CFP: Production Archives 03 – Archival Practices

Open Library of Humanities Journal Special Collection: Call for Papers

Production Archives 03 – Archival Practices

The open-access special collection Production Archives invites article submissions to a critical forum dedicated to the theme of "Archival Practices". Published by the Open Library of Humanities journal, this forum focuses on the analysis of institutions and practices of curation and conservation in archives, museums, exhibitions, performances and the digital humanities. By refocussing the critical lens to view not only the end products, objects and commodities of creative labour but also the actual material processes of cultural production, consumption and waste, this forum will demonstrate that archival practices reach into multiple, interconnected areas of life and society in ways that carry profound ethical, ecological, economic, technological, and political implications for the 21st century. 

This open-access collection addresses this significant critical gap by publishing high quality peer-reviewed articles that explore innovative practices in archiving, curating and exhibiting creative labour and its detritus. We invite papers from a wide academic field as well as from practitioners. In particular, we are interested in articles that analyse archival practice in relation to the following topics: 

• archives or exhibitions of the materials of cultural production (e.g. the sets, costumes, props, lights and mechanics of theatrical performance) 

• the curation, conservation, exhibition of production archives in digital formats (e.g. in the digitised production archives of the Salzburg CORE database: see CORE – THEATRE | OPERA | FESTIVAL at http://kultur.plus.ac.at/index.php/core) 

• the materials that stage-design, painting, sculpture, filmmaking, architecture, textiles and other visual arts and performance formats produce, recycle and leave behind in their wake

• recycled, upcycled, waste studies art or curation dedicated to exhibiting the cultural detritus that is generated and circulated throughout society via a diversity of material practices

• practitioner approaches to conservation and material and/or digital archival practice 

• sites of archiving, curating and exhibiting creative labour and its detritus (theatres, operas, museums, festivals, street performances, galleries, libraries, archives, online, multimedia, transmedia, etc.)

• theoretical and thematic approaches to archival practice (performance, identity, affect, genre, gender, sexuality, race, disability studies, economic class, social history, anthropology, economics, theology, politics, intercultural perspectives etc.)

• the institutional, economic, technical, and/or creative production contexts of the archiving of cultural and creative labour

• the ethics and aesthetics of archival practice

• case studies exploring the obstacles and possibilities of archiving of a specific cultural production 

The deadline for submission is currently open on a rolling basis.

The special collection, edited by Prof. Sabine COELSCH-FOISNER (editor-in-chief), Prof. Vicky ANGELAKI, Dr. Paul FAGAN, Prof. Roger LUCKHURST, is to be published in the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) (ISSN 2056-6700). The OLH is an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded open-access journal with a strong emphasis on quality peer review and a prestigious academic steering board. Unlike some open-access publications, the OLH has no author-facing charges and is instead financially supported by an international consortium of libraries.

Submissions should be made online at https://olh.openlibhums.org/about/submissions/ in accordance with the author guidelines and clearly marking the entry as PRODUCTION ARCHIVES 03 - ARCHIVAL PRACTICES. Submissions will then undergo a double-blind peer review process. Authors will be notified of the outcome as soon as reports are received and an editorial decision made.

Contact: Prof. Sabine COELSCH-FOISNER (sabine.coelsch-foisner@sbg.ac.at)

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