This is a course about why people keep things, how people keep things, and the things that, try as they might, people cannot keep at all. From archives of documents to archives of junk, we will explore the concept of “the archive” and how it is transformed in the digital age. We will examine theoretical formulations of– and challenges to– the archive through the lens of literary and artistic representations of archives, as well as examples of archives, both print and digital, from Georgia Tech Archives and the greater Atlanta area. We will interrogate the meaning of the archive in the context of a range of media forms, as well as the issues of materiality that those forms engage. We will explore the social and political forces that underlie archives’ construction. We will also explore current issues and concerns with respect to digital archival design. As a final project, we will work together as a class to create and then re-envision a digital archive of science fiction fanzines from the Bud Foote Science Fiction Collection here at Georgia Tech. The course will partner with Murmur Media and the Atlanta Zine Library.