Going Postal

Wosh, Peter J.

doi:10.17723/aarc.61.1.74014n4r21676222

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…11 Our lives are being increasingly flooded with "large quantities of undigested, unfiltered, and unedited" information and, as such, "very different notions of authority, self, and communication" have developed. 12 Wosh was concerned that form has overtaken content-that we ask what defines a record more often than we investigate what is inside of one. Similarly, Terry Cook heavily critiqued archivists' seemingly "unreserved acceptance" of the maxim "the medium is the message," pointing out the increasing popularity of archival repositories' devotion to or organization by medium (e.g., film, photo, sound).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…17 Simultaneously, we are moving from conceptualizing "records as the passive products of human or administrative activity and towards considering records as active agents themselves in the formation of human and organizational memory." 18 As we balance what is and what is in "a record," so too must we examine both what is and what we can derive from "pornography," because "documentary form and informational content share a complex, ever-changing, and unexplored relationship" 19 that is effectively embodied by sex in the archives.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sex in the Archives: The Politics of Processing and Preserving Pornography in the Digital Age

Tang¹

2017

The American Archivist

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By synthesizing perspectives from both archival theory and porn studies, this article relates archives, pornography, and technology to reveal the growing complexities of processing sexually explicit materials in the archives. Amid canonical discussions of privacy/access for physical (personal) documents, the digitization of visual records, and shifting ideas of permanence (in part due to new tools for preservation), archivists must address the problems in preservation and access posed by digital records themselves. How will both analog and contemporary born-digital (e.g., Internetbased) pornographies be processed given the stigmas and metadata issues surrounding sexually explicit materials in the archives? These problems are all the more complicated by new theories of "digital preservation" and conceptualizations of the Internet as a (faux) "archive." As such, archives and archivists are left to negotiate the politics of what is "appropriate" content for the public-balancing outreach programs, educational initiatives, and grant-seeking with representation in and diversification of their collections. Rather than propose solutions for an unforeseen future in archival practice, the author interrogates current issues affecting the preservation of pornography in tandem with the advent of new technologies (e.g., the unfurling realities of digitization initiatives and cyberporn). The author intends to encourage further discussion and planning initiatives to account for these issues.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%