Digital transformation leads to a fundamental change in your approach to audiences, value proposition, and working methods. This integral process requires a vision on the four quadrants of the DEN focus model. Attention to the process quadrant, including organizing digital collaboration and documenting processes, is an inseparable part of this. But how do you create an archive for the future? How do you ensure it reflects your artistic identity and legacy?
The I in Archive, with the I of Identity
Based on discussions with participants in the DEN archive project and The Need for Legacy, we developed the model 'The I in Archive'. With this model, DEN outlines an approach that helps organize and curate one’s work within the archive.
What does the heritage of cultural institutions actually consist of? In practice, it is a diverse and hybrid collection of artistic expressions. Think, for example, of scripts of a performance, a recording of a dance performance, or the Instagram posts of the creation process. This heritage is not only about storing (digital) recordings of the work but also about documenting the collaborative processes in all phases. This includes artistic choices and creation, production, execution, marketing, media attention, and audience response.
With this rich heritage, you can tell new stories about the creator, the company, or the context in which the expression took place. In this way, an institution can spark interest in their history and working methods among a broad audience.
'The I in Archive' serves as a framework for various questions, such as: What can artists and creators discover by looking at their archive from this perspective? How can they explore and present their own identity? What stories can they tell with it? And what reuse of this material is possible, by themselves and by other creators?
Where is the Identity in the Archive?
To bring identity to the forefront, you can structure an archive according to:
- Portfolio: the complete series of produced/performed works and activities, past, present, future
- Signature: the signature, the way of working, creating, producing, the unique style, methods of working
- Lineage: long lines, the sources of inspiration, the artistic traditions being built upon, heritage and legacy. But also the followers you train, educate, inspire, and influence.
Why Should Creators Work with The I in Archive?
Mirjam Zegers, coordinator of Curatorial Practices in Music at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Zwolle, is enthusiastic about this model. She uses it during the project for the development of a platform around the work of Louis Andriessen (1939-2021), in which DEN also participates. Zegers: “The three-part structure makes it easier to gain insight into the many aspects of someone's identity, in this case, Louis Andriessen. Now that we want to develop a platform for him, it is essential that we outline important building blocks. This model is very suitable for that. Subsequently, you can make deliberate choices to elaborate on specific components. I added a category 'users' because we also want to clearly identify the target audiences.”
This model provides guidance for mobilizing and securing knowledge about the organization's history. Too often, such knowledge resides only in people's minds, eventually leading to its loss. Using the model, you can conduct interviews (oral history) or explore, elaborate, and visualize the various components in sessions together. By looking at your archive (or collections) in this way, you discover relevant materials and new storylines. This provides insights for the organization itself but also opens up possibilities to make the stories embedded in the archive accessible to a broader audience.
Knowledge of and insight into your own identity can also contribute to clear positioning towards the public or sponsors. Searching for the essence of an identity touches on branding. It is a first step to presenting a clearer image or recognizable identity to the outside world.
Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Own I in Archive:
- What materials showcase the signature of the company/creator?
- Who or what are sources of inspiration?
- On which works or artistic traditions are you building?
- How can individual creators find their place in the artistic tradition?
- What do you need to find and claim your place in it?
Once you have a clearer picture of this, you can decide what you want to share with your audience or exchange with other creators, researchers, cultural, and media professionals. The model also helps young creators present and clarify their own works and methods to the field while distinguishing themselves, for example, in funding applications.
Identity and The Need for Legacy
Both perspectives also emerge in the issues addressed by the foundation The Need for Legacy, established in 2020. This organization aims to function as a platform and community to identify needs, share stories, and engage in discussions about a more diverse and inclusive theater world, linked to the collective study of forgotten histories. The Need for Legacy had existed informally for some time and had already organized several events during the Dutch Theatre Festival to draw more attention to diversity.
In recent years, the Dutch Theatre Festival has paid significant attention to diversity. Programs by, among others, Lara Staal, Quincy Gario, Maarten van Hinte, and Marjorie Boston led to a gathering of young creators and performers of all backgrounds under the title The Need for Legacy (opens in new tab).
Preserving Multi-Cultural Archives
Maarten van Hinte, theater maker and lecturer, gave a presentation on these themes during the second DEN Tuesday. RAN INC, founded by Marjorie Boston and Maarten van Hinte, emerged from Made in da Shade, the theater company that introduced urban theater in the Netherlands in 1992. They were also the founders of the MC Theater, the legendary Amsterdam venue and production house where urban theater, music, and club culture came together.
Many of these initiatives, previously labeled as multi-cultural, have been discontinued. RIGHTABOUTNOW advocates for the preservation and use of archives from companies like Made in da Shade, GUP, Cosmic, and MC. RIGHTABOUTNOW is now participating in the final round of the archive project developed by DEN to inventory these archives.
Maarten van Hinte emphasizes the importance of digital heritage collections for young creators. These enable them to search for their own identity and the legacy of their predecessors for their development and formation. Young creators with, for example, Antillean, Surinamese, Indian, Turkish, or Moroccan backgrounds often do not know many predecessors with the same background. Within the current curriculum of arts education and the canon of performing arts covered, there is usually no attention to this. Maarten van Hinte sees great potential for The I in Archive in addressing the issues of The Need for Legacy. For example, it can be used for organizing the archives that RIGHTABOUTNOW has taken under its wing. It can also be used by researchers and students in studies and research assignments within the performing arts. Students in arts education and university can be challenged to research relevant predecessors and themes to consciously map and document their own development.
Follow-Up Activities Around The I in Archive
Viewed this way, there are opportunities for cultural institutions to use a digital archive much more broadly. Where the archive, through this integral approach to digital transformation, also contributes to:
- Developing new artistic products
- Offering new forms of audience engagement
- Working on values
DEN will further develop the model, for example, by engaging in discussions with institutions, creators, and curators at museums and presentation institutions. Some participants in the DEN Archive Project focus on talent development or offer residencies. DEN can also implement the model “The I in Archive” in documenting and monitoring participants they provide a development space for. There are opportunities to help young creators document and archive their own work along the three lines of portfolio, lineage, and signature from the start of their education. And to conduct research in archives and heritage collections in line with The Need for Legacy as a student.
An elaboration of this model is of great value for an organization to work on setting up a digital archive of the future. Where you also include and document future and hybrid offerings with new productions, works, events, and activities. Especially along the lines of lineage, you can further search for additional digital materials and incorporate them as content from other digital collections. This allows you to enrich the stories you offer digitally with, for example, reviews, recordings, biographies, and items from radio and TV. The digital archive of the future for a cultural institution thus grows into a resource for reuse and the creation of new artistic products, gaining insight into the creative process, and inspiring other creators.
In the NSDE 2021-2024, creators are identified as an important user group of digital heritage. Under DEN's direction, the specific needs of creators will be mapped out: What are creators looking for? What sources do they use? How does digital heritage relate to their own work? What materials support your online stories and presentations? The model The I in Archive will also be used for this.
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