ABSTRACT
Archives are material entities that have been constructed and made. Understanding the archive as a process of making increases the visibility of the maker, bringing their presence more clearly into view. Such a process in turn opens up new ways of understanding and experiencing the archive, through intellectual, cognitive, emotional, sensory and affectual experiences. It likewise affords a potentially greater sense of intimacy between the maker and the user today. This chapter draws on the theories of Tim Ingold to argue for a greater shift in perspective, thinking about how we can learn with archives, as part of a developmental process of making, besides or exclusively learning from them. Using the example of the David Campton archive at the University of Leicester, the chapter considers how the archive’s materiality plays an important role in this rethinking. Furthermore, it uses Ingold’s concept of the ‘meshwork’ to consider how the archive is active in a process of ‘re-making’. The archive is thus understood as active within the world, shaping how society ultimately comes to understand itself.
