Destroying a museum archive: sex, racism, image and contemporary archaeology

Speaker: Professor Doug Bailey (Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University)
Monday, Oct. 16th, 2pm-4pm (reception follows talk)
221 Kroeber Hall (Gifford Room) UC Berkeley

What happens when people attempt to discard and destroy a museum archive that contains many thousands of visual and material objects? In this workshop, we discuss the politics, potential, and violence of archive objects (specifically a cache of over 1200, 35-mm transparencies from the mid-late 20th century). What lives do they live? Are they passive and neutral objects resting peacefully in an institution’s collection? Are they active material things? If the latter, then what affect do they have, what energies and essences do they constitute, what is their present and their future, where should they go, and what should they do?