Røssaak, Eivind (Ed.): The Archive in Motion

New Conceptions of the Archive in Contemporary Thought and New Media Practices

The Archive in Motion explores the current proliferation of the concept of the archive. The concept has expanded into areas beyond the classical archive, to art, philosophy, and new textual and media practices. Simultaneously, these new practices both resist and transform the archival impulse, perhaps creating what one could call a new “anarchival” condition.

Archival concepts and practices have been transformed under the impact of the radical changes in writing and recording technologies that have taken place over the last 150 years, and particularly with the introduction of digital technologies. Film, video, television, sound recording, computers, the Internet and new mobile media seem to have instigated a general storage mania and a proliferation of both public and private archival practices. These technologies not only challenge traditional notions of the permanence and stability of the archival document, but they also introduce a wide range of new questions concerning exactly what it means to store information for future use.

This collection of essays by the acclaimed international scholars and curators, Alexander Galloway (New York University), Wolfgang Ernst (Humboldt University), Knut Ove Eliassen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Susanne Østby Sæther (Fotogalleriet, Oslo), Trond Lundemo (University of Stockholm), Terje Rasmussen and Kjetil Jakobsen (both University of Oslo), is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of archives and the diversity of archival practices and reflections today. The preface is written by the National Librarian of Norway Vigdis Moe Skarstein and the introduction by the editor Eivind Røssaak (The National Library of Norway).

Contents

Preface 5
Vigdis Moe Skarstein

The Archive in Motion: An Introduction 11
Eivind Røssaak


New Conceptions

The Archives of Michel Foucault 29
Knut Ove Eliassen

Cultural Archive versus Technomathematical Storage 53
Wolfgang Ernst


New Archival Practices

Archival Art: Negotiating the Role of New Media 77
Susanne Østby Sæther

Devices of Memory and Forgetting: A Media-Centred Perspective on the “Present Past” 109
Terje Rasmussen


New Challenges

Anarchival Society 127
Kjetil Jakobsen

What You See Is What You Get? 155
Alexander Galloway


Epilogue

Archival Shadows 183
Trond Lundemo


Notes on Contributors 197


General Bibliography 201


ISBN 978-82-7099-587-5, 215 pp., paperback
Format: 17x24 cm, weight 0,4 kg, year of publication 2010, language: English