Productive tensions of an audiovisual theatrical archive: reflections from a management and research experience

Abstract

This paper presents the experience of the research group on Contemporary Theater, Politics and Society in Latin America (IIGG-UBA) with the creation and management of an archive that collects videos connected to the group’s subject. It is called TyPAL (Teatro y Política en América Latina) and it is hosted as a fonds inside the Audiovisual Archive of the Gino Germani Research Institute at the University of Buenos Aires. Within the framework of this issue’s dossier, we aim to approach some of the productive tensions that emerge when working with the archive, and that are connected to its definition as an audiovisual theatrical archive. We organized our reflections on a series of pairings that condense these productive tensions ‒theatrical research/archive; theatrical/ audiovisual; analogical/digital; personal archives /institutional archives‒ and that allowed us to analyze some of the specific circumstances and conceptual discussions in which the TyPAL is framed and that let us address issues of performing arts research in the context of the growing archival interest widespread in contemporary culture.

Keywords

• archivo
• investigación teatral
• artes escénicas
• audiovisual
• preservación digital