• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
• /
• no.68
• /
• pp.205-241
• /
• 2021

This article explores how to incorporate the topic of the global environmental crisis called the "anthropocene" into archives studies and connect it to ecological practical reasons. In order to encourage discussion of archival studies, which puts the environmental crisis at a kind of archive constant value, this study seeks to examine the possibility of a quality shift in archival studies based on ecology. This article aims to go beyond the pragmatism of preparing improvements to eco-friendly record management, which is recently claimed by the "Green Archive" in Western archival studies. It calls for a new concept called 'ecological archive', which theoretically combines a more archives-based and ecological paradigm, and its epistemological transformation. Specifically, the ecological approach of archives is first discovered in the discussion of archival studies and at the same time, through the "ecological turn" of archives emphasized by recent anthropocene discourses, the concept of "ecological archive" emphasized by this article is embodied. This study uses 'ecological archive' as a universal and theoretical framework for archives as a basic concept for building ecological 'living' archives. In other words, for the construction of ecological archives, we reinterpret and extend so-called democratic values for archives, i.e., post-custodianship, community archives, and archives of emotions. Finally, the records of foot-and-mouth disease killing burial sites, an important site and example of the anthropocene tragedy, exemplifies the methodology of the actual application of ecological living archives. The case analysis aims to seek a new qualitative shift in record management that adapts to global ecological transformation, while also emphasizing the documentation by archival activism in ecological field practices jointly organized by archivists and citizens.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
• /
• no.82
• /
• pp.275-309
• /
• 2024

This study examines artists' acts of resistance in the turbulent social climate of the 1960s and beyond, and considers the meaning of these documents in a contemporary context. It focuses on the Art Workers' Coalition, organised in 1969 by artists, writers, filmmakers and critics. Art Workers' Coalition demanded basic rights for artists in the art world and challenged war, discrimination, and injustice in society at large. Not only did they actively intervene in the structural problems of society through collective actions, protests, and statements, as seen in other acts of resistance, but they also expanded their reach through the medium of art. Studies of the Art Workers' Coalition, which can be considered as activist art of the late 1960s, have mainly chronicled their actions in the context of art history, without paying particular attention to the nature and value of the documentation produced in the process of resistance. However, the archives of Art Workers' Coalition have an informational and evidential value, which is a key value of archives, as they provide information not only about the activities of the organisation, but also about the activities of the individuals who comprised the unions, their intricate connections, and the social climate. In addition to the basic function of proving the activities of a group of artists, the archives of Art Workers' Coalition are also significant as a medium for providing information on people and events that have been marginalised in mainstream studies of artworks and artists, and for incorporating them into historical memory. Therefore, this study aims to identify the current status of Art Workers' Coalition-related archives as a medium to prove the activities of artists of the time, and to propose a different way of reading history through the contextual information of archives.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
• /
• no.53
• /
• pp.45-77
• /
• 2017

This study intends to rehabilitate the memories of the social other which have been gradually forgotten in the social events overloaded with the undemocratic violence in South Korea today. This study explores a case of Yongsan Tragedy in 2009 among the most tragic events. It notes the autonomous ways in which activist artists would like to memorize the socio-historical events anew despite the emptiness of public records. In other words, this study considers the Yongsan case to be significant that a group of the public, artists, grassroots activists, religion men got together in solidarity so as to create the contested narratives countering dominant memories and thus to signify the records written by the civil society. Among others, activist artists had documented the unofficial counter-memories of socially alienated peoples in terms of planning a series of artistic events such as opening some gallery exhibitions and performance events, issuing a volume of work books, comics and photographies, online broadcasting, and directing some documentaries. Especially, this paper tends to note the documentation of on-site activist artists to record the counter-memories against social oblivion. By doing so, it finally suggests how we could document the Yongsan Tragedy both to search out the archival implications of today's art activism and to insert those artistic records into the commonly shared counter-memories in a more inclusive way.