Re-enacting process: temporality, historicity and the Women’s Liberation Music Archive

Abstract

This article uses the Women’s Liberation Music Archive (WLMA) as a case study to explore re-enactment as the performative ‘doing’ of history. As an archive composed of music-making processes rather than commercial ‘products’, the article argues this is an invitation to consider the time of history as one of action and enlivenment. The article frames the dissemination of material in the WLMA as a delayed event that is made possible by the digital technologies, in particular free web tools, such as blogs. It explores the implications of the resurfacing of marginal cultural histories within the present moment, and how this can transform conceptions of historicity and time. Finally, the article asserts the value of digital archives within the context of music histories, thus challenging the notion that effective historical encounters can only occur through engagement with original objects.

Keywords:

• feminist music making
• re-enactment
• digital archives
• temporality
• process

Notes

1. Music & Liberation, which was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2012, is an exhibition that draws on the material collected in the Women’s Liberation Music Archive. It aims to create an ‘open archive’, where people can watch and listen to archive material, as well as look at objects and ephemera collected as part of the project.

2. These are some of the search terms people have used which has led them to the archive.

3. During interviews conducted as part of Music & Liberation one interviewee questioned the importance of the histories, and expressed doubt if anyone wanted to know about them or not.

4. See http://www.gold.ac.uk/library/collections/wrpmcollection/.

5. The Guest Stars were however part of the evolution of feminist music making in the 1980s, and wouldn’t have necessarily seen themselves as part of the WLM in the same way that a band like Jam Today would have.

6. See http://youtu.be/vsyIh6ISLzE for the film ‘Jam Today 3 at the Moonlight Club and More’.

7. The recording of the Jam Today 2 practice ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ is a good example of this. Available online: http://womensliberationmusicarchive.wordpress.com/j/