RAI Film Seminar: Anarchival Materiality in Archives
Kate Hennessy and Trudi Lynn Smith were recently invited to presented their research-creation work in film, video,ย and photography in a Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) Film Seminar. We hope to share the recording of the session soon.
Video stills, ‘Residue: Proximal Interactions” by Trudi Lynn Smith and Kate Hennessy, 2017.
RAI Film Seminar, April 29th 2022
๐๐ป๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ต๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐น ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ต๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐
Speakers:
๐๐ฟ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐๐๐ (Simon Fraser University)
๐๐ฟ ๐ง๐ฟ๐๐ฑ๐ถ ๐๐๐ป๐ป ๐ฆ๐บ๐ถ๐๐ต (University of Victoria)
๐๐ฟ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐๐๐ (Simon Fraser University)
๐๐ฟ ๐ง๐ฟ๐๐ฑ๐ถ ๐๐๐ป๐ป ๐ฆ๐บ๐ถ๐๐ต (University of Victoria)
In this talk, we present a series of video and photography-based research-creation artworks that have emerged through our collaborative exploration of anarchival materiality in archives. This work acknowledges and visualizes the agency of anarchival materiality, where the order and structure of human-made film archives and other fugitive collections are displaced by the lively anarchy of the materials themselves. Classification systems, spatial organization, and human responsibilities and actions are all fundamentally reshaped and determined by the uncooperative residents of archives, which vibrantly signal the transformative organic passing of time, unstable regimes of value and authority, and the collusion of natural processes in undermining the human desire for stability and persistence. From our explorations remediating degraded magenta film stock, to improvisational video work with photographic negatives, to documentation of fugitive paleontology collections and their stewards in northern British Columbia, Canada, we position our art-led practice as oriented towards an anthropology of the multimodal that is engaged with the materiality of ethnographic research, acknowledges the fugitivity of analog and digital collections, and includes speculative research-creation practices to communicate anthropological knowledge and theory.
๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ด๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐:
Kate Hennessy and Trudi Lynn Smith are anthropologists and practising artists that have worked together as curators and collaborators since 2009 as a part of Ethnographic Terminalia, an international curatorial collective exhibiting and creating works at the intersection of art and anthropology. Hennessy is an associate professor at Simon Fraser Universityโs School of Interactive Arts and Technology, where she leads the Making Culture Lab, an interdisciplinary research and production studio. Smith is an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. Together they explore cultural practices of media, museums, and archives in the context of technoscience. Their art practice in video, photography, and text has engaged with entropy in diverse collections and the environmental, social, and political impacts of new digital memory infrastructures. Hennessy and Smith highlight collaboration and friendship as central to their work.
Kate Hennessy and Trudi Lynn Smith are anthropologists and practising artists that have worked together as curators and collaborators since 2009 as a part of Ethnographic Terminalia, an international curatorial collective exhibiting and creating works at the intersection of art and anthropology. Hennessy is an associate professor at Simon Fraser Universityโs School of Interactive Arts and Technology, where she leads the Making Culture Lab, an interdisciplinary research and production studio. Smith is an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. Together they explore cultural practices of media, museums, and archives in the context of technoscience. Their art practice in video, photography, and text has engaged with entropy in diverse collections and the environmental, social, and political impacts of new digital memory infrastructures. Hennessy and Smith highlight collaboration and friendship as central to their work.