Eroticism in times of algorithms: problems and experiences in archive and digital collections

Abstract

This work reflects on the role of the archive in relation to ways of collecting, thinking, and reconstructing the trajectory of eroticism in Argentina. The article is part of a broader research project on the connections between the cultural consumption of films starring Isabel Sarli and mass culture in the second half of the 20th century. The objective is to explore the particularities in practices and strategies related to the search, identification, and accessibility of records from institutional and digital archives. The military dictatorships of the 1960s and 1970s employed notions of “obscenity,” “pornography,” and “morality” to construct an authoritarian and repressive order at the social, cultural, and political levels. Considering these historical conditions, the logic of the archive, the materiality of the records, the methodological precautions, and the social agents involved in the process are examined. Based on fieldwork conducted in various collections, located in both physical and digital spaces, this study engages with a research field concerned with the notions, implications, and future transformations of these representations of the archive in terms of historiographical agendas and the incorporation of technologies into research work. It is observed that there are difficulties in navigating the criteria for safeguarding and organizing, and that these criteria respond to imaginaries and senses of social and cultural classification. It concludes that the archive, as a “moment,” process, and place, is undergoing mutations that involve the production, possession, and protection of documentation, impacting the ways of historical interpretation and addressing new themes and problems.