Local and Ephemeral Graphic Traces

It is important that graphic design is included in this discourse as a part of the HIV and AIDS visual culture legacy. Whilst artworks may be preserved in collections and catalogues, and mass media campaigns discussed in cultural studies, it is the small, local, and ephemeral visual traces that are in danger of being left out of the story of HIV and AIDS. Drawing upon imagery produced or adapted for small local campaigns – flyers, fundraising leaflets, condom packaging and other forms of graphic ephemera from the UK, AIDS is revealed to be a different epidemic for different communities. Through finding, often by happenstance, personal testimonies and recollections connected to images and items that have never been widely published, alternative interpretations and insights emerge. The process and experience of creating interventions also had strong individual impact. Anecdotal evidence in combination with the ephemera adds value to an archive, and the gathering of oral histories can often be enriched when inspired by a visual trigger. There are intriguing items from the 80s and 90s where provenance has already been lost, but these can still have a useful speculative and discursive role. The recently published Documenting the HIV and AIDS epidemic: a survey of HIV and AIDS archives in the United Kingdom report offers a timely opportunity to consider how to make the contributions from those with lived experience available. It is significant that, alongside the gathering of information about archival material held in recognised institutions and libraries, the project had a high response rate regarding private and personal collections, many of which contain unique items of graphic ephemera. How can these ‘minor transient documents of everyday life’ be made use of and disseminated in order to enrich the HIV and AIDS legacy with an impact that belies the size, cost or original reach of the objects themselves?