Finding the camera original Nix film is taking a lifetime. Sometimes, so are finding key documents that you saw at one time, but are no longer there. Whether you are a graduate student or a JFK researcher, finding documents is an often-times frustrating experience. Why? Because as the following article by Eric Ketellar highlights:
Archives resemble temples as institutions of surveillance and power architecturally, but they also function as such, because the panoptical archive disciplines and controls through knowledge-power. Inside the archives, the rituals, surveillance, and discipline serve to maintain the power of the archives and the archivist. But the archives’ power is (or should be) the citizen’s power too. The violation of human rights is documented in the archives and the citizen who defends himself appeals to the archives.
If you’ve ever been stuck in the Janus-like structure of archival properties, this article will resonate with you. Here’s the PDF entitled: Archival Temples, Archival Prisons: Modes of Power and Protection
Archival Science 2: 221–238, 2002.
© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
