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- Convenors:
-
Anne Heimo
(University of Turku)
Kirsi Hanninen (University of Turku)
- Stream:
- Archives
- Location:
- A125
Short Abstract:
This panel examines the role of participatory archives in creating cultural heritage. It explores the ways and reasons people create, manage and curate archives on social media and websites, and discusses the impacts of these new forms of collaboration between audiences and institutions.
Long Abstract:
The Internet, and especially social media, has altered and transformed former understandings of what we mean by archives as well as cultural heritage, and demands the recognition of new forms of collaboration between audiences and institutions. People can collaborate with existing archives, museums and cultural heritage organizations by transcribing or translating texts, adding their personal photos, videos or documents to public collections or by sharing their stories. But they can also create, manage and curate archives fully by themselves on social media and websites. Kate Theimer (2012) calls these new forms of archival activity participatory archives: "an organization, site or collection in which people other than archives professionals contribute knowledge or resources, resulting in increased appreciation and understanding of archival materials and archives, usually in an online environment". While some have applauded this shift, there are still many who are unsure where it will lead to.
The panel proposes to examine participatory archives and their role in creating cultural heritage. What can be achieved? What may be lost? The panel invites theoretical, methodological and empirical papers that look into the way people are participating and engaging in participatory archives. Following themes could be addressed: questions of authorship, engagement and participation, positive and negative impacts.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Anne Heimo (University of Turku) Kirsi Hanninen (University of Turku)
Paper short abstract:
In our paper we examine user generated contents and participatory archives and the larger implications of using social media for archival activities. We will also discuss the theoretical, methodological and empirical impacts of these.
Paper long abstract:
The objective of our paper is to serve as an introduction for the panel "Everyone an archivist? The role of participatory archives in creating cultural heritage". In our paper we examine user generated contents and participatory archives and the larger implications of using social media for archival activities. We will discuss the concept of participatory archives and the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 archives from the perspective of archival studies, heritage studies and folklore studies. As folklorists, we are especially interested in how non-professionals are participating and engaging in archival activities by contributing and sharing knowledge and resources on social media.
Armelle Faure (Independent consultant, France)
Paper short abstract:
How witnesses reacted when offered to have their families’ experience included among 100 voices. How they managed their ownership of the archive collection participatory project, 60 years after these “people of the valley” were displaced to build five large dams on the Dordogne River in France.
Paper long abstract:
After WWII, France needed urgently to upgrade the national energy production for both households and industries. Thousands of people were displaced to make space for large reservoirs for hydroelectrity. They left their farms, castles, social networks and agricultural activities. They left their homes built by their ancestors' own hands. A cultural project was recently designed with the departmental Archives of Cantal and Correze and the Group Electricite de France. "100 Witnesses" speak in order to record the memory of the life along the river, and the drastic change in landscape and activities during and after the building of these five large dams.
The people of the Dordogne Valley, who were displaced 60 years ago, agreed to be recorded, for the first time. What convinced them to talk about the hard experience of displacement? How did they take ownership of the project? What do they do with the book that was published? What do the witnesses say when they are invited to give conferences? How do they use the website of the archives? How do artists among them create new projects that include the recorded files? Are they currently building their own cultural heritage?
The paper will question whether this experience is replicable. It will be compared with the oral archives project of the Department of Finance in France, which inspired this project. This archive collection is presented by Professor Florence Descamps in her book "The historian, the archivist and the recorder. From conception of oral source to its utilization". (2001).
Francesco Bruno Bondanini (Universität zu Köln)
Paper short abstract:
Jalisco was a photographer who captured the everyday practices of the multi ethnical working class outskirts of Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Northern Africa. With the participation of neighbours and the support of social networks we are collecting his pictures for an exhibition
Paper long abstract:
Working with audiovisual archives on the story of the photographer Jalisco we discovered a few Facebook groups in which people shared old pictures of the city of Melilla: pictures of monuments or about everyday lives, mixing nostalgic feelings about the past and discourses about coexistence between the diverse communities. Observing these groups and searching resources about the photographer we decided to ask people to share with us their pictures with the aim to make an exhibition on Jalisco's work. The response pushed us to film the process and the interviews. The aim of the exhibition is to put together collective memories, putting order to the resources that, in some cases, already appear on the social network, asking for participation and establishing a collaboration with local people to analize the figure of Jalisco. The context of our work, Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Northern Africa, is a peculiar space due to the presence of diverse communities and the recent changes that characterized the outskirts of the city, once populated by a working class with diverse ethnics origins and now populated mostly by people from Amazigh (berber) origins. This empirical work wants to underline the importance of the participation in the creation of an archive of a local photographer who, with his pictures represented the everyday practices of a multiethnical working class neighborhood. The work wants to reflect on the actual isolation of the outskirts and the collective strength to create cultural heritage and recreate a forgotten past.
Tiiu Jaago (University of Tartu)
Paper short abstract:
The presentation focuses on the question how an internet portal and Facebook are used to alter the image of a post-socialist city district. The focus is laid on the cultural aspects of image creation.
Paper long abstract:
Social media offers new possibilities for forming communities and encouraging new joint initiatives. The presentation views it by the example of the internet portal of Annelinn, the largest city district of Tartu.
Unlike other districts of the city of Tartu, the population of Annelinn has not gathered into a society or another joint activity. This is due to two reasons, at least: Annelinn is a relatively new urban district (founded in the 1970s—80s); and socially, its population is highly non-homogeneous. In 2014, there was a significant resurgence of public interest in Annelinn, driven by the landscape architecture master's thesis by Ave Kongo 'Out between blocks. How to provoke urban and community activism in post-socialist large-scale residential areas? On the example of Annelinn in Tartu' (2013). In the autumn of 2014, a call for ideas "Public space and activity space in Annelinn" was organized and soon the internet portal was created. A network has emerged in Facebook based on the common share of followers of related topics and theme group members, linking those interested in Annelinn with other similar interest groups (e.g. "Nostalgiline Tartu", "Supilinn").
The question is: how is the image of Annelinn designed through an internet portal; what are the specifics of an image created in this manner, compared to the one manifest in personal memories (based on the collection of life histories of the Estonian Cultural History Archives) or the one revealed in the common activities of other city districts of Tartu.