Collection 05 Woodward’s Amateur Historical Society Archives

Start year: 2017

Woodward’s Amateur Historical Society Archives collects the work of W.W.A.S., a provisional research collective assembled by Josh Gabert-Doyon as part of his Notes on Permanent Education (N.O.P.E.) fellowship with 221A. The collective (Brit Bachmann, Gabi Dao, Josh Gabert-Doyon, and Byron Peters) occupied Pollyanna 圖書館 Library to plan and carry out an investigation into Vancouver’s Woodward’s building as a historic theatre of class struggle. W.W.A.S. charted the building’s varied articulations over the past century to grasp Woodward’s as a historical constellation; that is, as a tangle of intertwined narratives through which to comprehend the distinct co-development of urbanism and capitalism in Vancouver.

W.W.A.S. charted the building’s varied articulations over the past century to grasp Woodward’s as a historical constellation; that is, as a tangle of intertwined narratives through which to comprehend the distinct co-development of urbanism and capitalism in Vancouver. The collective’s research traces the history of Woodward’s by drawing connections between fragments of civic archives, activist histories, commercial ephemera, redacted emails, and nostalgic Facebook groups. W.W.A.S. understands this ‘prehistory’ as a force that haunts Woodward’s controversial ‘present history’ of the last two decades: its acquisition, demolition, and reconstruction as a ‘social-mix’ condo-art megaplex by Westbank Corp, a model now archetypal of private-public redevelopment schemes.

The nature of the collective’s findings led its activity out of the Pollyanna 圖書館 Library stacks and into unfamiliar territories in purpose and method. In coming to understand present-day Woodward’s as an engine of ‘artwashing’, wherein the ongoing, brutal redevelopment of Vancouver’s ‘urban frontier’ is sold as a form of cultural production, the collective moved to refocus its energies to not only understand he politics of Woodward’s, but to intervene in it. W.W.A.S. took on a program of ‘action-research’, where knowledge production meets the political through tactics of insurgent publishing, journalistic provocation, and building living solidarities. The Woodward’s Amateur Historical Society Archives collects this work.

Browse Collection 05

33 items

Media link	Name	Call No.	Produced by	Material	Selected by	Collection
	Body Heat: The Story of the Woodward’s Redevelopment	WWAS 001	Edited by Robert Enright	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Facing the Music: Documenting Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Redevelopment of Downtown Los Angeles	WWAS 002	Allan Sekula	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Vancouver Ltd.	WWAS 003	Donald Gutstein	Print	Kay Higgins	05
	Citizen City: Vancouver’s Henriquez Partners Challenges Architects to Engage in Partnerships that Advance Cultural Sustainability	WWAS 004	Marya Cotten Gould, Gregory Henriquez, Robert Enright	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	West Coast Line 41 – 37/ 2-3: Woodsquat	WWAS 005	Edited by Aaron Vidaver	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Carnegie Newsletters, a selection of issues from 1992-2017	WWAS 006 REF	Carnegie Community Centre	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Access All Areas: Conversations on Engaged Arts	WWAS 007	Visible Arts Society, Edited by Tania Willard	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Every Building On 100 West Hastings	WWAS 008	Stan Douglas	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	-Guide to Documents -4 folders VPD FOI -Newsletter scanned	WWAS 009 REF	Aaron Vidaver, Friend's of the Woodward's Squat Archive	DVD	Aaron Vidaver, Friend's of the Woodward's Squat Archive	05
	The Beat of Frances Street	WWAS 010 REF	Eleven Foot Productions	DVD	Aaron Vidaver, Friend's of the Woodward's Squat Archive	05
	In Search of Present Tense: Art in the Domain of Monopoly-Finance	WWAS 011	Andrew Witt & Graeme Fisher	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	AstroTurf	WWAS 012 REF	Byron Peters	Synthetic Fibers	W.W.A.S.	05
	BEAUTY IS CLASS WAR	WWAS 013 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore	W.W.A.S.	05
	WESTBANK IS EVIL	WWAS 014 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore	W.W.A.S.	05
	DISPLACEMENT IS NOT BEAUTY	WWAS 015 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore	W.W.A.S.	05
	HUCKSTERS	WWAS 016 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore, Wood	W.W.A.S.	05
	VIOLENCE MASQUERADING AS BENEVOLENCE	WWAS 017 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore, Wood	W.W.A.S.	05
	WHEN DID WE SAY YES TO SURVIVAL BEING DISCARDED DELETED DEMEANED?	WWAS 018 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore	W.W.A.S.	05
	Alone and Cold: The Davies Commission – Inquiry into the death of Frank Paul	WWAS 019	The William H. Davies, Q.C., Commission	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Woodsquat Digest	WWAS 020	W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Department Store Nostalgia And Bankruptcy	WWAS 021 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Fama Push And Pull	WWAS 022 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Lasting Impact And FFB	WWAS 023 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Westbank And Social Mix	WWAS 024 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Displacement Is Not Beauty Banner	WWAS 025 REF	Beverly Ho, W.W.A.S. Photo by Sungpil Yoon	Canvas	W.W.A.S.	05
	British Law and Arctic Men: The Celebrated 1917 Murder Trials of Sinnisiak and Uluksuk, First Inuit Tried Under White Man’s Law	WWAS 026 REF	R.G. Moyles	Print	Jakob Knudsen	05
	The New Reality: The Politics of Restraint in British Columbia	WWAS 027	Edited by Warren Magnusson, William K. Carroll, Charles Doyle, Monika Langer, R.B.J. Walker	Print	Jakob Knudsen	05
	Prison Exposures: First Photographs of Life Inside Prison by a Convict	WWAS 028 REF	Robert Neese	Print	Jakob Knudsen	05
	Artropolis 93: Public Art and Art About Public Issues	WWAS 029	Edited by Sue Kelly, Lisa Langford, Francesca Lund, Ann Rosenberg	Print	Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery	05
	W.W.A.S. at Housing Justice Fair, Vancouver Tenant’s Union first AGM + Convention	WWAS 030 REF	Sungpil Yoon	Polaroid	W.W.A.S.	05
	The Volcano: Issue 8 – Spring 2017	WWAS 031	The Volcano Editorial Collective (Dave Diewert, Harold Lavender, Herb Varley, Ivan Drury, Jean Swanson, Natalie Knight, Sarah Sheridan, Shannon Bundock)	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Vancouver Metro: Monday, March 12, 2018	WWAS 032	Vancouver Metro	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Woodsquat	WWAS 033 REF	W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
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