Archivist Brandon McMahon
11.9.22
SB: Hello Brandon, when and how did you begin the practice of archiving?
BM: Hello there. History and social type studies were always what I was drawn to most in school, going beyond the normal textbooks to find more information on topics and ideas that interested me. While attending college at Arizona State University, I was a volunteer docent at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary art and helped curate many great exhibitions. As part of that process, I got firsthand knowledge of the process of acquiring archival art, packaging, preparing for showing, etc. That whole process had a profound impact on me, and I was hooked. From there I went on to do my senior thesis (Bachelor’s degree in Urban and Environmental Planning) on Arcology and the work of Paolo Soleri. In that I had the opportunity to scour the Cosanti and Arcosanti archives here in Paradise Valley and Mayer, Arizona - scanning and researching to my heart’s desire – and even interviewing the man prior to his passing. After graduation and moving around to a few different places, I was just exposed to more and more that interested me and have been digging ever since. The topics that stand out the most to me have been those of land and environmental art, exhibition posters and typography of the mid to late 70s, off-grid living manuals, etc. The best part of archival work is it’s such a rabbit hole. Once you make a turn down one avenue it opens a whole other space and range of topics to explore. It’s a never-ending cycle that gives and gives.
SB: Let’s do a roll call for all of your archives. Can you list all of the archives that you have online… Instagram and otherwise?
BM: Currently I run four archival Instagram accounts aside from my personal account - each of which are pet projects of things I enjoy. I started out, overseeing the Richard Demarco Archive account where I share documentation of his work and the Demarco Gallery from 1967 through 1983. Secondly, I run the Top Value Television account displaying ephemera and photographs which document the video art/guerrilla television troupe from years 1972 through 1977. I also run the Pacifica Radio Archives account displaying ephemera and folios for all the Pacifica Radio affiliates from years 1963 through 1984. Lastly, I have my personal book and ephemera account known as Golden West Books. While it’s a lot juggling each of them, I love the nature of archival work and sharing the history of these great organizations/products.
SB: What does your process look like? How do you go about finding and selecting the imagery that makes it into your collections? What gets you really excited about a work of art or design?
BM: The world wide web is a great thing. A resource that I feel we still have not tapped its full potential. It starts with a simple search and then the rabbit hole trek commences. Whether it be another search on a similar topic or stumbling onto a book I can purchase and scan. I’ll just keep digging and digging. It’s kind of chaotic in a sense that there is not a formal methodology I use. If I find something that is of interest, save an image to Tumblr or Pinterest, and then keep exploring. Most of my book or ephemera acquisitions have been acquired from stumbling upon an item on eBay or AbeBooks, which is the snowball effect to the most extreme. I tend to utilize Archive.org a lot and various museum archives for inspiration. The thought that I will never be done searching, that there is so much content out there of interest to me, really keeps me striving to dig and archive. Always upping my Google and iCloud storage, ha.
SB: How did you end up at this particular intersection of design styles… a style that I feel is closely related to what author Greg Castillo calls ‘Hippie Modernism’.
BM: Just a natural evolution over the years and time spent being tired of “normal” aspects of art as the mainstream knows it. I have kind of always sought the obscure and edges of where the mainstream ends and beyond. There is just so much good content out there that should be shared and cherished, semi-undiscovered artists that have not gotten deserved recognition. The Chip Lords, Nancy Holts, Dennis Oppenheims, Alan Powells of the world, that truly deserve some spotlight. What I really want to do with my archiving is raise awareness of these artists and what they wanted to share.
SB: Did you see the ‘Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia’ exhibit or get the book?
BM: Unfortunately, I never had the chance to see the exhibition, but do own the publication. It’s a great start for those interested in that realm and has a little bit of everything. That quest for a better future and the hope that the communal way of life could progress our society ahead a step or two is really interesting to me. This idea of self being a foreign thing in some instances. Building on the ideas of people like Buckminster Fuller and Stewart Brand, and looking to design alternatives to provide guidance and proof that social norms or status quo methods are not always the correct path.
SB: Tell me a little bit about your background with design and art.
BM: I’ve been creating since I was very young. I won a statewide art contest in 4th grade and it just kept going from there. In high school, I oversaw art direction for the yearbook and newspaper, and built that into side work throughout college. Most of my free electives in college were art history or studio work based, and I have made a lot of great connections along the way. It’s easy to stay inspired and keep the creative wheels turning when you’re surrounded by talented people; Friends like, Matthew Correia, John Zabawa, Matt Bruce, Bailey Elder, Liam Kaczmar, Schuyler Beecroft, among many others. Again, there is just so much great content and creative people out there. Just have to dig. Archiving is just a way of showcasing my love of the works of others. All the credit to them!
SB: Do you collect physical design ephemera as well? If so how do you store/display it?
BM: My residence is a library of sorts at the moment, but I have been a lot better with purging lately. Pamphlets, magazines, books (and more) of similar genres are categorized and once I tire of a certain genre I can begin to purge (for example, say old National Parks brochures, I purge and sell or give away those that are no longer of much interest). The more brittle items are wrapped and stored carefully in filing cabinets, but for the most part books, photographs and the like are all on shelves.
SB: Do you collect anything else? Does you sometimes feel like a hoarder, haha?
BM: I often do feel like a hoarder. I tell my fiancée all the time that the purging is helping, though the acquiring of items doesn’t seem to be slowing down. It’s Like a vicious cycle. The storage unit is getting purged next, ha. I am also a DJ/record collector, so that is also a huge aspect of my collecting/archiving. I tend to lean toward obscure and rare records, mostly collecting AOR/soft rock/folk LPs and 45s from the early 70s through the 80s. I approach record collecting with a process very similar to design archiving… you just pick and pick. I’ll find something strange, of interest, or foreign to me - whether it be artist or label, or even a cover and research to discover more similar releases. Unearthing record grails is a tedious and rewarding hobby, and again extremely similar to the art/ephemera I archive.
SB: When did you start DJing? Are you still doing it?
BM: I have been DJing since 2009, while living in San Francisco and have been doing so off and on since.
SB: You’re a designer as well, correct? Is that your day job?
BM: I’ve been doing design work for about the same length of time – since I really started doing work for clients and not just friends or my own flyers. Some past clients include the Long Beach Museum of Art, Daydream Surf Shop, various local business and events, as well as a slew of band and gig artwork. Both provide me great enjoyment and are enlightening expressive avenues for me in their own way. Would love to do both more frequently, but the full-time local planning work calls. I’m a wearer of many hats and have my hands in a lot of pots. By day I am a Planner here in Arizona, and have bounced around the planning/environmental field since college. I was previously a trail planner for the Golden Gate National Recreational Area in San Francisco, and a project coordinator to create a national park on Saint Eustatius in the Caribbean, including other environmental contract work. I love my day job and am very passionate about what work planners do to help create and maintain our individual communities. But I feel like that line of work really compliments my other loves of design and art, and all the rich history of both.
Brandon’s Instagram: @bmchombre