Living Archives and The Social Transmission of Memory

Bibliographic Data

ID21309774
AuthorsAmalia Sabiescu (0000-0002-3006-705X, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume63
Issue4
Pages497-510
Publication date2020-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurator The Museum Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-3069 • E-ISSN: 2151-6952
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/cura.12384
OpenAlexW3101401881
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited18

Living archives refer to practices and environments that connect the organisation, curation and transmission of memory with present‐bound creative, performative, and participatory processes. Recent trends in the democratisation of arts and cultural heritage and the advent of digital media have provided living archives with new creative valences, making them potent means for the performative celebration of the past through contemporary acts of creation and transmission. In this article, I argue that living archives perform a function of social sharing of memory that contributes to building social bonds, community and identity. This potential resides in the capacity of living archives to bring together an archival function, concerned with memory preservation and transmission, with a present‐bound artistic, performative and creative function. I use the term ‘archival performativity’ to denote this dual nature of living archives, and will exemplify this concept by drawing on the analysis of living archives through the twin lenses of performance studies and archival science

Aesthetics · Art · Citizen journalism · Cultural transmission in animals · Democratization · Function (biology) · Media studies · Performative utterance · Performativity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Visual arts · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · Gender Studies · Museums and Cultural Heritage

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