Fluid Access: Archiving Performance-Based Arts

"Fluid access" indicates the interminability of the processes of archiving performance-based arts and their continued transformation, as well as their repeated appropriation in exhibitions, reenactments and scientific analysis. Fluid access is based on processes of collecting and ordering as well as on various medial forms of recording. The readability of the archive's artefacts is determined by their medial character. The international network that has evolved since 2009 with each edition of the online journal MAP media archive performance places these aspects at the center of its ongoing reflections. The exchange between artistic practice and scientific analysis highlights the importance of gaining fluid access to performance history.