What kinds of artistic and historical sources are circulated as evidence for trans and queer lives, and how should we evaluate the personal and creative dimensions of its presentation?

How can archives and art, or a mingled form of artchives, evidence the plentitude of queer and trans lives? Scholars in a wide variety of fields of study (queer, trans, disability, ‘race’/ethnicity), often from outside of the discipline of history, have seized on archival sources to locate ‘those of my kind.’

Artists have created their own records of existence and brought their aesthetic sensibilities to documenting historical and contemporary figures. Many of these efforts seem not so much about an attempted harking back to an affirmative, conflict-free past to claim “we’ve always been here,” but are rather geared towards opening up imaginative histories outside mainstream historiographical models.

The profuseness of artistic and literary experiments with trans and queer archives signals a productive and transformative form of engagement that highlights polyphony and conflict. How can these creative tactics change our understanding of LGBTQI+ history? In what ways might this shift to the creative and the personal seed transformative potential for cultural heritage politics and policy more broadly?

‘My Evidence: Creating LGBTQI+ Art and Archives’ is a conference that will take place Thursday-Friday 3 & 4 October 2024, in Amsterdam at IHLIA LGBT Heritage (day 1) and Mediamatic (day 2).