Dale Hudson

Once associated with institutions that collected and preserved official documents as records for future generations, scholars today understand archives as epistemological sites that render selected histories and stories audible, legible, and visible. Colonial, corporate, police, and state archives in particular operate with agendas and biases. By design, ignorance, or neglect, they can render other histories and stories inaudible, illegible, and invisible. Scholars also consider sites where histories and stories accumulate outside official archiving initiatives, including in and on bodies, including human bodies alongside land and water bodies. Such bodies offer valuable insights into history in Indian Ocean worlds. In this article, I trace how Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran’s film From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf and Huda Tayob’s multimedia installation Index of Edges emerge at the confluence of critical archive studies, Indian Ocean studies, and research-led visual arts practice.