The 1821 Digital Archive is a pioneering research programme dedicated to the Greek Revolution, coordinated by the Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH). The infrastructure design, the ability to search for related items through the site’s search engine, the open framework of the project, and the networking of institutions and researchers that it facilitates, have together made it an exemplary project in the field of the Digital Humanities.
In seeking to expand the traditional idea of an archive as a collection of written documents, the 1821 Digital Archive also contains other documents besides archival collections of written matter, including visual material such as works of art, everyday objects, artefacts, and audio and audio-visual material (music and songs).
The content of the 1821 Digital Archive is derived from Greek and international archives, libraries, museums, private collections, universities, and research centres.
The exhibition of the “1821 Digital Archive” in a physical space at the Benaki Museum is an installation that explores, from a spatial perspective, our ideas of what an archive does, and how, as well as the dynamic narrative that results from approaching, in diverse ways, documents on the Revolution of 1821.
Box-shaped, open structures of varying dimensions, made of metal and wood, are situated around a central conference table. The horizontal surfaces are linked to words evoking the project’s digital vocabulary, through a network of black strips lining the floor and walls .
The Museum space is treated as a temporary studio for relaying physical and online meetings that will inform the public of the activities of the programme and enrich the results of research with the contributions of researchers and the general public.
Installation design: Yannis Arvanitis, Architect
Visual id design: Alexandros Psychoulis, Artist, Professor, Department of Architecture &Engineering, University of Thessaly
The 1821 Digital Archive installation will be on display at the Benaki Museum (Peiraios 138, Athens 11854) from March to July 2021, where it will host events, discussions, and presentations concerning the dialogue between ‘archive’, ‘art’ and ‘technology’ in the production of scholarship.