Archive Everything: Mapping the Everyday

237 Pages·2016·14.84 MB·English

by  Gabriella Giannachi

Archive Everything

Archive Everything
Mapping the Everyday
Gabriella Giannachi
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2016 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical
means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in
writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound
in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Giannachi, Gabriella, author.
Title: Archive everything : mapping the everyday / Gabriella Giannachi.
Description: Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016015620 | ISBN 9780262035293 (hardcover : alkaline paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Archives--Philosophy. | Archives--History. | Archives--Data processing. |
Archival materials--Digitization. | Digital preservation. | Art archives.
Classification: LCC CD947 .G53 2016 | DDC 027.001--dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016015620
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Francesca, for everything…

Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
1 A Brief History of the Archive 1
Archives 0.0 and 1.0 2
Archives 2.0 9
Archives 3.0 and 4.0 15
2 Archives as Archaeological Sites 27
Digging up the Archive 28
Archaeology, the Punctum and the Archive 30
Archaeological Toolbox 33
Media, Archaeology, and Remediation 36
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s !W.A.R. 37
Toward an Archaeology of the !W.A.R. Archive(s) 52
3 Architecture, Memory, and the Archive 57
Memory, History, and the Archive 57
The Plurality of Memory 61
The Witness and the Archive: Remembering the Holocaust 64
Replaying Blast Theory’s Rider Spoke 69
The Distributed Archive: Mapping, Memories in the Archive 76
4 Diasporic Archives 93
The Transformational Power of Diasporic Archives: Looking at Santu Mofokeng, The Black
Photo Album / Look at Me: 1890–1950 94
Diaspora and the Archive, the Case of Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR) by Thomas
Allen Harris 100
Toward a Fluid Ontology: The Case of “Creating Collaborative Catalogues” 107
I’ve Known Rivers: The Museum of African Diaspora Stories Project 113
viii Contents
5 The Art of Archiving 123
The Curiosity Cabinet 124
Archival Art: The cases of Marcel Duchamp’s La boîte-en-valise; Robert Morris’s Card File: July
11–December 31, 1962; Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules; and Ant Farm’s Citizen Time
Capsule 131
Citizen Archivists and the Power of Replay: The Case of sosolimited’s ReConstitution 144
6 (A)live Archives 153
Embodying the Archive: Musée de la Danse If Tate Modern was Musée de la Danse? 154
The Smartness of Things 160
Database Art: George Legrady’s An Anecdoted Archive from the Cold War (1993), Pockets Full
of Memories and Pockets Full of Memories II; Natalie Bookchin’s Databank of the Everyday;
Eduardo Kac’s Time Capsule; Christine Borland’s HeLa and HeLa, Hot; Lynn Hershman
Leeson’s The Infinity Engine 162
Afterword 181
References 185
Index 203
LIST OF FIGURES
List of Figures
List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Lynn Hershman, The Dante Hotel (1973–4). Courtesy Lynn Hershman Leeson.
Figure 1.2 Roberta Breitmore at The Dante Hotel, San Francisco, November 1973. Courtesy
Lynn Hershman Leeson.
Figure 1.3 An early demonstration of Life Squared (then called Life to the Second Power) to the
project team and other invited guests. Photo Gabriella Giannachi.
Figure 1.4 Lys Ware (aka Henric Bennetsen) taking a photo of Henrik Bennetsen taking a
photograph of Lys Ware in Life Squared. Photo Henrik Bennetsen.
Figure 1.5 ArtMaps interface.
Figure 1.6 ArtMaps used at Tate. Photo Ana Escobar. ©Tate Photography 2013.
Figure 2.1 WAR_Main_Title.jpg Graphic Animations Justin Barber for Oddball Animation
Ryland Jones for Oddball Animation Aaron Moorhead for Oddball Animation. Courtesy
Lynn Hershman Leeson.
Figure 2.2 Judith F. Baca, “Farewell to Rosie the Riveter and Development of Suburbia”
(1983). Detail from “The Great Wall of Los Angeles.” Photo Linda Eber. Courtesy SPARC.
Figure 2.3 Lynn Hershman, “Roberta Breitmore,” 1974–1978. “External Transformations:
Roberta’s Construction Chart, No. 1,” Dye Transfer print, 40 × 30″, 1975. Courtesy Lynn
Hershman Leeson.
Figure 2.4 The Dinner Party. Installation view of Wing Two © Judy Chicago, 1979. Elizabeth
A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum. Collection of the Brooklyn Museum,
Brooklyn, New York. Photo © Donald Woodman.
Figure 2.5 SpainGraphicNovel.jpg Graphic Novel by Spain Rodriguez. Courtesy Lynn Her-
shman Leeson.
Figure 2.6 Ana Mendieta, “Documentation of untitled (Facial Hair Transplants),” 1972
(Intermedia studio, University of Iowa), 35 mm color slide © The Estate of Ana Mendieta
Collection, LLC, Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York.
Figure 2.7 Guerrilla_Girls_Poster.jpg Guerrilla Girls, Poster: “Do women have to be naked to
get into the Met. Museum,” copyright Guerrilla Girls, courtesy guerillagirls.com.
Figure 2.8 Installation shots from Raw/War at Sundance by Lynn Hershman Leeson. Cour-
tesy Lynn Hershman Leeson.