From Analog to Analogue: Digitality and Ephemerality in Audiovisual Archives

This seminar explores histories of moving image archives in relation to social movements, technological change, and philosophies of cultural memory that dictate the content of archives and shape perceptions of their use value. We begin by exploring archives as physical entities (buildings), structures of information (catalogs, databases, finding aids), arbiters of meaning (collections). We also consider enterprises that present themselves as archives of our contemporary selves and collective existence: Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat,TikTok. We explore these issues historically and theoretically, and visit local archives to engage in hands-on activities with analog and digital moving image media.