Imagining Futures through Un/Archived Pasts - Development Proposal

对过去的争论就是对未来的谈判。在这些中心，档案扮演着一个独特的角色，作为一个时刻、一种趋势、一种生活、一种文化、一种暴行的痕迹。它见证了过去，将社区置于现在，塑造未来。这就是为什么决定收集、记录或保存什么是至关重要的，因为这影响到未来的存在。档案揭示了记忆与身份的持久性或转换之间的联系。这关系到谁的故事将继续被讲述，以及如何被讲述，谁的故事将被沉默。这些问题在冲突后、流离失所和重建的时刻变得尖锐。我们的网络依赖于将来自最紧迫地区的专门知识联系起来：中东和非洲，特别是黎巴嫩和坦桑尼亚。我们的起点是20世纪初坦桑尼亚的Maji Maji战争，它的景观和纪念，在监狱和修道院中，可进入和不可进入。它将作为团队的讨论场所，并通过分享图像和文字，带来来自黎巴嫩巴达维营地的声音。在从远处重新想象过去或现在的地方和生活的过程中，分析将追踪（以前/仍然）殖民，监禁，旅行和强制营地之间的惊人联系，探索这种接触可以产生（真实的和想象的）难民营范围之外的生活和叙述的方式。该网络提供了一个汇聚和共同创造知识的机会，在地缘政治背景下，很少有机会直接分享想法和经验，特别是建立南南联系。每一个都代表着未来的不同点：中东危机、非洲冲突后的长期和解，以及欧洲过去的殖民统治。在每一个这样的时刻，档案都有一种独特的力量。我们希望研究它的作用，并阐明有助于促进而不是压制公正、和平和包容社会的未来的归档实践。利用当地知识、自我存档方法、共同决定要记住或忘记什么的存档行为，以及跨越代际、性别和阶级的对话，具有独特的权威性。相反，刻板印象、士绅化、歧视和剥夺——所有这些都会造成不和谐、紧张和身体冲突——往往是由于知识不足和理解狭隘造成的。它们源于缺乏对共同历史和社区在全球背景下的地位的认识。想象未来将利用档案的内在力量，建立信心，增进理解，揭示共存的多种叙事，从而减少群体内部和群体之间的冲突，增加实现可持续和平的潜力。我们的目标是促进现有档案的开放和敏感利用，创造新的档案方法和类型，共同阐明一个不同的更平等的档案将是什么。这将通过坦桑尼亚和黎巴嫩的两个实验室（设有一个支助性技术讲习班）来实现，这两个实验室将通过利用现有档案，就地共同制作特别和非传统档案；创意开放数码工具；以及协议建议。这些活动将有助于阐明共同的问题，确定案例研究的范围，以及可以在更广泛的Network Plus项目中扩大、测试和开发的试点方法。我们的目标是为最佳存档实践创造方法和切实可行的建议，以遗产保护为要素，构建政策宣言。通过将文化实践作为重要的谈判场所，我们更大的目标是倡导文化被正式承认为一种人道主义需求。

Debates about the past are negotiations about the future. At the centre of these the archive plays a unique role as a trace of a moment, a trend, a life, a culture, an atrocity. It bears witness to the past, situating communities in the present and shaping the future. This is why decisions over what is to be collected, recorded or preserved are crucial, as this affects what will have future presence. The archive exposes the connection between memory and the persistence or transformation of identity. It is about whose story will continue to be told and how, and whose will be silenced. These issues become acute in moments of post-conflict, displacement and reconstruction. Our Network depends on linking expertise from regions where they are most urgent: the Middle East and Africa, specifically Lebanon and Tanzania. Our starting point is the early 20th century Maji Maji War in Tanzania, its landscape and memorialisation, accessible and in-accessible - in prisons and monasteries. It will act as the site of discourse for the team and, through sharing images and writings, bring in voices from Baddawi Camp in Lebanon. In re-imagining past or present places and lives from a distance, the analysis will trace surprising connections between (formerly/still) colonised, incarcerated, travelling and forcibly encamped people, exploring the ways that such an engagement can engender (real and imagined) lives and narratives beyond the confines of refugee encampment.The Network provides an opportunity for convergence and co-creation of knowledge, from geo-political contexts that rarely get to share ideas and experiences directly, especially the creation of South to South connections. Each represents a different point in a future: the crisis in the Middle East, the long-term post-conflict reconciliation in Africa, and the colonising past of Europe. Within each of these moments the archive has a distinct power. We want to examine its role and articulate archiving practices that contribute to a future which promotes, not suppresses, just, peaceful and inclusive societies. Acts of archiving that draw on local knowledges, self-archiving methods, joint decision-making in what is to be remembered or forgotten, with dialogues across generations, gender and class, have a unique authority. In contrast, stereotypes, gentrification, discrimination, and deprivation - all of which can create discord, tension and physical conflict - often result from insufficient knowledge and narrow understanding. They stem from a lack of appreciation for shared histories and of community's place in the global context. Imagining Futures will use the intrinsic power of the archive for its capacity to build confidence, to enhance understanding and reveal co-existing multiple narratives, and thus, to reduce conflict within and between groups, increasing the potential for sustainable peace. Our aim is to facilitate the opening-up and sensitive use of existing archives, to create new methods and types of archives and to articulate jointly what a different more egalitarian archive would be. This will be achieved through two Labs in Tanzania and Lebanon (with a supporting technologies workshop), that will co-produce, through engaging with existing archives, special and non-traditional archives in-situ; creative open digital tools; and protocol recommendations. These activities will allow for articulating shared questions, scoping case studies, and piloting approaches that can be scaled up, tested and developed in a wider Network Plus project. Our goal is to create methodologies and tangible proposals for the best archiving practices building towards a policy-manifesto, with heritage preservation as an element. Our wider ambition, through exposing cultural practices as important sites of negotiation, is to advocate for culture to be officially recognised as a humanitarian need.