The chat with Andy extended beyond the institution’s history, with our discussion ranging from the archive’s acquisition processes to its relationship with other archives of interest to my research, including
the British Archive of Country Music and the National Jazz Archive.
In the interview, we also touched on what the difference might be between an ‘archive’
and a ‘collection’ --- this being a question that was raised at the POPID conference in Rotterdam (or, more accurately, over a few drinks post-conference with Jez Collins and Emilia Barna) after a screening of a short film called The Archive
which documents Paul Mawhinney's dilemma of what to do with his extensive vinyl collection. On watching the film, my sense was that this was more accurately 'The Collection' rather than The Archive.
The distinction between a collection and an archive is, like many things, blurred, but in talking this over with Andy it was brought home that, broadly speaking, an archive is concerned with the systematic curation of
records (not necessarily of the musical variety) that document a history of
something and to which some degree of access is available to those interested
in delving into that history (though access itself is tricky terrain, being
made even more problematic with the tightening of copyright laws).
This is something that I will be seeking to unpack further as my research progresses because it seems to be an important issue in relation to DIY institutions --- at what point does an individual’s collection become an archive?
