Research Nights: Asterisk*

Join us for an enlightening evening: the first public presentation of The Asterisk*, a tool devised by the Collecting Otherwise Working Group that responds to the need for a more thorough, critical and contextualized way of describing objects in archives.

The Asterisk* loans inspiration from the concept of a footnote. It collaborates with the Nieuwe Instituut's collection platforms by adding new descriptions, metadata, and alternative titles, or suggesting alternative, complementary infrastructures. The Asterisk* focuses on underexposed collection items, highlighting previously untold stories: the more information about a particular object is added, the more likely it is to be seen by researchers and other audiences, moving institutions toward greater accessibility and diversity in heritage preservation.

“Thus, the creation, adjustment and excavation of such footnotes, asterisks, and annotations instigate not only a regenerated life in the document itself — they further project into the wider world new realities, histories, and axes of understanding. Neither amputated, perfunctory nor marginal — but rather integral and articulated — ever pointing the seeker yet further afield, beyond the frame of the page.” - Hannah Dawn Henderson, from An Annotation on Footnotes (2022)

Methodological development and practical testing on the collection platform began in 2023, and the project will be officially launched in November 2024, alongside the Nieuwe Instituut’s new collection platform.

Host or Publisher Nieuwe Instituut