Archive Fever: Theory and Method

3-0-9 units · Graduate

Focuses on how artists, archivists, architects, and historians have dealt with the archival turn — from archives being used as "source" to becoming a "subject" of critical inquiry. Addresses the philosophical underpinnings of writing history and its changing relationships with the archive across millennia, from Mesopotamian "archive rooms" filled with cuneiform inscriptions to the post-revolutionary foundation of the French national archives. Instruction provided in interpreting and triangulating primary sources such as documents, maps, photographs, drawings, correspondence, and archive-based artworks. Through firsthand archival research, students develop a reflexive methodology for their own research and practice.