A series of conversations and reading groups bringing students and faculty at Brown University together with artists, researchers and professionals from a wide range of international and interdisciplinary perspectives, Archiving the Ephemeral will be a valuable discursive space for researchers and practitioners concerned and critically engaged with the authoritative agency of the archive in the arts and humanities. Exploring the “drive to archive” within contemporary arts and humanities practice, the colloquium will seek to question assumptions of the inherent value of the archive and look for alternative ways of understanding the archive as process rather than object. It will engage with theories and methods of collection and archiving, dissemination and dispersal, appearance and disappearance in academic and contemporary artists’ work. The program of conversations will culminate with a public conversation with artists Corin Hewitt, Chitra Ganesh and Mariam Ghani who will are being brought to Brown in April 2011 through the support of the Creative Arts Council.

Open to faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, the reading group will meet every two weeks during the Spring 2011 semester in the newly opened Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. Readings will be distributed and discussions facilitated through a group weblog. More information can be found at: http://ephemarlarchive.blogspot.com.

Archiving the Ephemeral is organised by Hollis Mickey and Ian Russell and is supported by the Creative Arts Council, Office of International Affairs, Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage.

Financial support from:
John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage
Rhode Island School of Design
Brown University Theatre Arts and Performance Studies
Brown University Creative Arts Council
Brown University International Affairs Office
Brown University Visual Art Department