OHD_BLG_0102 DIGITAL FORAYS: ARCHIVES & ACTIVATION // ARTISTS AND ACCESS

with Asunción Molinos Gordo (Artist), Mohammad Shawky Hassan (Artist), Diana Allan (McGill University), & Discussant Helga Tawil-Souri (NYU).
In partnership with ArteEast & the Arab American National Museum) 15/10/20

At the start of the talk someone mentioned that they missed the mingling after a talks. Like the coffee houses Steven Johnson talks about.

Then I thought about whether it would be interesting to map these post talk chats by mic-ing people up and tracking their movements and interactions. \

Re-mixing

Just like the previous talk this was mainly about archival work concerning the middle east. Because of this everything (understandably) is coated in this layer of reclaiming ones history. This in combination with artists leads to a re-mixing of archives, putting a new lens on it. In some circumstances this means creating a whole new story. Using bits from the archive and remixing them to such a degree that a (maybe not completely factual) story is created. However the factual accuracy of the story does not really matter. These works are made in the freedom of the artistic space and their main aim is to become some thing that stands against the state archive and tell the story of a minority.

In one particular case during the talk the person was using archive footage from the British Library that had such strict copyright laws that she had to do extensive manipulation in order to even be able to make a film. This brought a lot of frustration since the footage is British colonial propaganda.

This re-mixing and manipulating of state archives in order to create something for a minority reminded me of the streetwear exhibition that I went to in Rotterdam. I see parallels between the practice of mixing and matching clothing the belonged to an elite with tracksuits and sportswear (among other things) order to create this own culture and what these artists create using archival footage. (Especially when you look at issues of copyright.)

In addition to streetwear the discussant Helga Tawil-Souri brought up Dada and how they used collage in order to make sense of a world increasingly filled with information. What the Dada-ist would have made of this age I do not know.

The “dead” .v. “alive”

There was a lot of discussion around resolute-ness of archiving something. By archiving something are you saying that it’s over? Then when do you start archiving a revolution? And when you archive something are you then also “creating” things to not be archived? Is it dead when you archive something? Should it be dead? Do we kill it when we archive it? Does an archive work best when it is alive? When the stories live in the people? Does an archive need a community? Even if they are subject to legend and myth? Why do consider an object truth when some one still has to label the object?

Decentralised Archives

The questions asked in “dead” .v. “alive” are nearly all subject to power structures. Whoever is in charge of the archive can allow new stories to be created or they can kill it, keeping it in its hibernated state. Like copyright. After all “history is written by the winners”.

But how do we break down these power structures?

A lot of people are using social media and other digital platforms but as we slowly realising now that just moves the power over the archive from the state to unelected billionaires (not ideal).

Diana Allan mentioned the idea of exiled archives. Archives created by refugees and those that move around the globe. This might allow the creation of archives that aren’t chained to any state. However this then brings up the issue with copyright and privacy.

Obviously the artists taking part in this talk also challenge the power structures by remixing. But the archives need to be open to this happening. Maybe having regular artist in residence.