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I, Archive

Artist’s Statement

graeff-2004-iarchivetheorypaper

Synopsis

The purpose of this performance art piece is to illustrate a few archival concepts, the barriers and nuances of archive, specifically. The basis for the experiment is in the simple scenario of “Question & Answer.” I, playing the archive, put myself in the position of interviewee three times. Each time I am asked questions. The first two times, the questions are identical. The third time they are altered ever so slightly. For this to occur, of course, the questions must be scripted which raises a few philosophical questions. Even more questions are raised when users of the archive are privy to an example of someone else’s method of interaction with the archive. And then, how do the users react/interact when they are witness to a previous session via a pre-recording as well as a concurrent video example via a live recording from only a few moments earlier.