JUNE 2026

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EDITOR'S NOTE
 

“Have you noticed a change?” In the constant stream of expansive media, an archive looks back and holds anchor to the past. It gives the opportunity to pause, observe, dwell. Layers of the catalog provide witness and reference among ever-shifting environments. The archive can also be generative, provoking the bloom and growth of new ideas. Sometimes the subject of evolution is not the archive, but ourselves, as we move through it. Future visions bend and fold in the process of transformation. Amorphous gradations of change arrive softly. Evolution emerges not as a singular event, but as an enduring formation of memory ◡◠◡◠◡ One that influences how knowledge is preserved, understood, and shared.

The following eight articles trace, animate, and celebrate evolutions in language, history, culture, and archival practice: 

Emily Benoff & Kelli Yakabu transform database taxonomy to enable new understandings of Vodún, Haitian Vodou, and Louisiana Voodoo. Ryan Steven Green and Mayra Garza reflect on the archive as witness to evolution within their family lives. Mukari Wall and Peter Hauge traverse the streets of Los Angeles, exploring the influence of technology on the ever-evolving cityscape. Mimi Zeiger and Robert Dirig recount the influential histories of Los Angeles institutions, architecturally (LACMA) and programmatically (ArtCenter). Chih-Wei Hsu forms a tool lending library to support and build community.

You are invited…to let the archive breathe and come alive. To transform, renew, and remember.

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Terrain and Technology

Mukari Wall writes about the origins and evolution of street skating culture in Los Angeles.

Spiral-Bound for Los Angeles

Los Angeles Public Library map librarian Peter Hauge reflects on the evolution of Thomas Guide street maps and their status as an LA cultural icon.

Evolution of the ArtCenter Archive

Robert Dirig reflects on nearly a century of ArtCenter College of Design through the lens of the college archives.

I Found My Family in a Border Record: Reclaiming Surveillance Photographs as Family Memory

Mayra Garza explores how archival records created for national border surveillance can be reclaimed by immigrant families as tools for connection and memory.

Pieces of You

Mimi Zieger reflects on the new LACMA renovations through Cayetano Ferrer’s artwork, assembled from the debris salvaged during the museum’s demolition.

Sunlight to Silver: The Ionic History of Sinaloa

After losing his childhood home to the Eaton Fire, Ryan Green uses the charred wood to develop the final photos taken of the property, transforming its remains into an evolving archive of his family’s history.

Reframing 'Voodoo' Across Systems: Rethinking Archival Description at the Getty Research Institute

Emily Benoff and Kelli Yakabu reframe Vodún, Haitian Vodou, and Louisiana Voodoo at the Getty through language remediation and archival description work rooted in fugitivity.

Build a bench, you might end up with a library.

Chih-Wei Hsu's tool library emerges from a Koreatown church basement, revealing how lending practices can evolve a space and build community trust.

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