Introduction: Archival Turns, Twists, and New Directions

ABSTRACT This introduction offers an overview of the archival turn and its current trajectories across disciplines and art forms. Originating from two symposia—“Re-mediating the Archive” and “Archival Turns, Twists, and New Directions”—the special issue reflects the multidisciplinary and collaborative spirit that animates much recent archive-related work. The four peer-reviewed articles and seven interviews in this special issue were chosen as stand-out contributions among a contemporary explosion of interest in archives. Because of its immediacy and fundamentally dialogic character, the interview format seemed an ideal way of capturing the dynamic now of archives and archival engagements. Thus, the issue contains seven interviews generously engaged with questions ranging from the interviewees’ own contributions to inspiring or disquieting new trends. Often wearing many hats at once (archivist, artist, scholar, and activist), our contributors model a bracing new direction: the coming together of scholarship, artistry, stewardship, and advocacy in generative dialogues among archival theories and practices, histories, and futures.