452ºF (Jan 2018)
(RE)READING INDEX CARDS: THE ARCHIVIST AS INTERPRETER IN SUSAN PUI SAN LOK'S 'NEWS'
Abstract
Looking at susan pui san lok's projects News (2005) and RoCH (2013), this paper contemplates the notions put forward by Michel-Rolph Trouillot and Jacques Derrida on the power of archivists, not solely as guardians of documents but also as their interpreters. Taking into consideration that photographic and moving image archives present unique difficulties in their cataloguing processes, I examine silences that might be generated by a thematic classification that is not impervious to archivists' biases. Moreover, I consider if the silences created by manual processes of classification and retrieval might be surpassed through digital technologies, or if it is possible that new technologies simply create different types of silencing.
