A dimly lit room with a simple wooden desk and chair (plate 1). A hanging lamp illuminates a kind of writing-pad that is inserted into the tabletop. It is a rather contemporary writing-pad, a computer screen on which words, sentences continuously appear, disappear, and re-appear. ‘… to transfer to a records centre for temporary storage … one hand writing upon the surface of the Mystic Pad while another periodically raises its cover … to erase, to wipe or rub out, literally or figuratively … archivist was an officer of great dignity …’ Fragments of text flash up, fade, are overwritten by new text segments, leaving faint traces before they vanish.
The Wunderblock (2000) is the title of this installation, alluding to the children’s toy that provided Sigmund Freud with a model for the representation of his theory of memory. As is widely known, the actual ‘Mystic Writing-Pad’ consists of a slab of wax that is covered with a transparent sheet, the top end of which is fixed to the slab...

Originally published in From the Archives, Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg, 2003

[Motto:] “When the time comes, this compendium will serve as a great treasury of memories and a unique proof of resurrection.” (Danilo Kis: Encyclopedia of the Dead) (1)

The art of memory, which traces back to Roman antiquity, begins with an unfortunate accident. During a celebration, the banquet hall collapsed, burying the guests beneath it. Only the poet Simonides escaped death 2). Because he recalled where everyone sat before the collapse, he was later able to identify the maimed corpses...

Originally published in: Arnold Dreyblatt, From the Archives, Heidelberg, 2003

Each Archive division is treated differently as to the selection process, storage media, data format, etc. Where possible, I have generally considered a phase of digital storage as a suitable goal before selection, categorization and final display. Maintaining as much material as possible in digital form allows maximum flexibility in terms of later treatment and presentation. The texts are gradually entered into a database, which has been specially structured for the particular nature of the respective data. This initial process, including entering, categorization and database programming has taken from weeks to years, depending on the condition and size of the data, as well as on the financial funding available.
I usually choose a particular data source (book, database, subject matter, etc.) with an end result in possible final presentation in mind. Additionally, I take into account the complimentary aspect of a particular material in relation to the content and structure of the other archival holdings in my possession before considering acquisition. I see the selection and categorization process as the application of an almost institutional administration on the data which allows retrieval, access and treatment. Systems of categories are revised extensively and lists of "keywords" are created out of repeated readings and through the use of "search engines" and linguistic word frequency analysis...

het Financiele Dagblad, Amsterdam, 22/24 August, 1998

H.H.: You have made a media opera, composed several musical pieces, there has been an exhibition, a book will be published soon, you are preparing an installation, - everything in connection with this book Who's Who in Central & Eastern Europe 1933. What kind of special quality mode this book a vein of gold for your artistic work, so that it become your personal bible?

A.D.: I have always been interested in personal stories, which have to do with personal dislocations. People who have parents from two different countries, personal histories in which one is transported through migrations of peoples or wars, the moment at which historical situations rupture one's life. My interest in this book, the bible as you said, is this collection of dislocated fragments. This book is a complex network of personal myth construction: a geo-political history of Central and Eastern Europe put together as if it were a puzzle from thousands of individual stories, revealing an image of a vanished world captured at a critical point in time, which only a few years later would no longer exist. But to take your question at a personal level, which I prefer to avoid, this interest also comes from third generation shock. I still feel as if I am suffering from the emigration of my grandparents...


(Interview by Hannah Hurtzig in Berlin on September 22nd 1994, published in THEATERSCHRIFT, Memory Issue, Nr. 8, 1994)

An earlier version of this paper was presented for the Division on Autobiography, Biography, and Life Writing at the Modern Language Association Conference in Toronto on December 30, 1997.

A.D.: I have always been interested in personal stories, which have to do with personal dislocations. People who have parents from two different countries, personal histories in which one is transported through migrations of peoples or wars, the moment at which historical situations rupture one's life. My interest in this book, the bible as you said, is this collection of dislocated fragments. This book is a complex network of personal myth construction: a geo-political history of Central and Eastern Europe put together as if it were a puzzle from thousands of individual stories, revealing an image of a vanished world captured at a critical point in time, which only a few years later would no longer exist...

Several years ago, in an old second-hand book shop in Istanbul, the American composer Arnold Dreyblatt discovered a rare copy of “Who’s Who in Central & East Europe 1933”. The book was published in 1934 in Zurich and handwritten on the frontispiece was the name of its original owner - “Dr. S. Schmidt, Istanbul, Turkey.”
The volume contained over 10,000 biographies: a travel and address guide for and about people from business and politics; facts about Achmed, King of Albania with lists of his decorations; a military nurse, who as private secretary to General Pilsudski held lectures on moral disarmament; an engraver of gold medallions for Pope Leo XIII; the court pianist of the last Austrian Emperor; or the man who invented the rotating therapeutic bed.
Dreyblatt, who himself comes from a Jewish family that was spread all over Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Austria-Hungary, was seduced by the hidden layers: personal, intimate details, hopes, fears, and life philosophies. In order to search out the various connections between people, places and historical events, 771 biographies were chosen. and entered into a Hypertext computer program, where they were sorted and organized into specific categories. From this material, a working version of the text was extracted based on personal and thematic connections. This version of the text, both spoken and sung in the piece, is, as Dreyblatt explains, only one of many possible variations...