‘Archival Practices’ explores the ways in which practices of curation and conservation (in archives, museums, exhibitions, performances, digital humanities) impact multiple, interconnected areas of life and society with profound ethical, ecological, economic, technological and political implications for the 21st century.

The articles investigate innovative practices in archiving, curating and displaying creative labour and its detritus, such as: a) archives or exhibitions of the materials of cultural production (e.g. the sets, costumes, props, lights and mechanics of theatrical performance); b) the curation, conservation, exhibition of production archives in digital formats (e.g. in the digitised production archives of the Salzburg database: see CORE – THEATRE | OPERA | FESTIVAL; c) the materials that stage-design, painting, sculpture, filmmaking, architecture, and performance formats produce, recycle and leave behind in their wake; d) recycled, upcycled, waste art or curation dedicated to exhibiting the cultural detritus that is generated and circulated throughout society via a diversity of material practices.

This forum is published as part of the Production Archives special collection and addresses the collection’s agenda by refocussing the critical lens to view not only the end products, objects and commodities of creative labour but also the actual material processes of cultural production, consumption, archiving and waste.

Two further forums of this special collection are in publication with the Open Library of Humanities: Production Archives 01: Puppets for Action, and Production Archives 02: Production Contexts.

Editor-in-chief: Prof. Sabine COELSCH-FOISNER (University of Salzburg).
Editorial board: Prof. Vicky ANGELAKI (Mid-Sweden University), Dr. Paul FAGAN (University of Salzburg), Prof. Roger LUCKHURST (Birkbeck College, University of London).

Production Archives 03: Archival Practices

  • 1 

Special Collections