Audio-visual archiving has long ago supported the claims of citizens or whole communities against dictatorships and unlawful practices from corporations and democratic states. Nowadays, the ability to capture and share audio-visual materials is unprecedented. However, paradoxically, the same platforms that have extended the ability to create records to all layers of society are reducing people’s agency to turn these records into archives of evidence that can be used to prevent abuse, educate, and promote social justice.
Hence, when fighting traditional power, people under oppression also need to prepare for a long-term battle to preserve their archival autonomy from the big tech companies behind these apparently free and horizontal platforms.
Organizations such as WITNESS, Mnemonic or HURIDOCS work to create and use audio-visual archives on human rights violations to support advocacy, social justice and accountability. In this webinar, Maria Mingo (Mnemonic), Yvonne Ng (WITNESS) and Bono Olgado (HURIDOCS) will discuss different approaches to the field considering aspects such as ethics, activism, community-based archives or social media archiving tools.
Institutional archivists, social activists, subaltern groups or audio-visual professionals attending this webinar will for sure benefit from our participants’ points of view and practical recommendations. Do not hesitate to save the date!
Speakers
- Maria Mingo (Mnemonic) https://mnemonic.org/
Maria Mingo has 10 years' experience in international criminal law, specialising in documentation of atrocity crimes through technology. At Mnemonic, she leads its work on content moderation, engaging with social media platforms, NGO coalitions, and other stakeholders on content takedowns and preservation. Previously, Maria worked at eyeWitness to Atrocities, an initiative of the International Bar Association, leading their documentation capacity-strengthening work, collaborating with activists using documentation technology for accountability.
- Yvonne Ng (WITNESS) https://www.witness.org/
Yvonne is an audiovisual archivist with over 15 years of experience preserving media in community-based and non-profit settings, bridging the intersections of activism, technology, and archives. As the Senior Program Manager of Archives at WITNESS, Yvonne Ng is dedicated to supporting people to create and use archives for human rights change and accountability. She assists and trains grassroots partners, produces sharable learning materials, and advocates on issues related to human rights archives.
- Bono Olgado (HURIDOCS) https://huridocs.org/
Bono joined HURIDOCS in 2021 as its Programme Manager for Asia Pacific, later switching roles to be the organization’s Documentalist. He supports human rights groups across the globe with their documentation, information, and technological needs. Bono is also an assistant professor at the University of the Philippines School of Library and Information Studies where he teaches archival studies and practice. His current research focuses on the datafication of memory politics in transitional justice mechanisms.
Moderators
Juan Alonso Fernández and Vicenç Ruiz Gómez, members of the Photographic and Audiovisual Archives Working Group (PAAG).
Date: Thursday 26 October 2023
Time: 18:00 CET (Paris time). To confirm the date/time of this session in your time zone please use the following link.
Location: Online.
Registration: The session is free and open to all.
REGISTER HERE
This virtual session will be delivered in English. Interpretation into other languages will not be provided.