檔案與再檔案之間

A Look at the Art of Archiving and Re-Archiving

For archives or museums, collecting objects, arts and crafts, documents, and establishing databases, archives and repositories are the most basic tasks; this process involves methods, techniques, and professional procedures. Archiving is not only about practical means, but also related to the aesthetic and philosophical thinking behind the process itself. Objects, art works, cultural relics, or film, from their initial discovery, leave their original repository then migrate and transfer into another repository, a common practice that repeats itself many times through institutions and generations. This essay tries to ask questions around humanistic thoughts that buttress the archival standard operating procedures. What is the symbolic meaning of the act of archiving and re-archiving? Can the space between the archiving and the re-archiving shed light upon such philosophical, aesthetic or humanistic practices? Can we take this opportunity to have a glimpse of the secrets behind the museum? This paper takes the Taipei Film Collectors' Museum's three collections of apparatus, costumes, and documents as an example, to reveal and explain how the discovery, migration, acquisition, and other archival work, is not the lessening of value, but rather the process of re-contextualization and enrichment in order to establish a new discourse, to activate the imagination, and to disseminate the influential work of an archive.