The Aura of the Trace in One Child’s Projects in the World: Collecting as Rescue, Repetition, Rupture and Refrain

Abstract

Using one child’s archival collection, found in the Prospect Archive of Children’s Work at the University of Vermont, we consider the methodological complications involved in attempting to analyze material traces of childhood, created by the child. The experimental school where these artworks were originally completed practiced methods of deep observation and descriptive review of materials collected, rather than sending children’s work home. We ponder these pedagogic methods alongside concepts delivered by the German cultural critic Walter Benjamin in order to suggest how the purpose of collecting and presenting traces of childhood can be an act of rescue.