(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)
Abstract
Digital technologies have ushered into existence an infinitely-expanding universe of ephemeral and transitory media. Unfixed, tenuous, temporary, aggregated captured data languishes in desktop folders, as social media posts, as photographs locked onto misplaced SD cards, voicemail recordings on cell phones, and videos taken and forgotten, now adrift in monthly cloud storage subscriptions. Each insubstantial time capsule reflects its moment of capture, an intangible artefact consisting of tremulous pixels and bits, reliant on wired infrastructures. The images, video, and sound found in personal and community digital archives can be mined and utilized, like mixing pigment from raw ore. The media(s) elicit possibilities for revision, for disassociation from or examination of their specific histories. Sometimes through its very existence, media begs for reframing of its narrative attachments. The authors present case studies of transdisciplinary archive-driven creative digital art and media practices, including community-facing intersections with reframing of archives as examples of praxis—a means of strategic navigation of both community and individual narrative, memory, loss, and trauma. Through working closely and inventively with archival media, its repositioning, remixing, fracturing, and collaging, the artist, individual, or related community finds themselves within reach of a powerful and crucial conceptual spaciousness. This spaciousness offers the creative possibility of reimagining, reifying, or (re)contextualizing archival media in new and important ways through digital technology. Suddenly there is imaginative room for novel narrative trajectories, alternate endings, necessary amendments, healthy revisionist histories, a cracking open of possibilities towards, for instance, trauma reconciliation, media sovereignty, or decolonial methodology. Archive-mining approaches facilitate deepened empowerment for the individual or community, and an expanded engagement with intangible media and the pliable narratives of its specific history.
Rachel Lin Weaver is an artist whose works span video, installation, sound, and performance. Weaver uses a mix of experimental documentary, performative, and parafictional strategies in her practice. Recent artworks explore memory, the human and the nonhuman, landscapes and people in flux, and ecological systems. She additionally researches ways to uplift the sovereignty of Indigenous knowledges and media representation. Weaver’s works have been exhibited in numerous cities in the US and in 39 countries. Currently, Weaver serves as the Program Director for Cinema Reset, the XR, new and emerging media program of the New Orleans Film Festival. Weaver lives and works in the mountains of Appalachia, where she is Director of the MFA in Creative Technologies at the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech.
Lesley Duffield is an animator, documentary filmmaker, and media artist. As a filmmaker, Duffield centers social activism, ethnography, and community collaboration. He has worked within digital humanities fields, and alongside communities towards the development of oral history and community narrative-centered documentary practices. He often works as a collaborator, and communication and sharing are key to his media arts practices. His exploration in 3D animation and installation methods have become crucial and impactful ways to expand his creative vision beyond the boundaries of the screen alone. Duffield received his MFA in Digital Media Arts from Indiana University Bloomington, and his BA in Communication Studies from Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis. Currently, he is the Chair of the BFA program in Creative Technologies at the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech.
11:15 am - 12:45 pm
Wednesday 15th June, 2022