Week 11
Our final lecture saw Kirsteen MacDonald explore ‘Curating, Archives, History’, which was an interesting way to end the module – right where it all begins: at the archives.
It had me thinking; what role does archiving play in my work? In my previous blog I spoke about the use of an archive to further the piece: the creation of a website in line with Rural Futurisms, as well as a booklet featuring information on Ash Dieback, folklore, essays, etc. However, can I view fuinseoga as an archive in itself?
Kirsteen commented on how the internet often gives us the impression that we have access to everything, and that we know everything. But what we see is only the tip of the iceberg – especially when it comes to folklore and oral history – an art which historically exists through word of mouth. Therefore, what Fuinseoga aims to do is offer a real-time archive, with oral histories and artefacts unfolding before those involved.
This live, human aspect of Fuinseoga also feeds into an element of Kirsteen’s Lecture in which she referred to Hal Foster while exploring the need for human interpretation when archiving. As put by Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, ‘(Folklore) must be chosen and often invented, and (it has) force only through the decisions and experience of individuals’. Therefore, with human involvement playing an integral role in the life of folklore due to personal experiences and the context of locality and community, it is only though us that folklore can be sufficiently archived, not through technology.
Kirsteen also commented on the Maud Sulter exhibition in Tramway, and the role of the exhibition in reactivating her archive through its display. Fuinseoga would aim to do similarly, reactivating folklore which has lost its original oral function. This loss is evident in a report made by The National Trust which claimed that Social Media is to blame for the death of folklore. The folklore sector is also severely underfunded in Ireland, regardless of its status as a ‘national science’ (as noted by Ó Giolláin).
#1 Speaking Performance: Oral History as a curatorial tool for reactivating performance and media art (2021) was an online workshop by Heike Ross and Judit Bodor is an example of oral histories being reactivated through contribution. Held on Zoom, it explored how ‘oral history conversations and artists’ interviews can be used as curatorial tools with which to re-activate artworks, especially those of multimedia performance and new media art’. Multiple artworks were examined which were coupled with relevant interviews and conversations with the artist, as well as any archival material mentioned by the artists.
While curating an online workshop would not work for Fuinseoga, as the wooden installation plays an integral role its function, it is interesting to see how others curate oral histories from the archive, framing it in a similar manner as something that has the ability to reawaken something else.
| Ó Giolláin, Diarmuid. “Rethinking (Irish) Folklore in the Twenty-First Century.” Béaloideas 81 (2013): 37–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24862816.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/06/folklore-dying-due-rise-social-media-national-trust-warns/#:~:text=Mythical%20tales%20about%20mermaids%2C%20warriors,shape%20local%20and%20regional%20identities.%E2%80%9D https://curatinglivingarchives.network/1-speaking-performance-oral-history-as-a-curatorial-tool-for-reactivating-performance-and-media-art/ |
