Productive Archiving

Archival organisation is a basic symbolic mode with which we organise our lives and the past, present, and future. ‘Productive Archiving’ discusses a variety of problems in archival organisation, in particular three issues that are usually overlooked in archives: the question of inclusion or exclusion; the loss of individuality and specificity (i.e., homogenisation); and that archiving may become a form of pigeonholing, putting specific identities into a confined space. This book suggests exploring constructive and creative solutions, especially through the example of artistic archives, which tend to offer speculative, unexpected ways to order, select, and narrate information.