oa Negotiating the archive

Collaborative artists Carson & Miller’s project with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art utilizes their established practice of play. The project explores the physical and conceptual spaces of this museum’s archive. Carson & Miller’s play encompasses a variety of games; between themselves, as well as games that have drawn in visitors and staff. These games have proven to be a fruitful strategy for piercing the archive; its physical presence, its mass and meaning, its availability to the visitor. This article is informed by Roland Barthes’ punctum and explores how these archive games have opened up opportunities for interaction, handling and touch in its physical, sensual and intellectual senses.