LAUSR

The video essay has transformative potential for digital archival practices. Our project knits together critical approaches to digital archival practices, creative interplay between objects and description, and an examination of Ryan White’s treatment by broadcast television news. Our contribution of a multimedia video essay and statement is intended to visualize the intellectual efforts of this First Monday issue. This written piece situates our video essay as a mode of inquiry into the fragmentation of a distributed digital archive, local cataloging and metadata practices, and how descriptive practices shape how we understand HIV/AIDS. We address the context for the WSJV News Collection at the Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive, describe the process and labor involved in creating this video essay, and consider its implications for digital archival practices.