Category: Archival Theory

Archives on Screen: ODU MLIS students explore the impact of archives in creative media

by Jessica Ritchie, Head of Special Collections and University Archives

Loki and Mobius search for answers in the TVA archives in Season 1 of Loki

For the past several years, I have had the pleasure of developing and teaching courses about archives, special collections, and preservation management for ODU’s Master in Library and Information Science program. Last summer, I incorporated a new project in my LIBS:610 Seminar in Archives and Special Collections that was focused on the use of archives in creative media. Students were asked to write a short opinion paper describing and analyzing the use of archival materials and/or rare books in a creative media production of their choice, including feature films, television series, documentaries, podcasts, video games, novels, or other programs intended for a national audience.

I was delighted that the students seemed to really enjoy the assignment, with several of them saying it was their favorite assignment of the course. Given that this was an opinion paper and not a research paper, I was very impressed by the thoughtfulness of their work and their ability to take on some of the more challenging aspects of the texts they selected.

Scene set in the archives in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

I found it interesting that the students shared very similar takeaways from their exploration of archives in creative media, despite the genre and format they selected. Students exploring fictional storytelling reported being surprised how often primary sources featured in film and television productions. In many feature films, regardless of genre, characters engage with primary sources to learn critical information that advances the narrative, contributes to character development, or uncovers hidden truths that are central to the story. In her essay on Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Adrian Mohr notes that archival documents, while incomplete, play a fundamental role in advancing the film’s plot:

“Due to their incompletion or mutability, the archives fail the movie’s protagonist at various times. Nonetheless, they play an essential role in his investigation and uncovering a conspiracy threatening the entire galaxy.”

Adrian Mohr

In addition to advancing the narrative, students pointed out that archives are critical for developing the visual storytelling and authenticity of create media productions. Filmmakers often rely on archival video footage, photographs, and primary sources documents to develop the visual style of a film, including creating sets, costumes, props, and other visual elements that create an authentic sense of time and place. In this way, archival materials develop a sense of immersive visual storytelling that is critical to the authenticity of films, television, and even video games. Archives are also used to construct authentic concepts of identity, which are fundamental to character development and the societies in which the characters live. In his essay on the game Stardew Valley, Donovan O’Daniel explores how “memory institutions of Stardew Valley reflect the purposes and struggles of their real-world counterparts.” In order to rebuild the society of Stardew Valley, the player of the game has to rebuild the collection of books and artifacts central to establishing the town’s identity. The player is required to take on the role of a curator and approach collection development from both a nostalgic and forward-focused viewpoint.

Players of the game Stardew Valley have to help the new curator rebuild the stolen collections of their towns’ memory institutions.

In documentary films and podcasts, students noted that archival materials often play a critical evidentiary role by reinforcing the authenticity of the story. In addition to visually or auditorily telling a story, archival materials are sometimes utilized by documentary filmmakers to credibly challenge an accepted narrative of an event, person, or entity. They are also critical resources for interrogating and contextualizing memory, including negotiating and renegotiating complex identities. In her essay on the documentary Saigon, USA Linh Nguyen explores how archival materials contribute to establishing authentic and nuanced experiences of Vietnamese Americans:

“Archival materials significantly enhance the storytelling of this documentary by providing a rich, authentic backdrop that contextualizes the narrative of many perspectives- the old and young generations. By incorporating footage, photographs, and documents, the documentary can vividly illustrate the lived experiences of Vietnamese refugees, their journey to America, the younger generation’s point of view of Vietnamese, Vietnamese Americans, and Americans, as well as protests and rallies.”

Linh Nguyen

In addition to developing students’ skills in media literacy and archival theory, the exercise helped students explore more nuanced aspects of how archives operate in society through the lens of creative media. Even fictional stories invite us to make important connections to the real world. In his essay on Blade Runner 2049, Caleb Lane explains how the protagonists’ visit to the fictional archive of a science fiction film is similar to what we experience in our reality, where the histories of marginalized communities are often unaccounted for or difficult to locate:

“When K arrives at the Wallace Corporation Archives, he gives the File Clerk the replicant’s serial number as well as the lock of hair discovered inside of the buried box. The Clerk then places it inside a scanner, which then provides him with a small amount of information. If the viewer is paying attention to the details of the scene, the File Clerk obtains the record’s shelf location. This shows that the workers of the Wallace Corporation Archives took the time to organize each record in way that is accessible to staff and visitors. The File Clerk informs K that the hair belonged to a ‘pre-blackout’ replicant, which makes finding any information on her difficult. This idea of fragmented information as a result of an event or marginalization of a group of people is a reality that we face in the real world.”

Caleb Mohr

An archivist helps the protagonist access information in the archives in Blade Runner 2049

Finally, while many creative media productions rely on archives and/or archival institutions to their stories, students discovered that they rarely show or reference the archivist caring for the materials. This is true across all media, including documentaries and podcasts, where archivists are key contributors of content to the production. Students proposed several theories that explain phenomenon, including the idea that revealing the archivist would disrupt the immersive aspect of the media production. Some students felt that the nature of archival labor is inherently “behind the scenes,” while other students were unhappy that the archivist was obscured in the process.  In my personal opinion, the invisibility of archival labor is a contributing factor to the chronic underfunding and devaluation of the profession, despite our critical contributions to creative media output and the economy it sustains. In her essay on episodes “695BGK” and “39 Shots” of the Criminal podcast, Stephanie Hernandez explores the paradox of invisible archival labor:

In Criminal, the archivist who cares for the materials used is not seen or mentioned. However, this absence emphasizes archivists’ often invisible yet critical role in preserving and providing access to historical records and documents. Archivists’ work is fundamental to creating these podcast episodes, as they rely on these archival materials to tell accurate and compelling stories. The detailed reports, testimonies, photographs, and official records used in the episodes are all products of archival work.

Stephanie Hernandez

Interested in learning more? Many of the productions are available at the ODU Libraries or can be streamed/purchased online. In celebration of National Archives Month, we have partnered with our colleagues in charge of the Naro Video Collection to curate a special shelf featuring several of the productions that were selected by the students! Stop by the first floor of Perry Library to browse the shelf, which includes the student recommendations and other films selected by Special Collections and University Archives Staff.

Here is a complete list of the texts selected by the students:

Feature Films

  • The Mummy
  • The Monuments Men
  • Blade Runner 2049
  • The Wave (Norway)
  • The Batman
  • The Sentinel
  • The Da Vinci Code
  • The Da Vinci Code: Angels and Demons
  • Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Documentaries

  • Federer: 12 Final Days
  • Scandalous: The True Story of the National Enquirer
  • Saigon, USA
  • Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
  • A Revolution on Canvas
  • Mickey: The Story of a Mouse
  • “The 3 Sailors Trapped in the USS West Virginia” by the YouTube channel Real Horror

Television Series and Mini-series

  • The Interpreter of Silence (Germany)
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender

Podcasts

  • Criminal
  • Red Valley
  • The Magnus Archives
  • In the Dark

Video Games

  • Stardew Valley
  • Honkai: Star Rail
  • Valiant Hearts: The Great War.

Novels

  • The Selection, a series of five young adult novels written by Kierra Cass

A New Insight: An Intern’s First Look Into Archival Work

by Ethan Dykes, HIS 368 Intern in Special Collections and Archives

As an up and coming history major at Old Dominion University, I was excited to receive the opportunity to work as an intern at the Special Collections Department in the Perry Library. I have always been curious about the specifics behind the jobs that entail the collection, study, and preservation of historical materials. This being my final semester at the university I was thankful for the opportunity to learn all I could about archival work before I graduated. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, I would have to do the internship remotely rather than the usual in-person experience. Still, I believed this to be a good opportunity to see what working in an archive facility was like and if I would consider it as a job for myself in the future. Needless to say I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I have learned about archival work and the types of materials I have gotten to work with despite the global pandemic.

ArchivesMonth
October is National Archives Month! It’s a great time learn more about archives and the labor and expertise that goes into them.

Unexpected Lessons

My first few assignments in the internship mostly involved getting to know the staff and reading the training modules for archival work. To my surprise, the training module held a plethora of information on the specifics of archival work, and I learned many unexpected lessons. Not only did the modules define the different types of archives in the world and what they look to collect, but how they may sort and preserve those different types of materials. Many paper materials, for example, need to be kept in properly humidified places with dim light and kept in containers safe from dust and bugs. I knew from common sense that paper materials certainly needed to be kept clean and with minimal exposure, but I did not know the amount of tiny specifics that were important to keep those materials in good condition. Such things included the importance of using iridescent bulbs and not fluorescent ones in rooms with paper or other materials to prevent deterioration from ultraviolet rays. I also learned much about the importance of structure and safety in archival facilities. Archives have to be careful of how their buildings are built and manage to ensure safety from disasters and accidents, such as water leaks from air conditioning units. There is also a surprising amount of importance on security, such as the need to organize materials in a certain way that prevents just anyone from looking something up and being able to take it. Archival work has a surprising amount of complexities and small details that one must learn if they wish to be able to handle historical documents.

Employee in Washington National Records Center Stack Area, ca. 1968. (National Archives and Records Administration)
Employee in Washington National Records Center Stack Area, ca. 1968. (National Archives and Records Administration)

Of Surprising Importance

Other than learning much about archival work and the surprising amount of information required to conduct such labor, I have also found archival work to be of surprising importance to the world of history. As a historian, I always knew that archives played a key role in the study of historical materials but I did not initially see their overall importance. Archives do not simply gather and preserve information, which in of itself is of significance, they also organize, label, and make that information easy to access to the public and to historians. Those wishing to research certain materials for a book or paper may easily find themselves in the depths of an archive facility shifting through shelves of materials. Many archives are also the keepers of documents one would not find anywhere else in the world, and are thus of major importance to the preservation of local and smaller portions of history. Archives are not only more complicated than I initially thought, they are also of greater significance than one such as myself may originally think. They are a key cog in the machine that preserves and teaches the world’s history.

A New Found Respect

Overall, I am thoroughly enjoying my time with this internship so far, and have a new found respect for those who work in archives. The work I’ve done so far has been interesting and insightful, with a plethora of information about archival work. A person outside of the archival world, such as my previous self, may believe it to be simple and easy. But there is actually a science to it, a methodology that is used to best preserve the world’s history. This has been the most useful and world-changing lesson I have learned so far from the internship. In just a few weeks I have had the privilege of learning about the importance of archival work and the amount of effort that goes into it. I strongly recommend anyone interested in archival work, or in other professions of history, to seek out information on the methods behind archive work. It may yet offer a new perspective on your view of the work behind historical preservation and research.