrated search of archival objects in university archives and presented the practical application method for it.

The Secret Life of Archives: Sally Siddons, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and The Material of Memory

This essay is in two parts, in the first I attempt to map out strategies for considering archival materials through the lens of performance, and in the second I enact or perform some of those strategies through a close reading of a letter from Sally Siddons, daughter of the famous actress Sarah Siddons, to the renown portrait painter and rakish bad boy, Sir Thomas Lawrence. I present a methodology that considers archival researchers as tourists who approach archival objects and images as material for curating a virtual exhibition. I argue that this strategy allows us to recognize and attempt to envision the interdisciplinary relationship amongst archival materials in order to imagine them in spatial, theatrical, and visual proximity to one another. In this way as researchers we are performing a kind of re-enactment, an animation, of the secret life of archives, which attempts to account the embodied traces of the past by providing an accessible thought provoking map for audiences.

The living archive of war in Rabih Mroué's Make Me Stop Smoking

This paper turns to Rabih Mroue's Make Me Stop Smoking, a one-man multimedia performance, for its capacity to enable us to think about the dilemmas of narrativizing the Lebanese civil war. Critical of Lebanon's official position to move on and forget the war, Mroue presents his audience with his unofficial and personal archive of war, collected over the years without any purpose in mind. His archive consists of random objects, fragments of memory, which speak more to his affective relationship than to the certainty of his experience. Contradiction, hesitation, and pain are what organize his narrative. Indeed, what Mroue delivers to his audience is the vulnerable and fallible human in history. The audience is invited to witness the singularity of a man torn by a nagging memory of his own complicity in the war. Mroue's Make Me Stop Smoking is an invitation to visit the archive and be suspicious of its desires. Archival objects, left unexamined, have the power to construct and stabilize narratives. Hence, a living archive, argues the author, requires an interest in death and in mourning the objects to which one becomes inflexibly attached.

고체상미세추출법(SPME)을 이용한 피혁 재질로부터 발생된 휘발성 유기화합물 분석기술 연구

문화재는 화학적 요인, 생물학적 요인 등 각종 열화 인자에 의해 재질이 열화되면서 각각 특유의 휘발성 유기화합물을 방출해내며 이러한 휘발성 유기화합물은 대기 중에 존재하고 다른 재질로 이루어진 유물의 열화 인자로 작용한다. 하지만 다수의 분석법 중에 비파괴적인 분석법은 흔치 않으며 기기 사용의 어려움으로 현장적용에 어려움을 겪고 있다. 본 연구는 피혁에서 발생하는 유해가스를 비파괴적이고 조작이 간편한 고체상미세추출법과 기체크로마토그래피를 통해 분석을 실시하였다. 또한 고체상미세추출법 중 이동형 홀더(field holder)의 효율성을 입증하였다. 국가기록원에 보관 중인 행정박물 중 피혁으로 이루어진 유물을 선정하여 고체상미세추출법의 현장적용을 실시, 비교 분석함으로써 피혁재질에서 자체적으로 발생하여 주변 공기에 방출시키는 (E)-2-nonenal, butyl hydroxy toluene 등의 화합물을 확인할 수 있었다. Cultural heritages emit volatile organic compounds(VOCs) during degradation as chemical, biological factors. These VOCs in the atmosphere are degradation factors for another materials. But non-destructive organic analysis methods are uncommon, and have difficulties for field application. In this study, solid phase micro-extraction(SPME) and gas chromatography( GC) are carried out for analysis of VOCs which are emitted from leather, and prove SPME field holder's efficiency. I analize leather archival objects at The National Archives of Korea by cross-checking GC and SPME methods. It could be confirmed that the compounds are (E)-2-nonenal, butyl hydroxy toluene emitted itself from leather.

동합금 행정박물에 적용 가능한 표면강화처리제 비교 연구

행정박물이란 공공기관의 업무수행과 관련된 유형적 증거물로, 독특하고 유일하며 특정 사건, 시간, 또는 인물을 표현하는 정보적인 가치를 지니고 있다. 근대문화유산으로써의 가치를 지니고 있는 행정박물은 그 중요성에 비해 체계적으로 분류 관리 보존하는 지침은 마련되지 않았다. 이 중 금속제 행정박물의 경우 보존처리 및 연구사례가 적고 복합적인 행정적 가치를 지니고 있어 일반화된 발굴유물의 보존처리 과정을 적용하기 어렵다. 그러므로 본 연구에서는 강화처리에 초점을 두어 동합금 행정박물의 표면강화처리에 알맞은 재료와 적용방법을 실험을 통해 찾아보고자 하였다. 현재 사용하고 있는 Wax 3종과 발굴유물에 사용하는 아크릴계 수지를 선정하여 종류와 코팅방법에 따른 특성을 비교 분석하였다. 표면관찰, 박막 두께, 접착력, 접촉각 및 표면에너지, 황변실험 등 일련의 분석을 통해 코팅 특성을 비교한 결과, 아크릴계 수지를 행정박물에 사용해도 무방하나 기존에 사용하던 Wax B를 Dip-coating 한 후 가열처리하여 강화처리하는 것이 가장 우수한 강화효과를 얻을 수 있음을 확인하였다. The archival objects are tangible evidence related to the public service. They are unique and offer information representing the specific events, time or person. The archival objects as modern cultural heritage do not have the guideline to classify, manage and conserve them. Especially, it is difficult to apply general conservation process for burial artifacts, because there are few study example of conservation for metal archival objects and they have complex administrative value. We tried to find suitable material and application method for consolidation of copper alloy archival object. We choose three kinds of wax and acrylic resin for burial artifacts and had done comparative analysis of their characterizations following kinds and coating methods. As a result of evaluation by several surface analysis such as optical microscope, measuring film thickness, adhesive strength, contact angle and yellowing test, acrylic resin can use to archival objects of copper alloy, effectively but the method of heating after dip-coating with Wax B used before can get best effect of consolidation.

A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline: Queering Fat Activist Nationality and Cultural Imperialism

A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline is a project located in multiple spaces that began as an attempt to co-create a snapshot of community history. The timeline began as a conference workshop, became an object produced by that workshop, and then transformed into other entities: something that could be discussed and remodeled into multiple forms, on- and offline, and into archival objects. It originated as a fat activist dialogue with community histories and memory, but has moved beyond its original intent. The content of this particular fat activist project is not under discussion here: the process of fat activism and the cultures within which it takes place are the areas with which I wish to engage in this article. However, I encourage readers to downloaded digital copies of the zine from my blog (Cooper, 2011b).

Analytical characterization of Baltic amber and pottery

Amber is the most numerous group of archaeological finds and its analysis reveals important information about the daily life and the ethnical and cultural aspects of the society of the period (Kaiserling, 2001, p. 285; Zompro, 2005, p. 251). The National Museums located all over the world contain thousands pieces of amber in its collections. These important amber objects in museums and archives sometimes suffer very serious damage (Waddington, 1988, p. 25; Williams, 1990, p. 65; Thickett, 1995, p. 217). [...]

Understanding how webcasts are used as sources of information

Webcasting systems were developed to provide remote access in real-time to live events. Today, these systems have an additional requirement: to accommodate the “second life” of webcasts as archival information objects. Research to date has focused on facilitating the production and storage of webcasts as well as the development of more interactive and collaborative multimedia tools to support the event, but research has not examined how people interact with a webcasting system to access and use the contents of those archived events. Using an experimental design, this study examined how 16 typical users interact with a webcasting system to respond to a set of information tasks: selecting a webcast, searching for specific information, and making a gist of a webcast. Using several data sources that included user actions, user perceptions, and user explanations of their actions and decisions, the study also examined the strategies employed to complete the tasks. The results revealed distinctive system-use patterns for each task and provided insights into the types of tools needed to make webcasting systems better suited for also using the webcasts as information objects. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Archival objects in motion: historians’ appropriation of sources in nineteenth-century Austria and Switzerland

This contribution examines the social, material, and epistemic practices of historians and their counterparts engaged in the textual and visual reproduction of historical sources in nineteenth-century Austria and Switzerland. The Schweizerische Urkundenregister (1863–1877), a Swiss register of medieval charters, and the Monumenta graphica medii aevi (1859–1883), an Austrian collection of photographic facsimiles of medieval sources, were both intended to make historical sources accessible outside the archives in the framework of national history. The article analyzes institutional collaborations and the social interactions among the actors involved and follows the trajectories of the mobilized archival objects. These projects for national source publications appear as a negotiated social practice, in which archival objects were dislocated conceptually as well as materially in order to be stabilized and reified again in new infrastructures of research. The conflicts surrounding the projects reveal disputes about authority over the archival records, their significance, and the techniques required to represent them properly, and show how the emergence of scholarly source publications accompanied a conscious erasure of older contexts of meaning.

The Lost Workers : Process, Performance, and the Archive

Based on personal experiences of researching productions at the RSC, this article considers and laments the widespread voicelessness of theatre workers and audiences, who frequently play an integral role in the creation of performance archives. It acknowledges typically overlooked variables - such as the individual perspective of the authors of notes in promptbooks - in the construction of a performance archive, and their potential to skew a researcher's impression of the original performance. Beginning with Derrida, and drawing on the work of the artist Christian Boltanski, it theorises the position of the archive as always in process, highlighting its power to create and shape meanings, while also acknowledging the material lacks that it inevitably creates. The argument rejects the conception of archival objects such as promptbooks as static, completed objects, instead offering a reading of them as the continual marker of the process of creating a performance: both in terms of individual moments in a particular performance, as well as the production as a whole. This allows, the article argues, for a consideration of the tension between performance and the archive as well as the play of performance within the archive: in other words, the performativity of the archive itself.

No choice but to practice utopia: The story of SIAL as told through two archival objects: An image and a letter

No choice but to practice utopia: The story of SIAL as told through two archival objects: An image and a letter

Possibilities of Quality Enhancement in Higher Education by Intensive Use of Information Technology

Quality of higher education is a multi-dimensional concept. It lies in effectiveness of transmitting knowledge and skill; the authenticity, content, coverage and depth of information; availability of reading/teaching materials; help in removing obstacles to learning; applicability of knowledge in solving the real life problems; fruitfulness of knowledge in personal and social domains; convergence of content and variety of knowledge over space (countries and regions) and different sections of the people; cost-effectiveness and administrative efficiency. Information technology has progressed very fast in the last three decades; it has produced equipments at affordable cost and it has now made their wider application feasible. This technology has made search, gathering, dissemination, storing, retrieval, transmission and reception of knowledge easier, cheaper and faster. Side by side, a vast virtual library vying with the library in prints has emerged and continues growing rapidly. One may hold that the e-libraries are the libraries of tomorrow when the libraries in prints will be the antiques or the archival objects of the past. This paper discusses in details how information technology can be applied to enhance the quality of higher education at affordable cost. It also discusses the major obstacles to optimal utilization of information technology and measures to remove them.

Case Studies on Archival Objects Management Procedures in Major Countries: United States, Canada, Australia, and China

This paper is a preliminary study aiming to establish an archival objects system in Korea. This study analyzes the archival objects systems in the US, Canada, Australia, and China. This paper attempts to conceptualize archival objects and substantiate a management system of archival objects based on legal statues and guidance of each nation's records management. Moreover, this paper includes present conditions of utilization of exhibition by scrutinizing official websites of archival institutions and interviewing related officials in above mentioned countries.

3D object comparison based on shape descriptors

Due to the recent improvements of 3D digitalisation, the number of 3D models available on the web is growing more and more, and there is an increasing demand for tools supporting the automatic search for 3D objects in digital archives. Existing methods for 3D shape retrieval roughly filter shape information and are mainly based on reasoning at the geometric level. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of approaching the shape matching problem through 3D graph descriptors, which describe the shape as a configuration of relevant subparts. In our approach, shapes are compared using a graph matching technique able to identify the most similar object portions. In particular, we investigate the properties of these descriptors and of our matching method in the CAD context.