Filed, Misfiled, Unfiled: Archives in Question

The archive is a site of struggle, where memory, authority, and desire collide. Who gets to shape the archive? Who upholds its order? What rules of engagement govern its maintenance, and what systems of value are encoded within?

Archivists aren’t just neutral caretakers; they're authors, editors, and protagonists in the formation of our collective memory, deciding what is filed and remembered. While archiving is often seen as the domain of institutions, we all engage in everyday acts of memory-making and carry our own archival tendencies. These homegrown archives – messy, intimate, decentralised and incomplete – not only feed into institutional collections but also offer a critical vantage point from which to rethink them anew.

This event features live interviews, reflective readings, food and music woven throughout the evening. New Architecture Writers invite you to join us at the table and reflect on your own archival tendencies, how you remember, what you keep, and why it matters.

New Architecture Writers in conversation with:

Emii Alrai, Artist

Aric Chen, Zaha Hadid Foundation

Shaoli Choudhury, British Library

Georgia Haseldine, V&A East Storehouse

Kaitlene Koranteng, iniva

Donata Miller-Obebe, V&A

Prem Sahib, Artist

The ticket is a donation - of your choosing - and goes directly towards the running of N.A.W. and the next generations of the programme.

In partnership with Heatherwick Studio

N.A.W. is run by Thomas Aquilina and Tom Wilkinson with support from Leela Keshav. Cohort 7: Efua Boakye, Hollie Douglas, Hadeel Eltayeb, Lena Lali, Akif Rahman, Henna Shah, Angus Taylor, Qinxue Wang, Chisei Ye