A one day workshop organised by Ed Webb Ingall (London College of Communication, University of the Arts), Laura Guy (Glasgow School of Art) and Naomi Pearce (Aberystwyth University) as part of a new collaborative research project investigating how practitioners in the UK work with marginalised and at risk archives.

This first public event brings together individuals and groups to share and reflect on their archival practices and the complex emotions this work elicits. In the morning session, Janice Cheddie, Sam Dolbear, Eunsong Kim, Kaitlene Koranteng and Kate Sweeney—artists, scholars, archivists and poets—will each offer a 15 minute response to the following provocation:

Archival work often demands forms of labour that are contingent and precarious, extending the usual remit or conventions of professional roles. When engaging with uncatalogued materials from practices that have been overlooked, undervalued or only partially recorded, the stakes of this labour can feel particularly high. The process of gathering these materials and thinking structurally about how they are collected, shared and maintained, stirs complex emotions and affects. How can creative approaches to working with archives recognise or support these often hidden or unacknowledged dimensions of archival practice in ways that might:

- Account for the affective experiences of spending time in and with archives; How do the roles of academics, activists, archivists, and community organisers differ when working with archival material? What conflicting or complementary emotional attachments arise from these relationships?

- Confront gaps, silences, and erasure without attempting to resolve or repair them. How does knowledge emerge through creative, artistic, performative, or speculative practices when absence is foregrounded rather than filled?

- Acknowledge archival labour in the maintenance of archives. What happens when archives move from grassroots contexts to institutional repositories. What is gained in terms of visibility, legitimacy, and access, and what is put at risk when this happens? How do questions of safety, consent, and exposure shift in the process? How can materials be cared for without being removed from the communities that have maintained them?

- Address forms of archival burnout stemming from working without or with only contingent access to material resource; How does burnout manifest in archival labour? Queer and feminist approaches to the archive have sought to explore (over) attachment in archival work but how can we figure feelings like anxiety and ambivalence in the building, maintenance and care of archives?

In the afternoon, organisers Ed Webb Ingall, Laura Guy and Naomi Pearce will facilitate group discussions and knowledge sharing with all workshop participants.