THE OTHERS ARCHIVE

When we look at ‘Other’ history – Other meaning those who are not white, able-bodied, heterosexual, or cis-gender - we are met with silences in the archives. Our research in Liverpool has raised questions about whose stories are being preserved and whose are yet to be discovered. These questions exposed the need to rethink the current archive system from historical, architectural, and personal perspectives. Therefore, our project explores how we can preserve Black, Chinese and Queer heritage through inclusive spatial design, prioritising the future of ‘Other’ documented history.

.A NEW ARCHIVE OF LIVERPOOL

Existing archives are static, inaccessible, normative, and valued only according to historic research interests. Despite this, they are an important infrastructure as they are the very process of selecting, ordering, and preserving our past. Our primary research in Liverpool highlighted the impor-tance of this, where oral histories and first-hand accounts depicted an alternative and more accurate history, with participants emphasising the importance of historic social spaces for each of these communities. However, the existing archives present many gaps when searching for these given addresses. Instead, historic mapping revealed either a relocation or decline of the Black, Chinese and Queer haunts of Liverpool. We decided to build alternative archives for these three communities using living people as a reliable source of information.

www.theothersarchive.org