Keynote presentation at History/Reality #3: Engaging with the Attic Archive (Harry Clarke Lecture theatre, NCAD, Dublin), a symposium focusing on legacy-building for artists’ archives. The day’s talks brought together the research network Curating The Digital Attic Archive with leading performance artists Brian Connolly, Sandra Johnston, Alastair MacLennan, PhD researcher Calum Eccleston as well as art and design students, international archivists and curators to discuss how artists’ archives are built and how they can be engaged with and preserved.