The shadow continuum : testing the records continuum model through the Djogdja Documenten and the migrated archives

Abstract

This dissertation tests the

universal suitability of the records continuum model by using two cases

from the decolonization of Southeast Asia. The continuum model is a new

model of records visualization invented in the 1990s that sees records as free to move throughout four ‘dimensions’ rather than in a linear direction. The first case study is the Djogdja Documenten, which are documents seized from Indonesia by the Dutch military during Indonesia's struggle for independence. The second case is the Migrated Archives. This is a group of records created by the British colonial government and sent to London, where the records were hidden for fifty years. I attempt to place each case on the continuum model, mapping each action to a corresponding dimension. In the case of the Migrated Archives, the glaring omission from the continuum model of places in between dimensions where records can get trapped or lost is seen. I rectify this through the creation of the shadow continuum. In the shadow continuum records proceed, unseen, through the dimensions of the continuum model. Whether a record is in the shadow continuum or not is based on the existence of 'traces' of its existence in the already publically accessible archive.