Archives of Space, Sound & Material

A Roundtable on Pioneering Directions in Humanities Research

Perdu Bookstore

<p>Traces of sight, sound, smell and touch; notions  of space concerning material and immaterial heritage; built and natural environments as sites of memory: These are some of the central throughlines of recent research across humanities disciplines. How do we apply them to navigate complex pasts and address the pressing issues of the present? </p><p>This event marks the launch of four pioneering humanities research projects that explore sensory, artistic, and intellectual modes of knowledge production through different archives, including ethnographic sound recordings in Dutch collections, the spatial and cultural traces of gas extraction in the Netherlands, transnational histories of antinuclear and artistic networks preserved into activist archives, and the global legacy of extractivist supply chains involved in celluloid film production.</p><p>Each of these projects, and the sources they draw upon, is distinct. In conversation, however, they explore the continued presence of colonial and contested histories in a contemporary world at risk by asking: How can current humanities research meaningfully address questions of scale (from atomic to global), of toxicity (chemical, geological, radiological, colonial) and of repair? Can new ways of looking, analyzing and listening to archival material inform our engagement with contested pasts to guide us towards more equitable futures?</p><p><strong><strong>The launch event will consist of a presentation of the four research projects followed by a roundtable discussion moderated by </strong></strong><strong><strong>Dr. Colin Sterling </strong></strong><strong><strong>(University of Amsterdam).</strong></strong></p><p><br></p>

<h3><strong><strong>Audibilities of the Colonial Past:</strong></strong><br>Dutch Sound Archives as History, Heritage and Data</h3><h4><strong><strong>Dr. Emily Clark (University of Amsterdam)</strong></strong></h4>

<p>Sound recordings are increasingly being used as a source of knowledge about the past: in scientific research, in museum exhibits, and as collective and personal heritage. But, like a photograph that is framed by the photographer's gaze, a sound recording does not provide neutral evidence of, nor direct access to, past voices, experiences, or events. This project explores how the meaning of a sound recording is shaped by who created it and why, how it has been preserved and made available in archival collections, and our contemporary ways of listening to history.</p>

<h3><strong><strong>Uranium Matters:</strong></strong><br>An Interdisciplinary Study of Radiotoxicity in the Arts</h3><h4>Dr. Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)</h4>

<p>Uranium, the raw material of nuclear technologies, and its extractive aftermath are only recently emerging in histories of the “nuclear age.” But since the late 1970s, artistic and activist communities have repeatedly engaged with nuclear materiality. Their networks have taken on the story of uranium’s global supply chain, how it crosses borders, and what it has done to the communities, human and nonhuman, who extract it. Through archival research in activist, corporate, and university archives, this project aims to reveal the aesthetic and material strategies, as well as the transnational networks, that artists have developed to negotiate with and resist nuclear extractivism from 1979 to the present. By examining uranium in and through art, this research ultimately connects environmental justice to art making.</p>

<h3><strong><strong>Global Elements of Cinema:</strong></strong><br>Tracing Agricultural Materials in the History of Celluloid Film Manufacturing</h3><h4>Dr. Marek Jancovic (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)</h4>

<p>The story of the invention of celluloid as the first plastic and the basis of cinema is well-known. But where did the materials needed to make it come from? Celluloid is a plastic made from agricultural products like camphor, gelatin and cotton. Many of these materials were extracted in colonized regions of the world before being processed in Europe and North America. By mapping the trade routes and supply chains, this project will connect the farm to the frame: It will clarify how the film industry has historically relied on and driven the demand for agricultural materials, provide one way of decentering the Euro- and Americentrism of film-historical research, and create new possibilities for understanding the colonial and environmental legacies of audiovisual media.</p>

<h3><strong><strong>The Architecture of Gas:</strong></strong><br>The Spatial Implications of Gas as an Energy Source in the Netherlands (1810-2022)</h3><h4>Dr. Iris Burgers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)</h4>

<p>In 2023, the Dutch government ended the extraction of gas in Groningen. This act was one step in an ongoing national energy transition, aimed at moving away from fossil fuels by implementing sustainable energy sources. Gas as an energy source was first introduced (globally) in the nineteenth century through a process of extracting gas from coal in local gas factories. While the history of gas extraction in the Netherlands practically has come to an end, the entanglement of gas with the Dutch living environment is complex, multiple, and ongoing. Through an interdisciplinary study of archival sources and tracing gas induced changes to the built environment, this study is aimed at developing a spatial cultural history of gas in the Dutch living environment from the nineteenth century onward.</p><p><br></p>

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