The Archive as a Productive Space of Conflict

The applied research project from University of Arts and Design, Karlsruhe, and resulting publication, The Archive as a Productive Space of Conflict examines archival practice and its spatial repercussions in an open conversation among over 80 artists, architects, writers, theorists, educators, designers and others. What are the spaces involved in making archives productive? Conventional archives tend to define themselves through content-specific accumulation of matter, subscribing to an existing order. The structure of archives has not evolved in response to its cumulative model. A productive archive would offer an open framework which actively transforms itself, thus allowing for the constant production of new and surprising relationships and new perspectives on archival practice. Contributions by Stuart Bailey, Bless, Beatriz Colomina, Cline Condorelli, Armin Linke, Dexter Sinister, Nav Haq, Nikolaus Hirsch, Christoph Keller, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Walid Raad and Alice Rawsthorn.