Aural and Visual Cultures

Exploring archives, connecting fragmented histories.

The rationale for this workshop stems from the conveners’ awareness, as practitioners working on archives in different disciplines, capacities and contexts, of pressing questions concerning these sources and their use. The first of these questions is related to the very nature of the archive: what is archived, why, how, and by whom? The second is related to the legitimacy of those who consume archival material and produce knowledge based on that experience: who grants access, to whom, and why? In other words, who “owns” the archive? The third broad set of questions concerns consumers or recipients: for whom is knowledge produced? Who is the audience? Are they citizens to be educated, targets of ideology, recipients of assumptions regarding what is worthy of preservation, and why?

Based on these concerns, participants will tackle questions relating to access, methodology, and dissemination. We envision a three-day event, part of which will be a practicum, engaging scholars in projects devoted to making their archival materials accessible to wider publics. The panels will be devoted to creating a space for sharing experiences of and in archives; renewing our knowledge of archives in Beirut, Berlin, Cairo, Damascus, Istanbul, and elsewhere - outside the capital cities of the countries that we live and research in; and comparing agendas and approaches.

The workshop will engage participants based in Germany in a broad discussion to explore the potential for creativity in the archive, making connections and contributing to a collective experience and practice of the archive. It will invite practitioners to blur the boundaries between traditional sites of historical knowledge production: the academy, the arts, and civil society. Participants will explore ways in which current techniques of archive conservation tend to erase rather than reveal, and exclude rather than include. We will call for alternative historiographic practices that take into account the experiences of the archives ― for the researcher, but also for the people and stories we find in the archives.

In the fall of 2017 the Harun Farocki Retrospective takes place in Berlin. Two exhibitions in the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) and at Savvy Contemporary will run through January 28, 2018, and October 21, 2017, respectively; the comprehensive program showcasing all of Farocki’s films and TV productions, and selected radio work at Arsenal cinema will be held until the end of November 2017. Within the framework of the retrospective, Harun Farocki Institut (HaFI) opens an educational-performative platform at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) and silent green Kulturquartier from October 18–21, 2017. On four days, “Farocki Now: A Temporary Academy” shall serve as a forum for workshops, presentations, and debates which explore the contemporary relevance of Harun Farocki’s work and thought, placing it in new contexts and activating its productive potential. Six study groups from art schools, universities, and self-organized educational spaces from Alexandria, Berlin, Jakarta, Philadelphia, and Potsdam will present their months-long research extending from Farocki’s work.
https://www.harun-farocki-institut.org
http://harunfarockiretrospektive.org

Sound has always been there. However, its ephemeral condition has prevented us from critically listening to the past and even from thinking about our everyday sonic experiences. Moreover, the sonic materialization of the Logos-voice-has been systematically relegated to a second level, even when orality was present in the production of any kind of text. Recent approaches to sound have reexamined the relationship between text and voice. Clear examples are Richard Cullen's How Early America Sounded, Ana Maria Ochoa's Aurality or companions like The Sound Studies Reader. This renewed interest in the voice has been also reflected in the creation of oral repositories (UNESCO Oral Archives Initiative, British Library Sounds, or PennSound). Following this trend, our interdisciplinary seminar aims to explore the intersections between the textual and the oral in disciplines such as History, Literature, Philosophy, Anthropology, Art History, Performance or Cultural Studies. In keeping with the seminar format, we welcome papers describing case studies (from any culture and historical period) or theoretical approaches to sound and text. Description Our interdisciplinary seminar aims to explore the intersections between the textual and the oral in disciplines such as History, Literature, Philosophy, Anthropology, Art History, Performance or Cultural Studies. In keeping with the seminar format, we welcome papers describing case studies (from any culture and historical period) or theoretical approaches to sound and text.