CAA: Listening to Women and the Archive’s Lo-Fi Textures

REFLECTIONS BY SARAH LUTKENHAUS

I went into the archives as a way to learn more about Chicago’s past. What I thought would be a map, was actually a labyrinth with connections constantly shifting. We are accustomed to information that arrives instantly, summoned, displayed, complete. The archive resists any kind of immediacy or resolution. As Fred Moten said “What is gathered is never just gathered; it’s broken open in the act of gathering.”

Working in the archive is an act of choreographing parts. The music files live on a drive, while the details and records are scattered across spreadsheets, scanned documents, and metadata. To navigate them is to play a kind of telephone: you inherit what someone before you inscribed, sometimes precise, often partial. Files can be muffled, warped, or cut off. Transfers occur slowly, by hand, one at a time. There are boxes and boxes of old media waiting to be digitized.

To draw connections, looking back can quickly become conspiratorial. There are infinite lines to follow, and contexts to be filled in.

After spending time getting oriented, I realized there were a few main obstacles. First that not all the archives have been digitized. Something that seems obvious now, but never occurred to me beforehand. One person who is exceedingly busy is transferring everything one at a time. The ESS archives, which hold much of Chicago’s sonic history, are only partially digitized, and new collections are still being acquired. What is transferred is always political. Second, searching can be difficult unless you already know the precise name you’re looking for. Out of this came the idea to make a primer to help others request materials and trace feminist lineages more easily.

Really, to work with the archive is an invitation to question and have conversations. I realize that many things remain buried because they were too complex, too unsettling, and too unprofitable for the smoothness of the mainstream. What is pulled from the archive depends on who is looking. This is the beginning of many conversations, and a tool for connection. It’s not comprehensive. It’s not final.

On September 24, I organized Listening to Women and the Archive’s Lo-Fi Textures, an event that explored some of the voices uncovered in the archives. Thank you to everyone who came to listen and take part in the evening. A special thanks to Carol Genetti for her magnetic performance and her interview, which shed light on some of the collection’s most elusive mysteries. Moments like these remind me that the archive is not only a place of preservation, but also a space of living exchange.

Looking ahead, this work could take many shapes. Future projects might include more listening events, interviews, generational collaborations, transferring more of the ESS collection, organizing the paper ephemera, or recording oral histories with people from the archive. These are only a few possibilities. More than anything, I hope the archive continues to be a source of stories, ideas, and conversations. If something here resonates with you, or if you carry a piece of this history, I invite you to be part of what comes next.

RESOURCES

Her Noise Archive
Cyberfeminism Index
Women’s Audio Archive
Contact Sarah

COLLECTION NOTES

Sun Ra / El Saturn Collection
Dates: 1950s-1993
Status: Fully digitized
The collection consists of rehearsal tapes, recordings of live concerts, home recordings of sketches and experiments, and master tapes of material likely intended for commercial release.

ESS Collection
Dates: 1986-present
Status: Partially digitized
Founded by Dawn and Lou Mallozzi, Eric Leonardson, and Perry Venson. Among the very first nonprofit cultural institutions in the U.S. devoted entirely to the sonic arts and experimental sound practices.

Studio Henry Collection
Dates: 1979-1986
Status: Fully digitized
Small mythic place in New York’s downtown music history — short-lived, but hugely influential. It was founded by Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz. A tiny West Village basement space at 1 Morton St, New York, NY.

Links Hall Collection
Dates: 1987-1990
Status: Fully digitized
Links Hall was founded in 1978 by Bob Eisen, Carol Bobrow, and Charlie Vernon. For decades, it was located in a converted upstairs studio above a deli at in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, right by the Belmont Red Line stop, 3435 N Sheffield Ave. That’s the space many artists still recall as the “classic” Links Hall — scrappy, intimate, and influential in dance and performance.

Malachi Ritscher Collection
Dates: 1980s-2006
Status: Partially digitized
Sound recordist and music enthusiast Malachi Ritscher recorded thousands of live music events in Chicago. He meticulously recorded shows 5 to 7 nights a week with fastidious notes.

Fred Anderson Collection
Dates: 1950s-1993
Status: Fully Digitized
Fred Anderson (1929 – 2010) was one of Chicago’s most creative, acclaimed, and beloved musicians who founded the Velvet Lounge in 1979. The collection features rare unheard recordings of saxophonist and club owner Fred Anderson, fellow bandmate Tastu Aoki, and longtime associates Andy Pierce, Sharon Friedman, and Lauren Deutsch.

Tatsu Aoki Collection
Dates: 1998-2001
Status: Partially digitized
The Tatsu Aoki Collection contains recordings of his work with the Fred Anderson Trio, mostly captured on DAT at the Velvet Lounge. It features Aoki, Anderson, and Hamid Drake, along with guest improvisers including Chad Taylor, Maurice Brown, Donald Barnett Jr., and Bill Brimfield.

Mars Williams Collection
Dates: 1950s-2023
Status: Partially digitized
Over 2,000 items—cassettes, reels, CDs, VHS, Zip Discs, vinyl, and hard drives holding thousands of mostly unheard recordings, from concerts to unfinished ideas. The collection spans nearly every recorded project Mars worked on, along with toy instruments, hand-written scores, visual collages, and other ephemera.

Penumbra Music Collection
Dates: 1994-2015
Status: Partially digitized
Hal Rammel, active in Chicago’s experimental jazz scene of the ’70s and ’80s, compiled the Penumbra Music Collection—two boxes of audio recordings and documents from his label. The audio spans commercial, beta, and live recordings, while the documents include administrative files, clippings, event announcements, and other ephemera.

Women that have been noted in the collections 

ESS Collection
Jane Alexander
Joanne Alperin
Nancy Andrews
Sherry Antonini
Marta Ayala
Nancy Bechtol
Susanna Ruth Berger
Olivia Block
Lynn Books
Valerie Brodar
Sabine Breitsameter
Cheryl Lynn Bruce
Janet Cardiff
Abigail Child
Karen Christopher
Christina Cobb
Audrey Colby
Susan Cooler
Tricia Van Eck
Coco Fusco
Elena Hemphill
Carol Genetti
Kate Greenough
Susan Giles
Meallie Johnson
Jennifer Karmin
Terri Kapsalis
Elise Kermanni
Kathy Koller
Sarann Kong
Lisa Kucharski
Hollie Lavenstein
Shanna Linn
Maria Lovullo
Lauri Macklin
Dawn Mallozzi
Lotta Melin
Dina Morelli
Patricia Mowen
Brigid Murphy
Suzan-Lori Parks
Anrea Poli
Ellen Rothenburg
Jocelyn Robert
Cindy Salach
Joan Schuman
Julie Shapiro
Marilyn Shrude
Julie Smith
Patricia Smith
Suzie Silver
Laetitia Sonami
Susanne Suffredin
Heide Tegeder
Sarah Vowell
Rita Warford
Daniele Wilmouth
Karen Westling

Sun Ra/El Saturn Collection
June Tyson
Cheryl Banks
Sarah Churchill
Judith Holton
Ruth Wright

Studio Henry Collection
Polly Bradfield
Lindsay Cooper
Lesli Dalaba
Robin Holcomb
Shelley Hirsch
Ikue Mori
Zeena Parkins
Sally Potter

Links Hall Collection
Inka Alasade
Sandra Binion
Lisa Buscani
Maxine Chernoff
Sheila Donohue
Morgan Edwards
Elaine Equi
Janice Finney
Susan Firer
Katherine Hughes
Lorri Jackson
Jane Joritz
Sharese Locke
Tamara Madison
Kathleen Maltese
Yolonda Martinez
Sharon Mesmar
Ikue Mori
Laurie Lee Moses
Alice Notley
Maureen Owen
Deborah Pintonelli
Leslie Reese
Cindy Salach
Ladonna Smith
Patricia Smith
Lorna Smedman
Margaret Sullivan

Not yet notated:
Malachi Ritscher Collection
Fred Anderson Collection
Tatsu Aoki Collection
Mars Williams Collection
Penumbra Music Collection