Collecting Otherwise: Gathering 2: [De-]Constructing Care in The Archive

Which alternative methodologies can enrich the archives of the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning? And how do we collect otherwise, including other points of view? During the second public gathering of Collecting Otherwise, the audience is invited to join the conversation. Research team members, who are part of Disclosing Architecture, and researcher Yasmin Tri Aryani will join the discussions on case studies presented during the event.

Following up on our first public gathering (11 February 2021), and connecting to the event The Critical Visitor: Archival Interaction (De-)Constructing Heritage on May 27, 2021, this Collecting Otherwise public gathering aims to delve deeper into questions around archival encounters and how they relate to the accessibility of a collection. Departing from the Archival Interaction’s focus on the locus of heritage construction (where, with whom, under the aegis of whom?), we will together hold a conversation space around the thematics of ‘entering’, ‘caring for’, ‘being with’, and ‘making kin with’ the archive. In this, the public gathering also intends to critically look at the instrumentalisation of (architectural) archives and their attribution of holding ‘truth’ in constructing (collective) identity and history - as this has been used to marginalise, sanitise, and oppress Other ways of remembering.

By thinking through moments of ‘arriving’ at the archive and how the archive enters institutions and institutional memory, we will trace - through a selection of our case studies (Vrouwen Bouwen Wonen, Berlage, Nationale Tentoonstelling Vrouwenarbeid 1898, and Keurige Leugens van het Officieel Fatsoen) - the balances of care enacted between the object, archive, archive’s origins, the archived practice or subject, the archive’s custodian/curator, archivists, ‘secretaries’, and visitors.

Yasmin Tri Aryani

Our special guest for this event is Yasmin Tri Aryani. Yasmin is a researcher and graphic recorder, who observes the problematic nature of architectural works that showcase the elements of traditional architecture of dominant ethnicities in government-funded buildings in Indonesia - a strategy that might lead to the marginalisation of minorities. In 2019, she was chosen to be a part of the M+/Design Trust research fellowship, where she brings to light various approaches exercised by Indonesian architects in embracing local traditions that champion inclusivity. Through her research, Aryani also explores the way traditional architecture has been used to represent national identity since colonial government times.

Collecting Otherwise Working Group Members

Present during the event are the Collecting Otherwise working group members: Clara Balaguer, Alfred Marasigan, Czar Kristoff, Isola Tong, Michael Karabinos, Hannah Dawn Henderson, Harriet Rose Morley, Hetty Berens, Carolina Valente Pinto, Delany Boutkan, Yessica Deira and Setareh Noorani.

Collecting Otherwise

Collecting Otherwise is a work in progress, an always-under-construction research endeavour that is making use of a multi-scalar approach to the archive: from object, to questions, to methodology and tools, and back again.

For more information, visit our website: https://bit.ly/3uuY5qa