ZINC – Arts et Cultures Numériques 
12.6.2020, 14:00, zoom
Marseille, France
Participants: Clemence Revuz, Fabien P, Lea Zou, Mailys Roquillet

 

By looking into examples of digital tactical activism, such as Transborder Immigrant Tool by Electronic Disturbance Theater and Tactical Technology Collective, but also the library Memory of the World, the workshop addressed possible tactics for curriculum dedicated to minorities that would also use digital technology.

By posing the following questions:                                                                                                                

How would you conceive an educational program – would you address migration issues or would you dedicate the program to minorities? Can a curriculum be designed to empower minorities and actively shape them? How can digital art tactics contribute to handling our society, its structures, functions and interdependencies? Can technology be used to un-learn everyday social relations and establish new social patterns that allow for restructuring the ways in which people relate to one another, the ways in which social groups become public, visible and recognized, the participants were expected to bring answers to the questions by selecting some of the words that were used as a point of further discussion:

EMPATHY, ARTIVISM, OPEN-SOURCE, MEDIA LITERACY, AUDIENCE, HUMAN RIGHTS, EMPOWERING, LIBRARY, POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT, INTERVENTION IN SOCIAL/POLITICAL REALITY, COLLABORATION WITH NGO’S DEDICATED TO THE RIGHTS OF MINORITY, FUNCTIONALITY, DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION/STREAM/INTERNET, PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE PLAYER, ETHICS, SHARING, DISCRIMINATION, MISUNDERSTANDING, BOUNDARIES

The participants started with several examples from their own practice of working with minority groups.

The missing word from the list is a SAFE SPACE, as it is important to have safe space in which everyone feels safe and understood. And understanding can be done by other means, it is a question of attention, of care and of body language. It doesn’t necessarily have to depend on knowing the dominant language.

How would you conceive an educational program – would you address migration issues or would you dedicate the program to minorities ?

By selecting the following terms: DISCRIMINATION, MISUNDERSTANDING, EMPATHY / SHARING, AUDIENCE, BOUNDARIES, the participants explained they would imagine people from different backgrounds getting together. As they are often subjected to discrimination because of misunderstanding, it would be important to create a space of empathy. A space in which they can share not so much what different them, but what could be a common ground, something that all can relate to.

They could imagine having ZINC space as such a meeting place as they have a fablab and media lab in which the group could make something together, they could create a common project. Also, it may be interesting to do a project together that is not based on language that asks for finding another way of communicating with each other.

When answering the second question „Can a curriculum be designed to empower minorities and actively shape them?” the participants selected the following terms: PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE PLAYER, DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION/STREAM/INTERNET, MEDIA LITERACY, EMPOWERING, POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT.

It would be important to understand what the participants need and based on these needs ZINC would provide access to hardware, but also to the knowledge of media literacy. These would be done in order to empower them as a form of political engagement.

The answer to the question „How can digital art tactics contribute to handling our society, its structures, functions and interdependencies?” brought the following terms: ARTIVISM, AUDIENCE, COLLABORATION WITH NGO’S DEDICATED TO THE RIGHTS OF MINORITY, PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE PLAYER, ETHICS.

It is important to collaborate with NGOs that know specific needs of underprivileged groups very well. Also, we need to be careful about crossing the fine line between helping the specific community and patronizing them. Our idea of racism should be deconstructed. The concept of a race and the racism and the way it is rooted in our society  has to be deconstructed. If you wish to educate, the first thing to do is to reconstruct your own institution,

When answering the final question „Can technology be used to un-learn everyday social relations and establish new social patterns that allow for restructuring the ways in which people relate to one another, the ways in which social groups become public, visible and recognized?”, the participants have selected these ideas: OPEN-SOURCE, SHARING, INTERVENTION IN SOCIAL/POLITICAL REALITY, POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS, EMPOWERING, EMPATHY.

Open-source is a very important aspect because of the way it can be used to share different kinds of projects we think we know. Sharing is also a way of connecting. And in that sense, it can be related to political engagement. The place of empathy can also be online within the virtual community.