Past is Prologue is an in depth study of the Western Front’s extensive Media Archive. Inspired by the highly successful Perspective on the Archive project (2008/2009), Past is Prologue a multi-year engagement with our media archive, culminating with Western Front’s 40th Anniversary year in 2013. The initiative invites writers, theorists, artists and curators into the Western Front Media Archive to conduct concentrated research. Each researcher will produce a piece of writing and a public event to represent their research. Each essay will be available as a downloadable PDF on the Western Front website free of charge. For the 40th Anniversary these texts will be anthologized into a print on demand text. Researchers will be encouraged to engage with rare and unseen tapes in the Western Front Media Archive.