Archives & Utopia

Publication series Das Neue Alphabet (The New Alphabet), Volume 14
Editors: Detlef Diederichsen, Arno Raffeiner
Publisher: Spector Books, Leipzig
Ca. 80 pages, German and English edition
color illustrations, paperback with folded dust cover
ISBN DE: 978-3-95905-525-3
ISBN EN: 978-3-95905-526-0
Price: 10 €

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Following the archivist’s desire to select, categorize, and store past and present runs the risk of perpetuating hegemonic ways of thinking. For anticipating what will be of importance in the future is closely tied in with present-day realities and power structures. As a counterpoint to this, the volume looks at archives as spaces of alternative research and production sites of utopias relating to possible futures. In Paul Scheerbart’s futuristic 1910 novella, Zack und Sidi und der große Kopf (Zack and Sidi and the Big Head: A Ceres Story), two inhabitants of the planet Ceres reflect on knowledge production and identity. This is the starting point for genre-busting ruminations on mechanisms, methods and tools for designing forms of archival activism. With contributions by Daniela Agostinho, Marwa Arsanios, Ariella Azoulay, Black Quantum Futurism, Lama El Khatib, Doreen Mende and Paul Scheerbart.