Ex-TRACTS is a project by Julia von Dorpp, gathering graphic fragments extracted from UK rave flyers of the 1990s and early 2000s, drawn from personal collections.
Initially conceived as a printed catalog, the project is now adapted into a web-based archive, opening new modes of navigation and reading. Each fragment can be traced back to the flyer it was cut from, recto or verso, and each flyer leads to the fragments it contains.
A system of filters enables users to navigate the archive and explore the fragments through their own perspective, by type of image or by colour.
Alongside the visual archive, a musical research accompanies each flyer: tracks, mixes and radio sessions by the DJs and artists listed on it, offering a glimpse of what these nights may have sounded like.
By isolating and recontextualizing these elements, Ex-TRACTS approaches rave flyers as a graphic, social, sonic and political archive, reflecting the memory of underground cultures and the role of design in shaping collective identities.