Papers by Gabriella Ivacs
LEA : Lingue e Letterature d'Oriente e d'Occidente, 2012
Regardless of the widely spread use in historiography, anthropology, cultural studies, informatio... more Regardless of the widely spread use in historiography, anthropology, cultural studies, information sciences, archives is a heavily inflated word. Beginning with the ancient Greek administrative role of Archeion, the emergence of archival institution as a symbolic mean to strengthen national identity in the age of nation states, through referencing social construction and parallel stories of postmodern historiography, there is a need for a new archival theory to connect high level theories with new archival practices embedded in the digital society. The essay tries to remove some interpretative layers from the non-discoursive practices of archives and it yields the generative nature of its architecture by referencing media archeology as method. The analysis of Eastern and Central European historical examples add nuance to our understanding of archival complexities: the fate of secret police files in the Post-Communist societies, how to serve the collective memory of traumatized nations with new approaches to collection management, and finally, referencing Pan-European efforts to cooperate or to compete with huge private technology providers in the digital age. The essay is part of a growing body of research on resituating "the archival identity" and suggesting to examine both static and dynamic archives in the light of technology developments to understand digital forgetting, digital remembering and controlling data for the whole society.
From paper files to terabytes: the evolution of IAEA documentation in the nuclear age
Documentation in one form or another is at the heart of any organisation large or small. When it ... more Documentation in one form or another is at the heart of any organisation large or small. When it comes to global intergovernmental organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA...
Digital trauma archives: the Yellow Star Houses Project
This paper discusses the public-history initiative, the Yellow Star Houses Project, developed and... more This paper discusses the public-history initiative, the Yellow Star Houses Project, developed and implemented by the Open Society Archives in Hungary in relation to the potential of digital media in remembering the past. I seek to link three major theoretical cornerstones: trauma theories, emerging digital archives and the interpretation of digital public history. Through the complex interplay of these three concepts, the idea of digital remembering (and forgetting) is discussed: to what extent are memory practices dependent on new media technologies and how are these societal practices harvested by projects with a broader public scope. I refer to the Yellow Star Houses Project, to examine how a public—including members of the non-traumatized community as well the general public—processes the Holocaust experience using the addition of digital trauma archives as opposed to traditional archives. I conclude that digital, public history projects of today are the result of a blended production process from both the perspective of society—in which there is a noticeable and renewed interest in digital history—as well as personal narratives, testimonies and imagined (virtual) communities.
What happened to David Rhode?
An appendage to the history of democracies in transition : A preliminary appraisal of the records of soros foundation hungary
G. Ivacs examine le contexte historique plus large d'une institution privee, sans but lucrati... more G. Ivacs examine le contexte historique plus large d'une institution privee, sans but lucratif, la fondation Soros en Hongrie, dans le cadre d'un processus d'evaluation des archives. Elle affirme que la seule approche possible de ce patrimoine archivistique unique passe par la comprehension des facteurs culturels, geopolitiques et politiques qui ont influence le fonctionnement de l'institution dans le contexte de l'Europe centrale et orientale, pendant la periode de transition. Dans de nombreux pays, les fondations Soros ont joue le role de modeles pour l'etablissement de societes civiles apres (ou meme avant) la chute des regimes totalitaires, et leur importance au niveau national et regional est indeniable. Cependant, jusqu'a present, les Archives de l'Etat ont rarement collecte des archives privees d'ONG, comme si de tels documents ne meritaient pas une conservation a long terme. Et pourtant, les nouvelles tendances de la recherche historique p...
History and Technology , 2021
To cite this article: Gabriella Ivacs (2021) From paper files to terabytes: the evolution
of IAEA... more To cite this article: Gabriella Ivacs (2021) From paper files to terabytes: the evolution
of IAEA documentation in the nuclear age, History and Technology, 37:1, 21-24, DOI:
10.1080/07341512.2021.1906480
Regardless of the widely spread use in historiography, anthropology, cultural studies, informatio... more Regardless of the widely spread use in historiography, anthropology, cultural studies, information sciences, archives is a heavily inflated word. Beginning with the ancient Greek administrative role of Archeion, the emergence of archival institution as a symbolic mean to strengthen national identity in the age of nation states, through referencing social construction and parallel stories of postmodern
historiography, there is a need for a new archival theory to connect high level theories with new archival practices embedded in the digital society.
The essay tries to remove some interpretative
layers from the non-discoursive practices of archives and it yields the generative nature of its architecture by
referencing media archeology as method.
The analysis of Eastern and Central European
historical examples add nuance to our understanding of archival complexities: the fate of secret police files in the Post-Communist societies, how to serve the collective memory
of traumatized nations with new approaches to collection
management, and finally, referencing Pan-European efforts
to cooperate or to compete with huge private technology providers in the digital age. The essay is part of a growing
body of research on resituating “the archival identity”
and suggesting to examine both static and dynamic archives
in the light of technology developments to understand digital forgetting, digital remembering and controlling data for the whole society.
This paper discusses the public-history initiative, the Yellow Star Houses Project, developed and... more This paper discusses the public-history initiative, the Yellow Star Houses Project, developed and implemented by the Open Society Archives in Hungary in relation to the potential of digital media in remembering the past. I seek to link three major theoretical cornerstones: trauma theories, emerging digital archives and the interpretation of digital public history. Through the complex interplay of these three concepts, the idea of digital remembering (and forgetting) is discussed: to what extent are memory practices dependent on new media technologies and how are these societal practices harvested by projects with a broader public scope. I refer to the Yellow Star Houses Project, to examine how a public—including members of the non-traumatized community as well the general public—processes the Holocaust experience using the addition of digital trauma archives as opposed to traditional archives. I conclude that digital, public history projects of today are the result of a blended production process from both the perspective of society—in which there is a noticeable and renewed interest in digital history—as well as personal narratives, testimonies and imagined (virtual) communities.
Short and long-term access to archival records is socially and culturally significant in digital ... more Short and long-term access to archival records is socially and culturally significant in digital environment. New licensing frameworks and austere policies can often make conditions for the re-use of material unmanageable for archival curators. Legal uncertainty and restrictive regulations may jeopardize the knowledge ecosystem by limiting access to information; a thorough analysis of this new environment has become increasingly imperative. The challenges faced in developing and implementing policies with appropriate levels of control and information management practices, are matters that must be examined, debated and determined by an array of stakeholders. Institutional and national settings differ significantly across the archival domain and so do the challenges and barriers that have emerged.. These processes are complex and besides advancement of technical expertise and investment in digitisation require serious rethinking of the role and place of archives and their relationships with citizens.
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Papers by Gabriella Ivacs
of IAEA documentation in the nuclear age, History and Technology, 37:1, 21-24, DOI:
10.1080/07341512.2021.1906480
historiography, there is a need for a new archival theory to connect high level theories with new archival practices embedded in the digital society.
The essay tries to remove some interpretative
layers from the non-discoursive practices of archives and it yields the generative nature of its architecture by
referencing media archeology as method.
The analysis of Eastern and Central European
historical examples add nuance to our understanding of archival complexities: the fate of secret police files in the Post-Communist societies, how to serve the collective memory
of traumatized nations with new approaches to collection
management, and finally, referencing Pan-European efforts
to cooperate or to compete with huge private technology providers in the digital age. The essay is part of a growing
body of research on resituating “the archival identity”
and suggesting to examine both static and dynamic archives
in the light of technology developments to understand digital forgetting, digital remembering and controlling data for the whole society.