Imaginary Archives is a collection of documents that enlist imagination as an instrument to question and rearrange archival practices. In archives, documents are identified and contextualized, while at the same time it is this very process of cataloging that constitutes documents in the first place.

Interweaving the three themes of dance spectatorship, coloniality of archives, and speculative philology, each contribution of Imaginary Archives is composed of disparate materials. This content offers readers the possibility to work through these themes and materials hands-on to further investigate possibilities of the serendipitous in archival encounters. You are welcome to read “Letters to V,” “Phantom Islands,” and “Postcards from the Peacock Islands” as individual works, or to rearrange, file, order, display the pieces to uncover how these materials might collide, confuse, and cohere within the world of the imaginary archive.