POLYVOCAL INTERPRETATION OF CONTESTED COLONIAL HERITAGE
PICCH explores how archival material created in a colonial mindset can be re-appropriated and re-interpreted to become an effective source for decolonization and the basis for a future inclusive society. We will engender a polyvocality that can be incorporated into the archive itself providing new ways to enter and explore the past via a contemporary interpretative frame.
Many memory institutions across Europe hold records of a colonial past now contestated from both communities of origin, ethnic minorities and civil society at large. Professionals in the field ask what to do with this problematic heritage, from returning items when appropriate, to rewriting the historical context in a more critical and inclusive way.
Partners in PICCH are three colonial audio-visual heritage organisations with a rich collection of original film and sound, some of it produced at the height of empire, ranging from ethnographers' footage for 'educational' purposes to more direct propaganda films to bolster colonial ideologies.
PICCH draws from the different expertise of the partners, from archive and user studies, to natural language processing technologies, to postcolonial theory, to co-creation. We will
draw a common map of racialised representations and their imperial contexts and use problematic visualisation and language in the records to open up a dialogue between the heritage and a variety of users, including archivists, researchers, filmmakers, and grassroots organisations.
Browse through the research we do and get in touch if interested.
NEWS
We are compiling a list of resources about contemporary sensitivity, decolonisation, and co-creation. Get in touch if you know of others!Call for papers: “Heritage, Community, Archives: Methods, Case Studies, Collaboration” conference, 12-13 June 2023, Sheffield, UK.
A theoretical framework for uncovering the colonialist bias in anthropological audiovisual material hosted at the Pitt Rivers Museum was presented at the 2022 MeCCsa conference and at the 2022 EYE International Conference.
User research presented at ASIS&T 24-Hour Global Conference.
New book from Dr Ying-Hsang Liu.
Introducing the team from Oslo Met.