Public Document Repository - Presentation of the Trafó Archive
Browse Trafó's new digital archive from 13 October in the interactive corner outside the Main Hall.
Public Document Repository
What has happened here over the past decades? How many dance performances have visited from the Far East? What was the original design concept and how did the Trafó logo evolve? Who among the Hungarian independents have produced theater with a political tone? Which genre was most concerned with the question of identity? For whom has Trafó Gallery organised a solo exhibition? What did the Trafó building look like before it opened? How has the contemporary art scene in Hungary changed, according to interviews with the directors?
Through Trafó's virtual collections of thousands of archival documents, we evoke the spirit of the House in physical space.
Presentation of the Trafó Archive
Trafó's new digital archive will be introduced in a joint presentation by the staff. The event will be an opportunity to ask questions, test the new interface and discuss the present and future of the project.
The Trafó Archive is the new virtual interface of Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, offering public access to the institution’s document collections. By providing open access to the materials hitherto available only to employees, we aim to democratise Trafó’s intellectual and cultural legacy, and to share its knowledge capital.
The Trafó Archive is a platform for renewal – as opposed to closure – where equal emphasis is placed on processing the past and shaping the future. The transparent organisation of the historical records of the institution serves as a basis for self-reflection.
Through its online platform, as well as through collaborations, programmes and consultation opportunities, the Archive opens up a new channel for the current Trafó community and future professionals pursuing their studies. Its constant development is based on mutual knowledge transfer between the patrons and to that effect, the Archive initiates a continuous and — from the professional and generational perspectives — broad consultation.
On its online interface the Trafó Archive groups together the institution’s own documents and external documents into separate collections. The collections contain written and visual materials relating to the programmes, the building and the organisation. They are structured following the logic of simple folder systems. Each item has its own data page, where more detailed information is displayed alongside the basic data, as well as items from the Archive that belong to another collection but are closely related to the content accessed. The related content items are clickable and lead to their own collections in further sections of the Archive. Thus, a network is created, the nodes of which – the data pages – open up new paths for the user. Accordingly, collections can be traversed and individual documents are always displayed in context.
The interface can be used for both targeted searches and free browsing. In the dynamic filtering system all existing information can be searched at all times and all search criteria can be selected from freely.
