Outreach of immigrants’ communities and its benefits for the archives Mariana Salgado

Postdoctoral Researcher Media Lab- ARTS- Aalto University

Virtual archives and online portals are currently changing the relations between the keepers and users of audiovisual heritage, and are challenging the role of the archivist as the principal expert on the knowledge a collection represents (Noodegraaf, 2011 ). In this article the focus is on the 1

knowledge that is produced while creatively reusing archives. Even when many archives adhere to participatory archiving practices, these practices are not widespread and legitimate. Facilitating the creative re-use of archival material is a participatory endeavour that has the potential to enrich existing practices. This is particularly true for those archives that want to develop their online presence and give the possibility to media researchers to study knowledge produced through use. This knowledge does not relate to the way in which the archivist or the historian finds and classifies material; It relates to the way enthusiastic video makers find and use audiovisual materials for their creations. This approach calls for new strategies for contextualizing the audiovisual archives.

Most of the enthusiastic video makers I have worked with produce their pieces using footage created by themselves or their teams. This way, however, archives miss the opportunity to collaborate with them and enrich their collections. This article tells about the experience of motivating immigrants to re-use audiovisual archives in a Video Poetry Marathon (VPM). During one day nineteen writers and video makers realized a pre-defined task: making a video poem. Video poems are a form of video art that mixes text, music, sound and images. The Video Poetry Marathon was one track of a larger event called Hack your Heritage!- Hack4fi . This hackathon aimed 2

at re-using Finnish archive materials that were recently released with Creative Commons licenses or were part of the commons. The Video Poetry Marathon (VPM) was a participatory research process in which people from different backgrounds could re-use audiovisual footage. Furthermore, the idea was to explore the re-use of audiovisual archives in multidisciplinary and cross-cultural teams, as well as gain inspirational ideas for the creation of online tools for editing and publishing videos for the project EUscreenXL 3

(2013-2016).

Noordegraaf, Julia. 2011. “Remembering the Past in the Dynarchive: The State of Knowledge in 1

Digital Archives.” In Unstable Platforms: The Promise and Peril of Transition. Boston: MIT Press. http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit7/papers/Noordegraaf.pdf.

AvoinGLAM. 2015. Reusing Finnish cultural heritage – Best concepts of “Hack your heritage” 2

awarded. Retrieved from http://avoinglam.fi/

EUscreenXL. 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2015, from http://blog.euscreen.eu/ 3

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The event was organized in collaboration with Sivuvalo , a group of 4

immigrant writers who write in languages other than Finnish or Swedish (official languages in Finland). In addition, there was an open call to enthusiastic video makers. During the day of the event each video maker chose one of the translations and worked together with the writer to create the video poem.

When the teams were ready, they could copy the AV files that were in a hard disk. Videos coming from Catalonian Television (part of EUscreenXL project) and The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland were available in high resolution. Furthermore, participants could browse online archives and download from them. Organizers provided the list from Commons and free media resources from Wikimedia Foundation (2015) . Each video enthusiast 5

together with the writer, chose the footage, the music, the atmosphere, etc… and made all the artistic decisions for their creations. Each team, however, had its own dynamics.

Participants brought their own computers on which they had installed video editing software. They made a digital copy of the footage and then manipulated it with different programs, such as Magix Movie Edit Pro, Final Cut Pro, and others. During the day, they faced many technical problems, and needed assistance in making decisions in the creation of the videos or in achieving a certain goal. All the teams that were formed during the day of the marathon were cross-cultural consisting of participants coming from different continents. During the day facilitators set up a YouTube channel named Video Poetry Marathon (2015). The whole event lasted nine hours. 6

The focus, in this article, is on the outreach of immigrant communities and its benefits for archives while facilitating re-use. The videos created during the VPM dealt with travels, life changes, immigration and maladies. Neither do they try to bring the viewer back to the original footage, nor do they hide the creative work of remixing archive material. The pre-existing context of the footage dissolves to give way to the new narration. These digital narratives potentially represent a national archive even though an immigrant does the original poem or story. When dealing with national collections, immigrants and their quest for identity could be the key in understanding local culture and identity.

These video poems are representative of the memories of the artists. They take shape from and give a visual interpretation in the combination of multicultural instances: the poem, the footage, the music and the artistic work that combines them all. These instances have different origins. In the

Sivuvalo group. 2015. Sivuvalo. Retrieved June 9, 2015, from http://sivuvalo.com/4

Wikimedia Foundation. (2015) “Commons: Free Media resources/Video.” http://5

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Free_media_resources/Video

Video Poetry Marathon, (2015) YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/6

UCjKKJa9SM2BON9YLrRhdJMA

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case of the poem “Infinito”, for example, the writer was Peruvian, the video maker was Australian and the footage was from the Netherlands, USA and Finland (See video ). 7

Archives could see these works as interpretations of their own archival material and make them part of their collections. But most importantly, by hosting these works an archive could trace links and enrich the collection and metadata with international and artistic insights that could have not been part of the archive otherwise. This contextualization process is fundamental to the archives because it gives new meaning to their holdings and makes them relevant for today’s world.

As video tools get easier and friendlier for people to use, it is also possible to be more inclusive in planning cultural interventions that propose new working practices. Hence, to include marginalized communities and build empathy with amateur video makers could help participatory archives make a genuinely positive social impact.

By facilitating the legal re-use of their collections, archives themselves support a creative practice from which they could benefit. Archivists and media scholars could influence current remix practices by embracing them and opening collaborative spaces for the creation and dissemination of the results.

Even though migrants in media have been stereotyped, racially categorised, criminalized, objectified and subjected to hate speech (Paulissen et al, 2014 ), within immigrants there are also many who support hackathons, 8

such as artists, designers and developers. Therefore, endeavours that give voice to migrants’ multifaceted narratives may in addition bring alternative perspectives on their identities and richness, and ultimately contribute to a more just society. The participation in media production projects of people who have been excluded can often transform their self-perception, build their confidence and self-esteem, and provide them with a social voice (Dowmunt et al, 2007 ). 9

Cultural interventions, such as the VPM, that allow for multicultural encounters could be a way to research into these new practices and formats. In many cases immigrants do not choose to move, but they are political or economic situations in their countries that force them to migrate. Once they are in their host countries, it is a challenge to integrate,

Dowsett, Guy. 2015. Infinito. Retrieved on August 25th from https://www.youtube.com/watch?7

v=9vLh8X300qQ

Paulissen, Vivian, Ruben Díaz Lopez, Thomas Roueché, and Susanne Mors. 2014. Remixing Europe. 8

Migrants. Media. Representation. Imagery. 1st ed. Doc Next Network. http://www.docnextnetwork.org/out-in-april-2014-remixing-europe/.

Dowmunt, Tony, Mark Dunford, and Nicole Van Hemert, eds. 2007. Inclusion Through Media. London: 9

OpenMute.

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make friends, find employment and learn the language. This is why cultural interventions that allow for multicultural encounters are necessary and desired. According to Navas even when one has been pushed to the 10

margins can actually do something productive within that space. Spaces, such as a hackathon that motivate creative reuse and cross-cultural encounters, could be an option that both opens possibilities to immigrants and to archives.

Navas, Eduardo. 2012. Remix Theory. The Aesthetics of Sampling. Springer-Verlag. Germany 10

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