Activating Archives Through Absence: How Missing Objects Generate New Knowledge

I've just returned from presenting at Singapore's inaugural ADPRex conference, the first of its kind—where I was thrilled to share the latest innovations from my Swan Lake project, which I've been developing since 2022. My paper explored how the absence of material objects in theatre archives can actually activate new forms of knowledge production through experimental reconstruction.

When Archives Speak Through Silence

Theatre archives are uniquely haunted by absence. We inherit extensive documentation, sketches, reviews, photographs, production notes, yet the actual material objects that embody the designer's vision disappear entirely. Rather than viewing these gaps as limitations, I propose we read them as invitations: spaces where archives demand creative activation rather than passive consultation.

Julia Trevelyan Oman's costume designs for The Boston Ballet's 1981 Swan Lake exemplify this productive absence. The production was critically acclaimed and featured Rudolf Nureyev, yet vanished after a single season. What survives, design sketches, fabric swatches, scattered photographs, creates a compelling puzzle that conventional archival methods cannot solve. The innovation lies precisely in this incompleteness, which compels us toward new methodological territories.

Reconstruction as Archive Activation

My research treats physical reconstruction as a form of archival activism, a method that animates dormant records and generates knowledge from gaps. This isn't filling in blanks; it's discovering what the blanks themselves can teach us about historical design practice.

When I reconstructed Oman's painted swan bodice using period materials and techniques, the archive suddenly came alive through material dialogue. The systematic testing revealed why this acclaimed production disappeared: those visually stunning hand-painted feather details degraded after just four wash cycles. For a touring production, this represented an aesthetic crisis that archival documentation had rendered invisible.

The absence in the archive wasn't a problem to solve, it was a question that could only be answered through material engagement.

Innovation Through Material Gaps

Each gap in the archival record becomes a site of methodological innovation. Recent practical work on Von Rothbart's costume, the latest development in my ongoing Swan Lake project, led to reconstruction experiments that revealed extraordinary performer constraints. The layered net construction, while theatrically magnificent, created a costume of prohibitive weight and heat retention. Contemporary reviews noting Rothbart appeared "totally Big Bird" suddenly illuminate material realities that no amount of traditional research could access.

These archival silences activate what I call "forensic making, a process where reconstruction functions as investigative method, reading material evidence that exists nowhere except in the space between documentation and embodied practice.

Archives as Co-Creators

This approach repositions archives as active collaborators rather than passive repositories. The gaps don't represent archival failure; they signal spaces where historical knowledge requires contemporary activation. The reconstruction process creates a dialogue between past and present making practices, where archival fragments guide material decisions while contemporary hands generate historical insights.

The research reveals how archives themselves innovate through absence, creating conditions where knowledge can only emerge through creative scholarly intervention. Traditional documentation preserves certain forms of evidence while systematically excluding others, the weight of fabric, the heat retention of layered construction, the durability of painted surfaces.

Bridging Through Making

Experimental reconstruction doesn't bridge archival gaps by filling them; it activates the creative potential embedded within those gaps. Each missing piece of information becomes a research prompt that drives material investigation. The absence generates its own methodology, demanding approaches that conventional archival research cannot provide.

This represents a fundamental shift in how we understand archival completeness. Rather than viewing gaps as evidence of loss, we can read them as spaces of potential, archives actively requesting contemporary collaboration to unlock their embedded knowledge.

The Innovation of Absence

At ADPRex, I was excited to present alongside fellow innovative archival scholars who are pushing these boundaries. The practice research community engaged deeply with these questions of how absence itself can drive innovation. In our digital age, we're discovering that certain forms of cultural knowledge resist documentation entirely, they exist only in the dynamic relationship between archival fragments and contemporary material engagement.

The research suggests that archives are most innovative precisely where they appear most incomplete. The missing costumes don't represent archival failure; they create conditions for new forms of scholarly practice that activate dormant knowledge through contemporary making.

This methodology transforms how we understand the relationship between past and present, positioning gaps not as problems but as generative spaces where archives and scholars collaborate to produce knowledge that neither could create alone.

The conversations at this inaugural ADPRex conference reinforced that innovation often emerges from what's missing rather than what's preserved, a recognition that's reshaping how we approach cultural knowledge in an increasingly digital landscape. Being part of this pioneering gathering of archival scholars exploring experimental methodologies was incredibly energising.