UEL YEAR 2: PERFORMING THE ARCHIVE BLOG

Fom the Module Guide: ''Performing the Archive will explore representation and performance, investigating the use of archival research to document and inform performance practices using the Online Theatre Histories Archive (OTHA). OTHA will generate historical analysis to examine the affect of archiving upon performance practice and reception. The module includes a ‘mapping’ of theatre institutions in East London, conducting field visits to theatres featured in OTHA.''

''Questions to be addressed include: How can archival materials be used to deepen historical and cultural perspectives of theatre in East London? What materials have been archived? What materials have been left out? What narratives are being curated, and how will students create their own histories and performances based on archival study?''

WHAT IS PERFORMANCE?

Perfomance has been defined by many different practitioners and artists in a variety of subjective interpretations.

One interpretation that can generally hold its weight in many circumstances is that Performances is the act of presenting a piece of art in which the artist or his/her subjects carry out something that may or may not have been previously rehearsed, usually presenting it to an audience.

      WHAT IS AN ARCHIVE?

Before i went the the archive i thought that an archive was a sort of big library that was organised on the most anal of levels known to man. Where all that was stored was kept in an isolated vacum where dust and fingerprints dont exist, and i thought the doors to the archive would be made of some sort of aircraft grade steel with a tiny bulletproof glass window to one side where a guard sits inside drinking coffe and polishing his automatic weapon in the case that some 'Dillinger' type character may break in and muddy up the second draft of Winston Churchill birth certificate.

This was not the case 

The Archives Available to us were:

• LIFT - Archive based at Goldsmiths university the online archive can be found at: http://www.liftfest.com/living-archive
• The Women’s Art library - Also based at Goldsmiths university can be found at :http://www.gold.ac.uk/make/  The women’s arts library looks at feminism, women’s rights and the role of women though theatre.
• Hackney empire Archives based the University of East London can be found online at: http://www.eltaproject.org/hackney.html

I entered the goldsmiths archives to find my colleges sitting around an old library table with some old looking folders in dusty boxes in the center  The assistant asked that i wear gloves similar to those worn my mickey mouse in order to protect the pages of the archive materials from getting smudged by my apparent dirty fingers, inside the folders were not just paper scripts but also recordings  photos, invoices and a whole plethora of other things that have and can be used to track time and events.

How Will We Make Use Of The Archive?

Having the archive available to us means we can find out about practitioners before us and see some evidence of the processes they went through to develop their art, this means that when studying work of the past we can manage to make it informative to the audience member and to ourselves.