| Description |
The word “archive” can conjure a number of meanings and images: a physical collection of artifacts, the metaphorical act of storage, or digital preservation on the Internet. And, although, on the surface, archives might seem impartial and mute, they are instrumental in the production of knowledge and shaping of (architectural) history. As sites of memory, archives purport to hold answers to questions of truth and proof, serving as the uncontested tool of historical research. But what gets included in the archive? How do archives make meaning? And how are archives constituted materially and politically?
This course provides introduction for Bachelor students to archival analysis and research through discussion of theory and hands-on application of practical strategies and methods. We will begin by charting the development of collecting institutions and practices to challenge their authority and supposed neutrality, as well as analyze how the curating of historical records has led to an edited narration of history. Indeed, for all that we can learn from the archive’s contents, we can glean as much – if not more – from its absences, silences, and omissions. Next, we will ask ethical and epistemological questions while examining a variety of sources, from textual documents to visual ephemera and oral histories, before treating the built environment as a sedimented, historically-layered deposit. In addition to extant buildings, we will consider multiple forms of archival “evidence” that can be used to write architectural histories. Finally, acknowledging the role of archives in the construction of colonial, imperial, and racist worldviews, we will explore counter-archives, alternative strategies, and possibilities of resistance. Over the course of the semester, students will work with a chosen object from the University of Bern archives to test out and think through diverse conceptual lenses. Combining creative and critical approaches, students will “unpack” the archive through individual interventions and share collected findings in a group presentation.
Requirements are active participation (max. 2 absences), contribution to discussions, and moderation of one class session. Seminar papers will take the form of catalog essays accompanying a group publication and/or exhibition.
Literatur:
- Abramson, Alexander & Osman, eds., Writing Architectural History: Evidence and Narrative in the Twenty-First Century, Aggregate (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021).
- Ariella Azoulay, Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism (London: Verso, 2019).
- Tina Campt, Listening to Images (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017).
- Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972).
- Fuller and Weizman, Investigative Aesthetics: Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth (London: Verso, 2021).
- Gosseye, Stead & van der Plaat, eds., Speaking of Buildings: Oral History in Architectural Research (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2019).
- Vyjayanthi Rao, “Embracing Urbanism: The City as Archive,” New Literary History 40.2 (2009): 371-83.
- Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008). |
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