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“The File Room began as an idea: an abstract construction that became a prototype, a model of an interactive and open system. It prompts our thinking and discussion, and serves as an evolving archive of how the suppression of information has been orchestrated throughout history in different contexts, countries and civilizations.

The process of suppressing information -of people in power attempting to hide images, sounds and words- must itself be viewed in perspective. The organizing principles of The File Room archive recognize acts of censorship in relation to their social settings, political movements, religious beliefs, economic conditions, cultural expressions and/or personal identities. The means of censorship are understood in equally broad terms and techniques, from behind-the-scenes structural censorship that regulates and controls access to the means of production; to obvious physical restrictions of single instances; to subtle, pervasive, and often invisible psychological methods.

Countering the closed circle of power systems, this project gains its meaning through a group effort of individuals, organizations, and institutions. Naturally, this project must be self-critical and self-reflective about the contradictions and possibilities of its own organizing system, the nature of subjective editing, and the limited amount of research that can be accomplished in a given period of time. The File Room, rather than being presented as a finished work, is being made publicly available at the point of its initiation. It is an open system that becomes activated, “filed” and developed through the public process of its own existence.”[1]

[1] http://www.thefileroom.org/documents/Intro.html

[2] Homepage of “the file room” : http://www.thefileroom.org/