Paper short abstract:

This paper argues that the production of visual documentation and archives during conflict provides a lens through which to explore emerging technologies as part of political, economic and social struggles.

Paper long abstract:

This paper argues that the production of visual documentation and archives during conflict provides a lens through which to explore emerging technologies not only as a matter of human technical capability, but also as explicit part of political, economic and social struggles. How does attention to disruption help us understand the emergence of technologies, particularly in relation to archives? The paper builds on critical conceptualisations of technologies as imagined, emplaced and future-oriented (Fanon 1959; Tsing 2005, 2015; Moores 2005, 2012, Mollerup 2015).

Targeted persecution of photographers and lack of access for professional photojournalists are engendering NGO-driven development of cutting-edge software automatically preventing facial recognition in visual documentation, verification methodologies and platforms that allows for automated verification and ethical use of images from conflict zones. Meanwhile, frequent power cuts in war-torn Aleppo, restricted access to electricity during revolutionary sit-ins in Egypt and limited internet access in both places invoke the use of outdated diesel generators, the physical transportation of vast visual archives on hard drives and deftly rewiring of electricity from lampposts to enable makeshift charging stations and revolutionary street cinema.

The paper is based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with video activists and archivists in Egypt, interviews with local photographers from Aleppo and media development NGO workers, empirical investigation of the legal framework regulating work of civil society and collaborations with activists and NGOs.