(Un)Learning Archival Methods From Young Archivists: A Lesson in Spatiality, Vitality, and Reciprocity

Abstract

Finding inspiration from recent calls to consider the body, affect, movement, and otherwise as/in archives, this article focuses on events that took place with young archivists engaged in the act of drawing at a community center. These data-stories are put in conversation with spatial theory, children’s geographies, and feminist new materialisms to make sense of child-created archives and to offer researchers a way to (un)learn archival methods by acknowledging artifacts, as not only reflecting the community of makers but also reflecting the vibrancy of materials and space as an archival reciprocity.