Iterative Pasts and Linked Futures: A Feminist Approach to Modeling Data in Archives and Collections of Artists’ Publishing

In this essay, we draw upon research undertaken at Tate’s library and archive with artists’ publications that move fluidly across genres and media to introduce the concept of iteration as embodied within the production and circulation of publications. We take the many forms and iterations of Carolee Schneemann’s Parts of a Body House as a key case study. De-emphasizing the singularity of static objects, we approach problems of archiving such material through the lens of critical feminist theory, mixing analog and digital methodologies, and taking advantage of recent developments in open source database technology and linked open data formats. Building on research with linked open data originally carried out at Rhizome, a born-digital arts organization, we discuss technical implementations that facilitate drawing out complex relations of iteration and interconnectivity across artists, artistic production, publication objects, and institutions. Finally, working within a new platform—the Digital Archive of Artists’ Publishing—we propose that modeling data with this feminist approach leads to new possibilities for research, data visualization, and development of new historical narratives