Queer Diaries: Archives in the Present

Abstract

Traditionally an archive is a collection of historical material gathered to document an organization, institution, or place. This senior project explores the importance of creating an archive for queer people in the present to take autonomy over how history portrays us. Diaries have the power to set an ephemeral moment into stone. The consolement I found in writing and drawing in a diary inspired me to create a digital archive on Instagram with submission-based posts of pages from LGBTQ people’s diaries. Alongside the digital archive, I produced a quilt and claymation to emulate the self-exploration queer people find in there own diaries.