[UN]Boxing Archives

Body Recall Inc archive

The Body Recall developer, Dorothy Chrisman, under the Berea College sponsorship started training teachers in 1981. Originally just a single exercise class for adults in the Continuing Education program (1978). Body Recall was designed to inform individuals with mobility challenges to learn risk free beneficial exercise routines. Under the leadership and direction of certified Body Recall instructors, the next decade saw the organization grow to deliver programs within 42 American states and Canada.

Using the printer to duplicate information found within the archive. The material has been cut, shaped, layered, varnished onto canvas. Despite mass manipulation, the organizational memory fixed within the records still seeps through the composition.

Four large scrapbooks on display mainly contain the bulk of organizational promotional materials and numerous press cuttings documenting their activities. Held within the archive are 20 banker boxes of materials including exercise booklets, vast amounts of correspondence with agents, Board papers documenting how this single Berea based program quickly became a nationally known non-profit organization.

Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest archive

Founded by Rev Alfred Fritsch April 22 1977, the ASPI is a non-profit resource center advocating for the sustainable development, responsible resource management, and environmentally friendly living standards. Since September, we have been conducting a methodical audit of the collections 66 boxes. Housed within the thousands of folders is a vast array of collated records evidencing the organizational activities around environmental sustainability and justice.

With a concern for distributing practical demonstrations and informational resources for the wider Appalachian community. The archive preserves correspondence, literatures, articles around a vast array of sustainable living topics not limited to growing Ginseng, improving Kentucky drinking water, banning off road vehicles in the Daniel Boone national forest, composting toilets, solar powered cookers and greenhouses. After seven months, we have only completed the initial audit and now working to make the resource into an accessible condition.  

This exhibit displays 25 observational collages merging duplicated information from within the archive, with formal records management diagrams visualizing the archivist workflow processes.

The practice of processing collections enables the unique informational values to be preserved for permanent longevity. Each ASPI box holds a vast amount of essentially random topics, a commentary of Al Fritsch’s high-energy approach to publishing, research and environmental advocacy. Essentially these compositions became more observational in nature, exploring the contents of a box and merging multiple informational sources together.