Article ArchiveKSA: Creating a digital archive for Kingston

Traditional archives of historic artefacts were not systematically acquired by Kingston School of Art during its formative years. To address the significant discrepancy between the historic practice of the art school and its material representation within holdings, ArchiveKSA emerged as a digital archiving platform. As researcher on ArchiveKSA, I am at the nexus of several alumni, student and staff communities. Collecting for ArchiveKSA involves nurturing these nascent online communities to connect personal narratives and virtual artefacts in Webs of social relations. Using ArchiveKSA as a case study, this article examines theories of online community-fostered archives and compares their functioning to traditional archives. The positioning of digital archives within memory frame-works and the possibilities of multivocality in online and physical display are areas considered, with the similarities and differences between the digital and physical versions of the archive thrown into relief