GATHERING

WISDOM

A REPORT FOR THE FIELD

OPEN ARCHIVE INITIATIVE

DECEMBER 

FROM THE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Introduction

How do we hold, reflect and

illuminate culture?

Communities articulated inside cultural institutions may be rendered

invisible because of marginalization, exclusion or colonial practices

that deny agency and power to those whose stories are appropriated

for exhibition to predominantly white audiences. Performance, digital

media and hybrid works are not adequately preserved and shared with

respect for the original and future storytellers.

The archives of some of our most prolific media makers and devoted

culture bearers are currently at risk; stories are being lost, collections

orphaned, and voices silenced because of a scarcity of resources and

shared vision. Many valuable media archives that do exist are behind

institutional walls, inaccessible to those whose lives inhabit the sto-

ries, and whose past, present and future dance in the shadows.

Thanks to a generous grant from The MacArthur Foundation and ad-

ditional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts CARES

program, the Alliance for Media Arts + Culture launched the Open

Archive Initiative in January 2020 to investigate best and emerg-

ing practices for creating and sustaining open archives that disrupt

corporate ownership, center collective authorship and indigenous

rights, and insure access for future generations. We identified an ur-

gent need to collaboratively address these issues across disciplines

and geographies, so we brought together a group of international

digital archivists, cultural preservation and storytelling experts with

independent and community-based content creators and technol-

ogists to gather and synthesize the collective wisdom. We invited

three US-based Fellows from this international group to work with us

during the summer of 2020, going deeper into emerging themes and

helping us think strategically about the ramifications of integrating

ethical technology into platform solutions.

This report synthesizes the first year of work of the Open Archive ini-

tiative; we intend to action these findings in the coming years as part

of a buoyant, systemic solution to cultural erasure and inequality.

Sincere thanks to Jocelyn Arem, lead researcher and facilitator of the

Alliance Open Archive Initiative and author of the Gathering Wisdom

report. Because of her dedication to and shepherding of this project,

we have become a more enlightened, co-creative community and dis-

covered how much more we have to learn.

Wendy Levy

Executive Director, The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture

TBLE OF CONTENTS

07 About the Open

Archive Initiative

13 Key Findings

15 Meeting One: What is an

[Open] Archive?

21 Meeting Two: What are the

Ethics of Open Archives?

25 Meeting Three: What are

Open Archives Collaboration

Best Practices?

29 Meeting Four: What are

the Impacts of Remixing

in Creating Access to

Archives?

33 Meeting Five: What are

Open Archives Technological

Access Best Practices?

37 Meeting Six: Overview

and Final Thoughts

40 Recommendations

43 Participant List

45 Fellows

47 Guest Speakers

WISDOM

A REPORT FOR THE FIELD

JOCELYN AREM, SENIOR PRODUCER AND AUTHOR

What do we

archive and why?

Is it to observe

the past or is it

to put our hands

on it and use it

over generations

—maintaining

its power in

the hands of

artists and

communities, and

not in the hands

of gatekeepers?

How can archiving

be a creative act?”

KAT CIZEK

ABOUT THE

Open Archive Initiative

Phase One

In early 2020, thanks to support from the MacArthur

Foundation and working in consultation with Library of

Congress and GRAMMY Award-nominated archival sto-

rytelling producer and scholar Jocelyn Arem, the Alliance

Open Archive initiative surveyed the field and held initial

conversations with cultural preservationists, artists and

filmmakers, scholars, activists and archival profession-

als about the barriers that currently exist in preserving

and opening still and moving image media collections.

These conversations brought together a diverse and in-

tergenerational community to deepen an ongoing explo-

ration of the ethics, opportunities and innovative methods

for preserving and providing access to digital media and

cultural archives -- archives that might otherwise be aban-

doned, orphaned, marginalized or excluded from our col-

lective past and future narratives.

Conversations during multiple gatherings were grounded

in the Alliance mission to help creative organizations and

artists connect and deepen the impact of their work, cen-

ter the voices and stories of those most vulnerable, and

build greater access to emerging technologies. During

Phase One of the initiative, we brought together a community of

thought leaders to collaboratively address and strategize best prac-

tices for creating impactful community-based preservation, access

and remix solutions that centered cultural protocols while explor-

ing the promise of creative innovation and the potential dangers of

emerging technology.

Following these conversations, the Alliance engaged 41 internation-

al participants including MacArthur, Guggenheim, GRAMMY, EMMY,

ASCAP Deems Taylor, and Library of Congress Award-winning cultural

preservation and storytelling experts from independent, institutional

and community-based content creators, cultural organizations, cura-

tors, technologists, archivists and documentary producers, to repre-

sentatives from larger institutional media companies, archives and

university libraries to participate in a series of three convenings in ear-

ly 2020 (one in-person before COVID, two virtual) aiming to address

key issues in the field:

WHO is telling and preserving stories?

HOW are organizations and artists addressing the challenge of get-

ting their material preserved and making it accessible, usable, con-

tinuous and transformative?

WHAT can organizations and artists do to keep pace with emerging

and best practices of preserving and opening their digital archives?

WHAT are strategies we can adopt to join together and solve

these issues?

From these convenings we learned that while media organizations

may reflect the diverse cultural identity of our communities, they

may also be rendered invisible because the stories in their archives

are not preserved and publicly available in a way that makes them

fully accessible. Far too often, archival collections containing valu-

able cultural knowledge are either prevented from being processed

(and thereby made available to researchers, the public, and even

those whose heritage is represented by the collection) by a lack of

institutional support and funding (or by way of funding prioritization)

locked away behind bureaucratic firewalls, tied up in battles over le-

gal rights, in brick and mortar buildings that pose accessibility chal-

lenges to users by way of ability, age, or location (made exclusive only

to privileged groups), are not digitized or only partially digitized and

are therefore unsearchable online, or are otherwise inaccessible to

non-academically connected researchers, storytellers, artists, and

indigenous communities. Without the ability to access and share this

content in an ethical and efficient way, the stories of our most prolific

media makers are being lost forever.

Through our discussions, several new areas of inquiry emerged as be-

ing ripe for deeper reflection and exploration. These included:

Ethical Considerations: When archives document social movements,

how do we consider the human rights framing? Do we take a step

back from preserving and opening archives to rise up these voices

when in doing so, people could be targeted and at risk?

Who are archives for? If we start to center this question, can we

build a framework and a paradigm shift where archives can be more

thoughtfully returned back to the people?

Collaboration best practices: How do we create cohesive strategies

both between grassroots groups and institutions, and between pres-

ervation and storytelling disciplines to prevent fragmentation in the

field and bring disparate voices to engage in conversation?

Multimedia archive best practices: What are the specific challenges

of preserving moving image content—logistically and financially—to

make it available?

Intellectual Property: How do artists, media organizations and oth-

er rights holders engage strategies for assessing ownership and us-

ability of archival holdings?

Phase Two

In Phase Two of the Open Archive Initiative, thanks to the support of

an NEA CARES grant, the Alliance named three Open Archive Fellows,

invited from the larger participant group. These individuals, Jessi Ju-

manji, Xaviera Flores and Cori Olinghouse, represent cultural preser-

vation and storytelling expertise across independent, institutional and

community-based perspectives.

The Fellows engaged in a series of six digital convenings with special

guest speakers from across sectors of the field. Their aim was to delve

deeper into the key challenges that emerged from the earlier discus-

sions in order to identify, synthesize and unpack the viability of a range

of systemic solutions. Two questions helped frame the inquiry:

what is actually needed to scale the preservation of community-

based media arts and culture collections and open the collective ar-

chives to future generations?

how might we best utilize new and emerging technologies to fa-

cilitate humane content searches, remix culture, storytelling and

art-making—guided by the wisdom from past and future ancestors?

The discoveries presented in this report will help The Alliance under-

stand how to best support the communities, artists, producers, and

member organizations—and the media collections they create, pro-

tect and cherish.

From July-September 2020 our working group convened virtually to

pursue in greater depth the key and emergent issues that arose in

our Phase One conversations. We hoped to ensure that our proposed

solutions would address the many known challenges faced by the field

as possible, and reflect the breadth and depth of the communities im-

pacted by this work. In our meetings, we surveyed the field - drawing

on both our Fellow’s networks and the Alliance’s own member network

to identify, incorporate and highlight the guest voices of archivists, de-

signers and technologists to discuss the equity, ethics and logistics

of emerging technologies that could power a variety of potential open

archive solutions.

The idea is to plant

seeds for Black

Radical Imagination.

It’s so important to

create spaces for

imagination —it really

does materialize into

new forms”

ARI MELENCIANO

Key Findings

On Community and Identity

In the cross-pollination of archivists, content creators, art-

ists, and human rights activists, there emerged a deep, col-

lective need for more widespread, solution-based conver-

sations about how to best protect archival content and the

valuable cultural heritage it embodies.

The archiving of trauma as a pathway to repair and healing

was a recurring and urgent theme. We have a natural instinct

to want to know who we are. There is a relationship between

the archive and a sense of belonging. Belonging to a collec-

tive and common story is healing.

Archives are dynamic and layered; it is important to review and

explore other natural systems (ecosystems, neurosystems etc) and

how they evolve and heal.

On Best and Emerging Practices

We must make archives more immersive and inclusive. There are

myriad possibilities for expanding the creative/cultural Commons,

centering the innovative and humanistic use of archived content and

building economic infrastructure to support archivists and artists.

In order for archives to be just and generative, both preservation

and storytelling must be pursued with ethics and humanity, inten-

tion and authenticity, and a recognition and inclusion of the origi-

nal culture bearers. The idea of ownership is Westernized.

This work must

be more of a

movement, a

systems-change

approach where

communities are

embedded in the

arc of the work.”

WENDY LEVY

The structure and organization

of most archives marginalize

the very communities the ar-

chives represent. To determine

the right space or institution to

hold an archive, it is critical to

prioritize access for all and in-

novative curatorial practice.

On Digital Systems

Archiving is not just about the stewardship of material, it’s about

protection. There are benefits to opacity.

Digital systems need to accommodate changing information and

multisensory embodiment. Creative technologists are taking up

key questions of care, and conceiving how containers for an expe-

rience are designed and built to create more welcoming and acces-

sible environments.

Creating platforms to showcase examples of open archives work to

provide role models for and greater exposure and visibility to respon-

sible, ethical work being done in cultural preservation spaces.

There needs to be disruption

in the definition of an archive—

this will help it evolve and be

open to new conversations and

different perspectives.”

XAVIERA FLORES

Participants discussed the importance of defining the concept

of an archive—and by extension, potential definitions of an open

archive. Each group member shared their personal definition

of an archive. The group then collectively called for a focus on

the intersectionality of archives, and possibilities that could be

modeled after complex systems that exist in nature such as the

brain - to best capture how dynamic archives are, potentials for

use and leaving space for archiving the future.

MEETING ONE:

What is an [Open] Archive?

Discussants: Wendy Levy, Jocelyn Arem and Fellows

(Jessi Jumanji, Xaviera Flores, Cori Olinghouse)

Xaviera Flores: “An archive is a dynamic experience of creating art

and being both art and artist that allows for an open dialogue - doc-

umenting as storytelling - built to be used in the future. Archives are

a form of storytelling. There is a need to interrogate what is “wor-

thy” of archiving, and doing that through breaking down technolog-

ical barriers, instilling social justice models, tackling systems of in-

formation, "putting yourself in the creators shoes,” and decolonizing

archival spaces.

Different disciplines talk about archives in different ways—for tech-

nologists it might be “a record,” for universities it may be “manu-

scripts,” etc. We need to think about the importance of open archives

in today’s world. People are surviving by revisiting their personal sto-

ries and identity. It’s important we also ask not just what kind of ar-

chive will be created but for whom—and how we break down barriers/

technological divides. We can look at social justice + storytelling to

break the mold as far as what institutional archives are, how to decol-

onize the archive and create potential future iterations. We need to

leave space for archiving the future and creating new things. We can

recognize the intersectionality of experiences and make it dynamic

and inclusive by putting ourselves in the user’s position.”

Cori Olinghouse: “As an artist working primarily in the discipline of per-

formance—I’m interested in imagining an archive as a living space that

develops protocols for process and regeneration, while allowing for

flexible methods of creating meaning that include bodily knowledge

and improvisation. A living archive is an open-ended system that is

adaptive, responsive, and modular. Rather than attempting fixity, the

archive operates regeneratively, working with memory to capture mul-

tiple perspectives over time. It has a built-in system for review, redac-

tion, and expansion. Embodied archives look at the body as a repos-

itory of knowledge and brings a particular attunement performance

forms and cultures that use orature, improvisation, ritual, storytelling,

choreography, or embodied practice. Can we think about [open ar-

chives] not as what has to be invented - but how this can be adapted

from something that is already working? We could look to improvisa-

tional performance forms as a way to fluidly consider forms that arise

and persist through constant reconfiguration and change. Etymolog-

ically, the word archive can be traced from the Greek—"arkheion," re-

ferring to a public building where records are kept. As Jacques Derrida

writes, “It is...in this domiciliation, in this house arrest, that archives

take place.” By contrast, my research looks at the ways of knowing that

travel between bodies within particular communities.

I’m concerned by the ways in which an “open” archive may assume a sup-

posed universality / through goodwill. Interested in thinking of an open

archive through a systems theory approach. An open system involves

an exchange of matter with the environment, an exchange between an

archive and users who are accessing it. It is a feedback loop that isn’t

fixed. It could be community authored/informed and accessible in more

than one format, along the lines of disability justice advocates. There

could be an intersectionality of audience and interactive projects.”

Jessi Jumanji: “There should not be one rigid definition of an archive.

As an artist I see an archive as an intersectional, living, flexible eco-

system of information that is always evolving. It exists in two dimen-

sions: Information that exists in the archive, and archivists that go

into the ecosystem to classify and make connections. It has to be

complex, because for too long you could only access archives in a

narrow concept of categories. We should view the archive not as sim-

ply a collection of things from the past but as having elements from

the past, present and future. It’s important that there is no pedestal

in archives. I imagine an accessible, open, free, ecosystem, with room

for growth and evolution. Archives have traditionally been unsafe

spaces. How can we activate the space of an archive for the public?

I like to explore unconventional forms of archives such as social me-

dia. It’s important that ownership is approached in a different way.”

The group co-created a collaborative list of descriptors for an ideal

open archive model:

DYNAMIC,

FLUID,

ECOSYSTEM,

MULTIDIMENSIONALITY,

INTERSECTIONAL

IMPROVISATIONAL,

LIVING,

REGENERATIVE,

INTERACTIVE WITH

THE PUBLIC

The group explored a range of other ideas that allowed it to expand its

thinking on the major themes of the discussion, including the following:

It’s important to remember that archivists and museums are not

neutral. People from different trainings have different ideas of eth-

ics the same way they might have different definitions of an archive.

Everyone has their own agenda. Intersectionality is key.

Classification can make archives easier to access, but depending

on how this is done and by whom, classification can also be limiting.

In an open archive—the information needs to be able to be further

tagged by the people who interact with it.

Open archives should understand better who needs access to ar-

chives and take note of accessibility and disability rights so they

can be prepared to share as inclusively as possible. We need better

access points for archives to be activated differently in different

spaces: i.e. Physical location vs technological platforms and trans-

parency about information that exists.

Archives can be a space for creative potential. However if anyone

can gain access and do anything with the content, what are the con-

sequences? Should we consider “preserving a space for opacity” to

prevent harm by disseminating information? We should look at exist-

ing ethical practices at libraries and cultural institutions; Especially

in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, libraries are revisiting

best practices and procedures.

The complexity of open archives should mirror the complexity of

humankind/cultural history.

It meant so much

to see myself

reflected in an

archive.”

LAE’L HUGHES-WATKINS

Participants discussed the ethical considerations of opening

archives. The group explored established methods for

archiving activism without harm, ethically and authentically,

in conversation with guest speakers Lae’l Hughes-Watkins,

the University Archivist for the University of Maryland and

founder of Project STAND, and Sam Gregory, an award-winning

technologist, media-maker, and human rights advocate, and

Program Director of WITNESS.

MEETING TWO:

Uncovering the Ethics

of Open Archives

Discussants: Wendy Levy, Jocelyn Arem, Fellows (Jessi Jumanji,

Xaviera Flores, Cori Olinghouse) and Guest Speakers (Sam

Gregory, Lae’l Hughes-Watkins)

Jessi Jumanji: “Who should be allowed to do what in the space of ar-

chiving? Who should be dictating/labeling content, and who rightfully

owns or has a birthright to certain culturally significant information?

What is sacred? Where should we draw certain lines in the space

of an open archive? There is a need to look at accessibility vs enti-

tlement, and what cultural credentials are relevant in [the archival]

space. Youtube’s user agreement is missing ethical considerations.”

Xaviera Flores: “There is a great responsibility in collecting and

curating. How do we guide people in what they’re looking at? Ul-

timately, what are we building? How do we ethically engage with

communities that have been historically exploited? We are opening

new conversations about how to dismantle old systems. Archives

should be open to interpretation. How do you track the integrity of

media—who is curating and sharing and for what purpose?”

Cori Olinghouse: “As institutions and archives

are not neutral spaces, there may be a great deal

of complexity around how you build rapport with

a community that may have mistrust with an in-

stitution. When working with the idea of differ-

entiated presence, how do you productively oc-

clude and protect through opacity in a creative

methodology?”

The group discussion how archives can and should be opened eth-

ically? Who are archives for? Who creates and distributes them?

Lae’l Hughes-Watkins spoke to the existing practices around ethics

at academic institutions and the revisiting and reinventing of best

practices through her work with Project STAND.

Lae’l Hughes-Watkins: “It meant so much to see myself reflected

in an archive. Working at Kent State there were gaps in the record.

There is inherent racism in institutions and we need ethical docu-

mentation of social justice movements—physical and digital spaces

of accountability and equity. I’ve always been looking for communi-

ty in my own archival profession and ways to aggregate content not

bound by historical practices at institutions and forge a new path.

It’s not just about “extraction” but including an ethics of care.”

Sam Gregory spoke to developing practices of archiving in activist

and community spaces that are just and ethical.

Sam Gregory: “As a starting point we always begin with archival

practice. We ask, ‘How do I archive? Not, ‘How do I make archives

that are open.’ It has to do with the question of control and creating

an archive of accountability. Archiving has historically been used as

power, so we look at how we can turn that around. We view it as how

we can help people be archivists and use archival skills. A lot of our

work is helping people think about whether they in fact want to add

archives to the public domain. We look at public curation and the

ethics of recognizing what you can /can’t do with content to protect

the most vulnerable, and mitigate risk of retaliatory action and legal

exposure through harmful evidence. We look at systemic oppres-

sion and ask “how do you take this footage, often from anonymous

footage, and present it in a way that is ethical?”

“Embodied

archives look

at the body as

a repository of

knowledge”

CORI OLINGHOUSE

The group discussed two perspectives on archival ethics of care:

Ethics of care when it comes to creating broader, more inclusive

access because of institutional racism/mistrust—care becomes cre-

ating new spaces, collaborative methodologies

Ethics of care when it comes to limiting access for reasons of

protection, to uphold safety and minimize harm because of what

happens when access is used for harm

Our guest speakers offered up two methodological approaches:

Lae’l Hughes-Watkins:

S.A.V.E. Methodology

Sam Gregory:

Curatorial checklist with questions designed

to ethically curate footage

Summary of ideas that emerged from the major themes of the

discussion:

Open Archives should always keep in mind how to do this work

ethically and inclusively—considering risk and potential harm,

looking towards new recording and collections policies, and new

distribution policies. There already exists a robust collecting prac-

tice in activist communities that should act as a model.

Open Archives should hold people first—not institutions first. Institu-

tions of public good have a responsibility to the public.

Intersectional preservation/curation teams should approach ethical

practice in a way that rehumanizes through community partnerships.

The importance of shifting narrative power back to marginalized

communities and the need for more resources for activists, archi-

vists and memory makers to enable ethical collecting and sharing

Creative methodologies applied to ethical risk (Disaster Prepared-

ness (Xaviera Flores) Preserving opacity (Cori Olinghouse)

Archives can

be a place of

positivity to

change the

narrative of

certain historical

references and

lead to healing.”

JESSI JUMANJI

Participants discussed collaboration best practices and cultur-

al consent when opening archives in conversation with guest

speakers Grete Miller, Co-founder of Shutterstock's global Di-

versity, Equity & Inclusion Council, Contributing writer on DEI

in medial and visual storytelling, and Melay Araya, Artistic Di-

rector and Archivist at Town Hall.

MEETING THREE:

Open Archive Collaboration

Best Practices

Discussants: Jocelyn Arem, Fellows (Jessi Jumanji, Xaviera

Flores, Cori Olinghouse) and Guest Speakers (Grete Miller,

Melay Araya)

Jessi Jumanji: “In thinking about collaboration and inclusion, how can

we make sure of how archives are influencing appropriation, authen-

ticity and how content is captured and distributed? How can archives

positively re-contextualize content that was captured inauthentical-

ly? Archives reflect how people’s lives are lived and influences ideas

of certain cultures throughout time. So we need to make sure that

archives aren’t perpetuating negative connotations of cultures. His-

tory so often reflects a narrow scope and leads to generalizations.

Archives should be used to highlight more culturally specific and rel-

evant information.”

Cori Olinghouse: “I’ve been thinking about the idea of touch—

archives that touch one another, how we’re touching histories, queer

histories formed around haptics, etc.. How are we touching archives

to build different fields of organization - to produce a different “feel”

—not about the dominant narrative? How can we reshape ideas of

objectivity and neutrality in the fields of archives? These conversa-

tions need to be ongoing and intersectional, iterative and not fixed.”

Xaviera Flores: “To create real equitability and accessibility it’s important to

not make decisions without having key people present. If descriptions [in ar-

chives] are not accurate that is insufficient. Archives can use history to propel

different art forms forward and assist in recovery - especially for marginalized

communities. We need to have people involved in telling their own stories. What

are successful models of archives doing it “right”? And what is it that we’re

missing to reach that? What is holding us back? How do we make sure the sto-

ry about us is told by us? How do we create a system that is built to enforce

empowering, and naturally gives people that power? “

The group discussed collaboration best practices and how we view cultural

consent in opening archives. Grete Miller spoke to ways of making content

visible from a digital user interface perspective.

Grete Miller: “From a digital user interface experience when we ask the ques-

tion on the product side ‘How can we take things that are hidden away and

make them visible?' it is framed as, ‘Who are we serving?’

In a digital interface the user will turn away if it’s not easy to access. So,

the parallel in an archival repository (whether physical or digital) is that the

researcher will turn away if it’s not easy to access and navigate. There must

be a clear path provided to users that enables them to locate their required

information and points of contact. All products, digital or physical, should

be user focused. Being user focused is a vital requirement for the digital

archival space. Historically these spaces were built on the calculated ne-

glect of underserved communities. Therefore the archival space has cre-

ated gaps in information preservation, and complex navigational blockers

that prevent users from locating the information they need, validating their

lived experience, and presenting their story with dignity.

In order to know your users and their service needs, you must consult and col-

laborate with diverse subject masters and community leaders on defining and

building the users’ journey. If not, future archives will not grow and flourish as

inclusive intersectional environments that welcome all users and validate their

belonging. Instead they will continue to be a convoluted experience, clouded in

the stereotypes and reinforcing to users that, “this isn’t for you.’”

Melay Araya spoke to artistic-archival collaboration as an inclusive strat-

egy for access.

Melay Araya: “The material of our history is scattered. I’ve been thinking

about the idea of longing in archives—of looking and hoping and often mourn-

ing absences. I think about will-ing in archives. What history do we wish to be

true and how does our research reflect our desires? How are we touching

across archival spaces when our archives are fragmented?

We need to be cautious and critical of the ways in which archival objects are

identified. For example, archiving photographs from publications without the

articles they accompanied is a kind of severing. We can use history to propel

certain art forms forward; artists and scholars using and speaking on behalf

of archives is a form of gathering and collaboration necessary to collective

memory. The archive, both as concept and as a place to engage with objects,

can be a site for potential recovery, a resource, and a community center.”

The group discussed a competitor analysis: Who is doing this well?

Examples:

BAM

Tumblr—as a relational archive

Black Quantum Futurism

Summary of ideas that emerged from the major themes of the discussion:

Archival records historically have not been built for the public. Often

people in charge of archives are not part of the community the archive

is for. How do we make archives more approachable to the people they

represent?

Archival Studies is a profession that has refused to evolve

It’s important to consider the informal archivist—how items are collect-

ed before making it to institutions.

The measures we take to protect archives can be counterproductive to

creating access. Can we access archives in more than one way, rather

than just in person?

The limitation of finding aids is that “It’s harder to trip on something”—

part of the user experience that does not allow for play, exploration, ac-

cident, serendipity.

Film archives—a disaster of rights issues

How do we engage the eyes as a mode of touch

What are better trauma informed care approaches?

Knowing your

own history is a

human right.”

XAVIERA FLORES

Participants discussed remixing in creating access to archives

in conversation with guest speakers Martha Redbone, Artist,

Archival Storyteller, and Activist and Erika Hirugami, Founder

and CEO of CuratorLove.

MEETING FOUR:

The Impacts of Remixing in

Creating Access to Archives

Discussants: Wendy Levy, Jocelyn Arem, Fellows (Jessi Jumanji,

Xaviera Flores, Cori Olinghouse) and Guest Speakers (Martha

Redbone, Erika Hirugami)

Jessi Jumanji: “It’s good to discuss seeing the curator’s work as a

part of the archival process and what is ethical when it comes to

recontextualizing and redistributing an artifact. What space do cu-

rators occupy in an archive? What are the dangers of having open

access or making certain things accessible? What harm can be done

when we think of remixing vs rewriting history?”

Xaviera Flores: “[What are the possibilities of] ownership being col-

lective and the value of what we can build as a community? Archives

can be a transformative space for humanity if stories are told from

different perspectives so it’s not a continuous colonized story. While

systems of oppression often define stories of communities, can we

put the creating into our own hands? From the community archives

perspective: I am always putting myself in the shoes of the creator.

It’s important to note that ownership and copyright are our govern-

ment’s creation. How is it in someone else’s culture? What if “copy-

right” doesn’t exist?”

Cori Olinghouse: “Rethinking ownership, removing the price tag and

building community. Can we look to indigenous archival spaces where

there’s a sense of polyvocal storytelling? How do we collect and store?

What is the outsider’s gaze? When an archivist is not part of a com-

munity there is violence that can come from their curatorial practice.

When these things manifest in terms of policy, can we change these

structures by changing the policies? How are we legally manifesting

change? Being in embodied proximity—rather than some imagined ob-

jectivity. How can there be ongoing collaborative involvement?”

The group discussed how creative curation of archives can balance

honoring the integrity of the original content with reimagining it for

modern day audiences to support the discovery, appreciation and

useful application (utilizing technology, collaboration, etc) of our

shared cultural history. Martha Redbone spoke about the need for

and power of archival curation to address missing information in the

cultural record and correct misinformation about cultural groups.

Martha Redbone: “There is an urgency to correct the wrongs and lies

that have been told [about our culture]. The stories that are told are told

from only one perspective—the perspective of people in power. I made

a musical about my family and told the story of how we came to be, how

this little family in this coal mining county kept our songs, our prayers,

our ceremonies despite the laws [enacted] to change our identities. In

our research we discovered that our race was changed four times [in the

census]. This made me look deeper into discovering how the narrative

is whitewashed to be consumed for a different audience. We all have

these stories in this country. For all people looking to archive the history

of their people and culture, its a testimony to our resilience we are here.

It’s important for art and humanity to understand the truth. We don’t

have spaces to talk about this kind of thing. There should be a sympo-

sium, a space to share best practices and resources.”

Erika Hirugami spoke about solving archival access problems from

the mindset of the artist vs the mindset of the system

Erika Hirugami: “We need to look from the ‘artist mindset’ vs ‘gallery mind-

set’ in the art world. When it comes to archives, the biggest problem we

find is that the museum sets the rules, the gallery sets the rules, and then

what happens to an artist? Let's decide to center the artist and see what

happens to the art world? In the art world something happens that goes

beyond tokenizing, we are expected to produce an experience for some-

one outside our community, who might not understand it... Where’s the

museum that speaks to the everyday person, in their own language?”

Summary of ideas that emerged from the major themes of the

discussion:

Creatively utilizing archives as a way to inform, correct stereo-

types, shine a light on hidden stories

Stories are told from the perspective of people in power or the

community

Decolonizing of the archive as a space for healing

Advances in tech are making improvements on how archives are

shared

Photography is at the forefront of reimagining work in archives

Accessibility to cultural content as a birthright for certain cultures

Abolitionist vs reform mindset about museums

Culturally relevant footage—particularly still and moving image

media—gets lost as we think about what we should be preserving

for the future. What is preserved is behind walls at universities or

other places, that content is not readily accessible for the next gen-

eration researchers and creators

Re: cultural appropriation—quote from “Me and White Supremacy” by

Layla Saad, “There is always a hierarchical power and privilege dynam-

ic at play...One person from one racial group can think something is

culturally appropriative while another person from that same group

disagrees and considers it cultural appreciation or cultural exchange.

It is factors like these that make it difficult to classify what cultural ap-

propriation is…Often time what you describe as cultural appreciation

is a form of tokenizing and exoticizing while continuing to discard and

dehumanize the actual people of that culture. Oftentimes, the cultural

elements that are appropriated are stripped of their original cultural

context, meaning, and significance and used in such a way as to serve

or pleasure whiteness."

We need

information that

empowers—if it

doesn’t empower

the least

powerful than

why do we need

it? Don’t create

it and don’t

propagate it.”

MUTALE NKONDE

Participants discussed technological best practices in opening

archives in conversation with guest speakers Mutale Nkonde,

AI policy analyst and researcher, and Ari Melenciano, Artist

and Creator of Afrotectopia.

MEETING FIVE:

Open Archives

Technological Best Practice

Discussants: Wendy Levy, Jocelyn Arem, Fellows (Jessi Jumanji,

Xaviera Flores, Cori Olinghouse) and Guest Speakers (Mutale

Nkonde, Ari Melenciano)

Cori Olinghouse: “What is the methodology to ensure something is

truthful in the space of the imagination and technology? Education

has an important role as a method of facilitating communities (i.e. Ari

sharing a co-created online syllabus.) The role of the artist + tech-

nologist can be very valuable. It’s also important to explore trauma

informed approaches to how we work with technology.”

Xaviera Flores: “An archive is not a monolith—we need to be aware of

everyone’s experiences with archives to make them inclusive. Commu-

nity archives as an alternative to institutional spaces. It is our respon-

sibility as archivists to shield/protect archives from disinformation

and by extension create safety in the digital realm. This is extremely

political. Libraries are a socialist structure—they are meant to help

everyone have access to resources. We can’t be neutral—since in our

very nature we are a socialist structure. We are already involved.”

Jessi Jumanji: “There are dangers we need to be aware of when it

comes to technology in archives and how that technology can be

manipulated and undermined. What does safety in archives mean

without being too restrictive? Recognizing the vulnerability in ar-

chiving histories, harm and bias are a by product of

human nature and human error—so how do we cir-

cumnavigate that and strengthen infrastructure to

support archives? We need to look at educational cre-

dentials in archival spaces so everyone can contribute

to and learn from archives. How do we form a symbi-

otic relationship between the archive and those who

access the archive? How do we ensure that we have

authentic contributors in that space?"

The group discussed how technological advancements can help to

create more inclusive conservation and access models in archival

preservation and storytelling practices, that can then be applied

widely to benefit community archives. Mutale Nkonde urged the

group to think deeply about the potential harm inherent in opening

archives (and the use of AI) and to consider who is sharing archival

information online:

Mutale Nkonde: “The focus of my research is on racial justice and tech-

nology, so I’m interested in questions around where and how should

technology be used in relationship to Black lives, [thinking about Black-

ness not just of African descent but Blackness as expansive and also

political]. My questions around the archive are if it can be searchable

and if its even safe to be searchable for Black creatives. Just because

we can build it doesn’t mean we should. As you’re archiving materials,

one of the things I want you to think about is—is this information even

true? You could perpetuate harmful narratives and change the course

of history through open archives if the information isn’t checked, if it’s

not in the hands of the righteous and people who will be true.

When you talk about an archive, you could be talking about an online

universe that is whole, integral and not able to be overtaken by nefar-

ious actors. I would like to see serious consideration of this otherwise

I don’t think that this project can succeed.

I love technology, and often uses of technology are from the perspective

of “we’re gonna save the world” we want to do this thing, we want lots of

people to see it—but we need to first come from a collective statement

of how we can find ways to protect vulnerable communities. That has

to be the positionally at which this project is coming from. If you’re not

protecting then you’re exposing. I want this to be a project that helps us

and doesn’t hurt us because we didn’t ask critical questions.”

Just because

we can build it

doesn’t mean

we should.

MUTALE NKONDE

Ari Melenciano spoke to the group about viewing technology as an

extension of human capability and utilizing collective, open source

creative work to gather and share resources:

Ari Melenciano: “I’ve been thinking about how to archive and be in-

clusive in a tech sphere, that’s what we’re intensely doing at Afro-

tectopia. The framework is about how we can come together as a

community from different backgrounds and perspectives and build

collaboratively. Using prismatic perspectives we can view technolog-

ical platforms as an extension of sentient capabilities. Black people

wanted a space where they can share and have community building.

They’ve created a syllabus with readings where the general public

can also engage with the syllabus, do the readings and contribute to

it, its not exclusive. Like an open archive, our work is an open-source

interdisciplinary pedagogy. The idea is to plant seeds for Radical

Black Imagination. It’s so important to create spaces for imagination

—it really does materialize into new forms."

Summary of ideas that emerged from the major themes of the dis-

cussion:

We are dedicated to fully exploring and interrogating the nuances

in applying emergent forms of technology to amplify diverse voices

in archival storytelling.

Depending on who holds a digital archive will have different out-

comes and impacts. Who is designing and deploying it?

People need access to their own archives—which means they also

need access to the information as to how to do that via best prac-

tices in preservation, ethics, technology and storytelling

When considering use of technology - think of scale.

Archivists normally assign liability to the user of archival content—

but it’s important to remember that what is shared is also deter-

mined by the archivist’s own ethics. Libraries also have an issue of

cultural competency—not everyone has the right awareness

“…I’d like to

propose an

unlikely duo:

the comic and

the archive. The

comic acts as

an interesting

foil to the logic

of the archive:

a comic has to

find strategies

(often ridiculous)

for persisting,

even managing

to rejuvenate

in inhospitable

circumstances,

while an archive

seeks to preserve

objects within

a controlled

environment that

is systematic, safe,

and secure.”

CORI OLINGHOUSE

“We can learn so much from indigenous cultures in this area [of

long term thinking]. Native Americans have a beautiful, yet sim-

ple approach called ‘seventh-generation decision-making’. Cus-

todianship promotes a long-term, intergenerational relationship

with time. There are many ways to tackle our existential crisis,

but I think they all require us to change our perception of time…”

—Kai Brach, Dense Discovery

MEETING SIX:

Reflections

Discussants: Jocelyn Arem, Fellows (Jessi Jumanji, Xaviera

Flores, Cori Olinghouse)

Participants reviewed collective takeaways on the future of Open

Archives from Phase Two meetings. Summary of ideas that emerged

from the major themes of the discussion included:

We need to be considering long-term thinking around opening ar-

chives, how our work will impact communities many generations

from now

There is currently no centralized space for scholars, archivists, art-

ists, activists and storytellers to have conversations about defining

an archive? How can the Alliance support that need going forward?

A Reddit for artists and archivists—a collaborative Wikispace where

people can add ideas, etc.

Archives can be clinical and methodical—no room for imagination or

potential for artistic intervention and improvisation

Archivists need more tools and methodologies to make sure what

they’re holding has use, a purpose, and will be used/ lived in the world.

Interest in co-creating an archival related resource list / syllabus with

best practices, things to be aware of, collects experiences and models

The Archive should always be open to correction, contribution, and

commentary and in a continued living relationship with communities

so there’s always a flow of new ideas an information

It’s important to decentralize resources that can be applied to exist-

ing institutions but not be bound to them, and apply revitalized archi-

val systems to new media work

Open source at a practical level—rather than wait for institutions to

come to terms with community needs, put it in the public sphere and

keep evolving it.

We need to reimagine how to make sure information is accurate and

empower communities to work on their own archives without being

under the auspices of a university or museum There are many archi-

vists now involved in post-custodial / participatory archives. We can

learn from the work being done around post-custodial / participato-

ry archives by way of collaborating with community to build thicker

description in cataloguing records, facilitating self-representation,

self-definition, and self-determination so that communities are ac-

tively part of their own representation.

Recommendations

Convene A Public Open

Archives Summit

A public, online interdisciplinary, intersectional event as an extension of

the Open Archive Initiative would feature panels with topics focused on

innovative archival preservation and storytelling practices in the media

arts field, technology and ethics in open archives, amplifying marginal-

ized voices in the field, the state of inclusion at cultural heritage sites, D&I

officers and activists in media arts, cultural preservation and storytelling

spaces, leadership in action, building together, and more.

This could be modeled on the October 2020 Recording Academy

“Change Music” Summit—a virtual, global industrywide summit featur-

ing key industry leaders and highlighting best practices and strategic

ways to drive long term systemic change

The could include intersectional learning opportunities, useful in so-

matic-led workshops to archivists, curators, documentarians, and new

media storytellers, by way of developing an ethics that includes an un-

derstanding of the body.

This could include an ongoing discussion group at the intersection of

archives, activism, technology, documentary storytelling - there is cur-

rently no other collective group doing work in this area and providing

support to media arts organizations

A public panel at the March 2021 SXSW Festival / a panel as part of MIT

Open Doc Labs could lay the groundwork for and promote this summit

to a large-scale audience of innovative artists, storytellers, technolo-

gists and cultural preservationists

A Manifesto on Emerging

Open Archive Practices

This manifesto could live as a co-created, collaborative document and

blog, possibly on the Alliance for Media Arts + Culture website, fea-

turing a list of Open Archive project models: “An archive of archivist

experiences.” It could function as a long-term thinking interdisciplin-

ary methodology / best practices toolkit that will over time impact the

field on a large scale

This could incorporate disaster preparedness thinking

This has the potential to be a unique intersectional space for archivists/

artists/technologists to share resources

Recommendations

An Open Digital

Archive Platform

This online space, utilizing deep design research, could be password pro-

tected in its initial phase (set to scale) in order to safely protect the con-

tent on its site as it evolves.

a community-curated space—beginning with the contents of one “mod-

el archive,” where the original content creators upload select primary

material—license it—and share back with the original community both

the creative output of artist collaborators and financial compensation

a space that functions as a ministry of memory, valuing cultural heritage

and storytellers

a space for re-activating orphaned footage and social histories in a con-

temporary, cultural context

this space could feature interdisciplinary resources for media organiza-

tions to preserve and creatively present archives

a public statement and resources on ethics of care and technology

for users consider building and archiving around the system of

decay and regeneration—letting the space of the web have its own

embodied gestures

Open Archive Fellows

And Participants

JOCELYN AREM OPEN ARCHIVE

INITIATIVE SENIOR PRODUCER

Jocelyn Arem is a GRAMMY, ASCAP, and

Library of Congress Award-nominated ar-

chival storytelling producer and consultant.

Her work has been featured in The New

York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, PBS and

during GRAMMY Week in Los Angeles. Her

clients and collaborators include the Library

of Congress, the GRAMMY Foundation the

School of the New York Times, The Alliance

for Media Arts and Culture, Narratively,

Sony Legacy, powerHouse Books, BRIC Arts Media, New Orleans Jazz

Festival, Caffe Lena and the Erroll Garner Jazz Project. As the owner of

creative studio Arbo Radiko and the Consulting Producer for the Alliance

Open Archive Initiative, her unique specialization is in helping creative

organizations and artists reimagine historical assets as valuable modern

day content; curating, crafting, and leveraging distinctive modern day

material from archival collections to enhance publicity, strengthen cultur-

al partnerships, build brand value, engage new audiences, and promote

creative legacies. She curates and produces a wide range of catalogs for

bespoke print and digital publications, video, album projects, and exhibi-

tions and is an expert in navigating the transformation of primary source

material into valuable marketing content. She has been invited to lecture

at MusiCares, Creative Capital, the School of the New York Times, the Li-

brary of Congress, the NYU Music Technology Program, the Center for

Documentary Studies, and the EMP Pop Music Conference. She is also a

recording and performing artist under the name Rabasi Joss.

WENDY LEVY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALLIANCE

FOR MEDIA ARTS  CULTURE

Wendy Levy ’s creative work takes place

at the intersection of storytelling, inno-

vation and social justice. As the Execu-

tive Director of The Alliance for Media

Arts + Culture , she is focused on facil-

itating collaboration, innovation, equity

and cultural impact for the media arts

field. She is the founder of Arts2Work, a

creative workforce initiative offering the

very first federally-registered National

Apprenticeship program in media arts and creative technologies.

Previously, Wendy was a Senior Consultant at Sundance Institute,

helping develop the Sundance/Skoll Stories of Change Program

and the New Frontier Story Lab. Wendy also directed the MacAr-

thur Foundation-funded Producers Institute for New Media Tech-

nologies, the first public media Innovation Lab in the US. She began

her career in film as the Festival Director for the Film Arts Festival

for Independent Cinema at Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco.

Wendy is the recipient of the Princess Grace Statue Award for dis-

tinguished contribution to the media arts field.

The Fellows

JESSI JUMANJI, AFROFUTURIST DIGITAL STORYTELLING ARTIST

Jessi Jumanji is a multifaceted visual artist from

Memphis, TN, currently residing in South Cen-

tral Los Angeles. With a passion for African his-

tory, nature, and the otherworldly, she explores

the many dimensions of Afrofuturism through

digital collage and painting. Each creation is

a synthesis of historical findings and artistic

expression, confronting societal woes and tri-

umphs, while celebrating the resilience and beauty of the African dias-

pora throughout time. In her captivating collages, Jessi pieces togeth-

er the many elements of nature, from plantlife and wildlife, to geology

and anatomy. She makes the past, present, and future coexist with

each composition, while simultaneously challenging society's views of

African people, their place in society, and the immeasurable contribu-

tions they have made to the world since the beginning of time. Jessi

Jumanji’s work has been featured in Afropunk, and among celebrities

such as Bootsy Collins, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, and many others. Her

work was also displayed at the 2017 Black(s) to the Future Festival in

Paris, France, an annual celebration of Afrofuturism.

XAVIERA FLORES, LIBRARIAN & ARCHIVIST, UCLA CHICANO

STUDIES RESEARCH CENTER

Xaviera Flores is dedicated to the development

of scholarly research on the Chicano-Latino

population. She oversees all library, archives,

and museum services at the UCLA Chicano

Studies Research Center, including outreach,

instruction, grant projects, and donor rela-

tions. She also works closely with students and

partner organizations to build stronger ties be-

tween community and UCLA. In 2018, the Los Angeles City Historical

Society recognized her efforts and bestowed her with their Archives

Education and Advocacy Award. Flores has worked in libraries since

2004. She holds an MS in Library and Information Science from Sim-

mons College and specializes in Archives Management, Audiovisual

Preservation, Access and Equity, and Community Archives.

CORI OLINGHOUSE, ARTIST, VISITING PROFESSOR,

BARD CENTER FOR CURATORIAL STUDIES

Cori Olinghouse is an interdisciplinary artist

who works at the intersection of performance,

archives, and curatorial practice. In 2017 she

founded The Portal, a curatorial project dedicat-

ed to reimagining how performance practices

and embodied histories in motion are archived

and understood. Her approach to performance

archiving has been celebrated at the Museum

of Modern Art, Duke University, Bard College, and Wesleyan Universi-

ty. Formerly, as archive director for the Trisha Brown Dance Company,

she developed a multi-year cataloging and preservation initiative to

assist in the legacy planning for Brown’s company and archive (2009-

2018), a company she danced for from 2002-2006. She holds an MA

in Performance Curation from the Institute for Curatorial Practice in

Performance at Wesleyan University.

Performance Acquisition of Autumn Knight's WALL: Studio

Museum in Harlem

Embodied Scores: Methods of Archiving at CUE Art Foundation

Trisha Brown Moving Image Installation

Watching a Choreographer Build: Trisha Brown's Unusual Archive,

New York Times

Guest Speakers

MELAY ARAYA is a multimedia artist and

serves as the Associate Artistic Director + Ar-

chivist at The Town Hall. She is currently curat-

ing programs, collections, and exhibitions for

the historic landmark’s centennial in 2021.

SAM GREGORY is an award-winning technolo-

gist, media-maker, and human rights advocate,

and Program Director of WITNESS (witness.org)

which helps people use video and technology to

protect and defend human rights. An expert on

new forms of misinformation and disinforma-

tion as well as innovations in preserving trust

and authenticity he leads WITNESS’s Media Lab

including work on emerging threats such as deepfakes and new oppor-

tunities such as live- streamed and co-present storytelling for action

and curation of civilian witnessing. He co-chairs the Partnership on AI’s

Expert Group on AI and the Media, is on the Board of First Draft and

the Technology Advisory Board of the International Criminal Court. A

graduate of Oxford University and the Harvard Kennedy School, from

2010-2018 he taught the first graduate level course at Harvard on

participatory media and human rights.

ERIKA HIRUGAMI is the Founder and CEO of

CuratorLove, a collective that seeks critical

race equity in the art world from a liminal space

of praxis. CuratorLove partners with a myriad of

art professionals across the globe to produce

innovative curatorial projects. CuratorLove di-

rects artist studios, publishes books, produces

exhibitions, hosts conversations, creates art ac-

tions, and launches art spaces. Hirugami holds an MA in Art Business

from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, in conjunction with the Drucker

School of Management and Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont

Graduate University. As well as multiple BAs from UCLA in the fields

of Art History, Chicano Studies, and Mexican Studies. She is current-

ly a doctoral candidate at UCLA, where she challenges the conver-

gence of transnational aesthetics with a special focus on critical race

theory through the undocumented experience. As a Getty and Kress

Foundation Fellow Hirugami has developed curatorial statements at

museums in across Mexico and US. After being a Public Art Curator

for the Department of Cultural Affairs in the City of Los Angeles, Hiru-

gami became the Curatorial Director for the Ronald McDonald House

Charities, as well as the Curatorial Director for various galleries while

becoming a visiting Lecturer for Universities across the US. She has

curated exhibitions for multiple spaces across the globe, and her writ-

ten work has been published internationally.

LAE’L HUGHESWATKINS is the University Ar-

chivist for the University of Maryland where she

oversees reference services, collection devel-

opment, donor outreach, and stewardship, and

provides input into the overall direction for ac-

cessioning, arrangement, description, catalog-

ing, digitization, and preservation of university

archives materials. She is the founder of Project

STAND where her research areas focus on outreach to marginalized

communities, documenting student activism within disenfranchised

populations, and utilizing narratives of oppressed voices within the cur-

ricula of post-secondary education spaces. Her most recent publication

is “Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Ap-

proach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories

and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices,” Journal of Con-

temporary Archival Studies: Vol. 5 , Article 6. She is also a 2019 Mover,

and Shaker serves on SAA’s College and University’s Archives section

and the recipient of a CLIR Postdoc Fellowship grant in partnership with

the University of Maryland Libraries and University of Maryland’s Afri-

can American History, Culture, and Digital Humanities (AADHum) Initia-

tive for a restorative justice project.

ARI MELENCIANO is a creative technologist

and researcher who is passionate about explor-

ing the relationships between various forms of

design and the human experience. Currently, her

research engages with omni-specialization, ex-

perimental pedagogy, human-computer interac-

tive technologies, and speculative design. Ari is

the founder of Afrotectopia, a social institution

fostering interdisciplinary innovation at the intersections of art, design,

technology, Black culture and activism. Ari teaches about design, tech-

nology, and society at New York University and the Pratt Institute.

GRETE MILLER CSPO, CPM is a Product

Operations Specialist for Shutterstock, a

global stock media licensing company locat-

ed in New York City, NY. She is a co-founder

and the Global Co-Chair for their LGBTQ+ Em-

ployee Resource Group, Prism. Grete is also a

co-founder of Shutterstock's global Diversity,

Equity & Inclusion Council, and is contribut-

ing writer on DEI in medial and visual storytelling for the Shutter-

stock Blog. Leveraging the intersection between tech, media, and

activism, she is passionate about creating change and inclusive

experiences that people love. Grete is dedicated to preserving and

promoting queer hirstory. As a multimedia storyteller and product

manager, she views the past and its lessons as roadmaps that can

influence positive change for products and people. An award win-

ning filmmaker and a community advocate, she has worked to craft

and produce impactful media, harness storytelling for marginalized

communities and make the invisible, visible. Grete is passionate

about the preservation of LGBTQ+ history and is an active driver in

championing accessibility and inclusion opportunities, through cre-

ative tech, for visual content curation, oral histories and archived

materials. Presently she is working on a documentary and multime-

dia project on the life of Gay Pioneer, Barbara Gittings.

MUTALE NKONDE is the founding CEO of AI For

the People (AFP) a non profit communications

agency. AFP’s mission is to eliminate the un-

der-representation of black professionals in the

American technology sector by 2030. We do this

in three ways: 1) Identifying, recruiting and devel-

oping technologists from traditionally under rep-

resented groups; 2) Commissioning research on

how technical systems impact Black communities; 3) We then collaborate

with journalists, television producers, film makers and artists to develop

content designed to change tech neutrality narratives, and empower

communities to advocate for the development of anti-racist policies to

govern the design and deployment of AI systems. Prior to this Nkonde

worked in AI Governance. During that time she was part of the team that

introduced the Algorithmic and Deep Fakes Algorithmic Acts, as well as

the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act to the US House of Represen-

tatives, which has been used as the basis for the 2020 The Facial Recog-

nition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act. She started her career

as a broadcast journalist and produced documentaries for the BBC, CNN

& ABC. She now also writes widely on race and tech, as well speaking at

conferences across the world. She is currently a Fellow at the Digital Civil

Society Lab at Stanford University. A member of the Tik Tok US, Content

Moderation Advisory Council,key constituent 3C UN Round table for AI.

And an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society at

Harvard University.

MARTHA REDBONE is a Native/African-Amer-

ican vocalist, songwriter, composer, and educa-

tor. She is known for her music gumbo of folk,

blues and gospel from her childhood in Harlan

County, Kentucky infused with the eclectic grit

of pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Inheriting the pow-

erful vocal range of her gospel-singing African

American father and the resilient spirit of her

mother’s Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw culture, Redbone broadens

the boundaries of American Roots music. With songs and storytelling

that share her life experience as an Afro-Indigenous woman and moth-

er navigating in the new millennium, Redbone gives voice to issues of

social justice, connecting cultures, and celebrating the human spirit.

Her latest album “The Garden of Love-Songs of William Blake” is “a

brilliant collision of cultures” (New Yorker). Redbone’s recordings, tour-

ing and cultural preservation workshops are a partnership she shares

with longtime collaborator Aaron Whitby. Their recent works include

“Bone Hill: The Concert”, commissioned by Joe’s Pub/Public Theater,

NEFA. NPN, Lincoln Center. “Stars”- NY Theater Workshop, “Primer for

a Failed Superpower”, Rachel Chavkin and award recipients of MAP

Fund, Creative Capital for The Public Theater’s new work in develop-

ment “Black Mountain Women” and NYC Women’s Fund for Music. Red-

bone is the 2020 Drama Desk Award Winner for Outstanding Music in

a Play with Original Music and Score -2019 Public Theater revival “for

colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuff”

by Ntozake Shange.

Phase One Research Participants

Aden Suchak

Amerigo Gazaway

Ann Bennett

Caroline Alexander Chloe Kurabi

Casey Davis Kaufman

Cori Olinghouse .

Eric Doversberger

Floriane Azoulay

Gerald Seligman

Jamie Brett

Jason Wyman

Jennifer Cutting

Jessi Jumanji

Jessica Thompson

Jina Valentine

John Lightfoot

Jon Swinstead

Joyce LeeAnn Joseph

Kafi-Ayanna Allah

Kristin Chang

Lauren Walsh

Lisbet Tellefsen

Liza Zapol

Marcos Sueiro Bal

Miranda Lowe

Nikki Silva

Regan Sommer McCoy

Ron Haviv

Sanchita Balachandran

Shawn Averkamp

Sommer McCoy

Steve Zeitlin

Tanya De Angelis

Terri Francis

Tom Ciaburri

Vincent Morisset

Xaviera Flores

Yuri Shimoda

Yvette Ramirez

Art Credits

: La Chicana, From the ¡El Grito Para

La Igualdad! The Cry for Equality! exhibition.

Courtesy of the UCLA Chicano Studies

Research Center

: Art by Jessi Jumanji / Photo of Erika

Hirugami / State of Fear (skylight.is)

 6: State Sanctioned Violence Police

Brutality Chicano Moratori Ralph Arriola

 8: Grandma by Cori Olinghouse

 11: Collage by Hansel Obando

 14: Art by Jessi Jumanji

 18: The Reckoning (skylight.is)

 19: Art by Kali Spitzer

 38: Art by Jessi Jumanji

 39: Disruption (skylight.is)

 50: Art by Kali Spitzer

 51: Collage by Hansel Obando