Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
the future is archival: past/future creative strategies
Instructor(s): Ruben Castillo, Studio Art
An exploration of creative strategies and the use of archives, culminating in an art
exhibition that visualizes our claims about archiving practices. Our approach will
be interdisciplinary, examining the history of printed images, what it means to preserve
stories, whose stories are preserved, and the role of visual art in all of this.
Our focus will begin broadly with archives’ cultural and material histories. Readings, lectures, art objects, and discussions will guide how we engage with and question what is culturally preserved, particularly for communities relegated to the margins of society. We will learn how lived experiences around queerness, race, class, and geography are tended to and shared. Using printmaking and print-adjacent methods, we will develop a set of principles for archiving, create works that challenge history, and explore what futures are possible when we look back.
Our focus will begin broadly with archives’ cultural and material histories. Readings, lectures, art objects, and discussions will guide how we engage with and question what is culturally preserved, particularly for communities relegated to the margins of society. We will learn how lived experiences around queerness, race, class, and geography are tended to and shared. Using printmaking and print-adjacent methods, we will develop a set of principles for archiving, create works that challenge history, and explore what futures are possible when we look back.
Course Offered: 2026