Quite exciting to locate this article today via the Documentary Heritage News digest: Le goût de l’archive à l’ère numérique published in La vie des idées. Anyone familiar with Arlette Farge’s book will immediately recognise the reference and also the importance of seeking to extend her thinking into the digital era. By the time Farge’s wonderful […]
Tag Archives: materiality
Brittle paper: what can it stand?
posted by mdever
Taking a literal turn in our thinking around materiality and the archived page, the following recent publications examine the mechanics of aged and brittle paper: “Comparing Non-destructive Mechanical Testing Methods for the Assessment of Brittle Papers – The Cantilever, Hanging Pear Loop, and Clamped Fold Tests” by Andrea K. I. Hall, Raymond H. Plaut and Patricia M. McGuiggan, […]
Mess and miscellany: new book
posted by mdever
Just released by OUP Canada is Angus Vine‘s new book, Miscellaneous Order: Manuscript Culture and the Early Modern Organization of Knowledge. This book will be of interest to scholars working on questions of materiality in particular. Vine examines the early modern manuscript miscellany, an object often dismissed in its disorder and mess. “Drawing on original literary and historical […]
“It was a failure of imagination”: Climate change, archives and material culture
posted by mdever
This recent news item entitled, “HOW TO PROTECT RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE RAVAGES OF CLIMATE CHANGE” takes the debate around archives and materiality in another direction by highlighting how archives and manuscripts are at risk from climate change through disasters as well as changing temperatures. Author Sophie Yeo highlights how informal collections and […]
Article: Of mind and matter: The archive as object
posted by mdever
In the following article in Archives and Records (39.1 2018) Peter Lester advances an argument about materiality and the nature of archival evidence. Of mind and matter: The archive as object Abstract Archives are not only sources of evidence and information; they are also material objects with physical, tangible characteristics such as size, weight and […]
New article: Paper tools
posted by mdever
Boris Jardine’s article, “State of the Field: Paper Tools” in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (Volume 64, August 2017, Pages 53-63) makes interesting reading for those concerned with questions of paper and materiality. Jardine asks whether scholars across diverse fields are talking about the same thing ‘when they talk of paper, its qualities, affordances and […]
Photo-Objects. On the Materiality of Photographs and Photo-Archives in the Humanities and Sciences
posted by mdever
15 – 17 February 2017 Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai Via dei Servi 51 50122 Florence ITALY Keynote-Speakers: Lorraine Daston, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin Elizabeth Edwards, De Montfort University, Leicester Photographs are not only images, but also historically shaped three-dimensional objects. They hold a physical presence, bear traces of handling and use […]
CFP: Preservation and Rot
posted by mdever
The Sheffield Centre for Archival Practice presents the second of their Archives Vice Versa events. University of Sheffield, 7th July 2016, 2-4pm VENUE: John Carr Design Suite, Portobello Centre, Mappin Street, Sheffield Invited speaker: Professor Jane Winters Professor of Digital History and Head of Publications Institute of Historical Research, University of London Join us for a discussion of […]
Affect and the Archive, Archives and their Affects
posted by mdever
Archival Science has published a special issue on the topic of Affect and the Archive, Archives and their Affects. The co-editors are Anne J. Gilliland and Marika Cifor. CONTENTS Volume 16, issue 1 (2016) Editorial: Affect and the archive, archives and their affects: an introduction to the special issue by Marika Cifor and Anne J. Gilliland Affecting relations: introducing […]
CFP: From Dust to Dawn. Archival Studies After the Archival Turn
posted by mdever
Uppsala University, 15-17 November 2017 Conference theme Archives – collections of paper, objects, and other substrates of information, as well as the institutions that house and organize them – have become increasingly important in modern everyday life. But archives are no longer exclusively the objects of historical work – no longer simply a means to […]
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