The Whole Life Academy (Berlin): Un/Learning Archives in the Age of the Sixth Extinction

Workshop 9: Un/Learning Archives In the Age of the Sixth Extinction led by Priyanka Basu and Steve Rowell

In what ways is the archive a viable repository of potential regenerative material for the future and in what ways is it an input in a positive feedback system of mutually assured destruction––an irrational fear response in the face of loss that condemns that which is not-yet-dead to the already-past?

What knowledge is needed to make these archives legible?

Does that knowledge exist in official archives, or does the “official” and “representational” character of archiving render illegible those nontraditional archives that don’t consider as a priori the separation of humans and non-humans?

Can interactions with nontraditional archives rebuild the archive as a non-imperial institution?

A workshop and fieldwork project as part of the Whole Life Academy II, scheduled for Fall 2021 online and March 2022 in Berlin at the Haus der Kulteren der Welt. This workshop will examine archives as related to natural sites, the built environment, climate change, and deep time.