Polyvocal Interpretations of Contested Colonial Heritage (PICCH)
Lead Research Organisation:
Sheffield Hallam University
Department Name: College of Social Sciences and Arts
Abstract
Many memory institutions across Europe contain holdings connected with its colonial past which for many years has been a focus of contestation from both communities of origin, ethnic minorities and civil society at large. At the same time challenging questions are being asked by professionals in the field as to what to do with this problematic cultural heritage, from returning items when appropriate, to rewriting the historical context surrounding them in a more critical and inclusive way. This project aims to identify key instances of colonial audio-visual heritage across the three archives involved, draw a common map of shared racialised representations connected with their respective imperial contexts, identify problematic visualisation and language and open up a dialogue between the archives and a variety of users, including archivists, researchers, filmmakers, and grassroots organisations.
The digitised colonial audio-visual heritage is provided by three prominent archives The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, the French Institut national de l'audiovisuel and Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, UK. All these archives have a rich collection of original film and sound, some of it produced at the height of empire, ranging from ethnographers' footage for 'educational' purposes to more direct propaganda films to bolster colonial ideologies. We will explore how archival material created in a 'colonial mindset' can be re-appropriated and re-interpreted critically to become an effective source for the 'decolonization of the mind' and the basis for a future inclusive society.
The overall outcome of PICCH is to engender a polyvocality that can be incorporated into the archive itself providing new ways to enter and explore the past via a contemporary interpretative frame. To this effect advanced technologies will be used to study how to bridge archival and contemporary languages, and to support transnational exploration of multiple archives via a single interactive user interface.
The digitised colonial audio-visual heritage is provided by three prominent archives The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, the French Institut national de l'audiovisuel and Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, UK. All these archives have a rich collection of original film and sound, some of it produced at the height of empire, ranging from ethnographers' footage for 'educational' purposes to more direct propaganda films to bolster colonial ideologies. We will explore how archival material created in a 'colonial mindset' can be re-appropriated and re-interpreted critically to become an effective source for the 'decolonization of the mind' and the basis for a future inclusive society.
The overall outcome of PICCH is to engender a polyvocality that can be incorporated into the archive itself providing new ways to enter and explore the past via a contemporary interpretative frame. To this effect advanced technologies will be used to study how to bridge archival and contemporary languages, and to support transnational exploration of multiple archives via a single interactive user interface.
Organisations
Publications
| Description | During the course of the project, we have developed a decolonising framework for the re-interpretation of audiovisual material produced during colonial ruling. This framework has been presented internationally and represents an original contribution, as well as a fruitful starting point from conceptualising 'restitution' of audiovisual material. The framework critically challenges long-standing foundational anthropological narratives by shedding light on the relevance of the colonial context in the production of these films, which has, to date, mostly been ignored. Our work feeds into the a new paradigm that challenges the traditional epistemology of anthropology through a decolonial lens. By confronting aggrandising narratives, we have provided a new research-based layer of interpretation that was absent from mainstream anthropology. |
| Exploitation Route | Our contribution has been disseminated across a variety of disciplines and areas in several international conferences as well as edited collections. The basis of our work is susceptible to reuse and expansion by other scholars interested in advancing the critique of colonial anthropology. |
| Sectors | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://picch-project.org/ |
| Description | Our work has contributed to ongoing efforts to decolonising Pitt Rivers Museum's collection, which opens up similar initiatives from other cultural institutions that may follow suit. This has come with some challenges. For instance, the innovative nature of our project also meant that no previous work could be used as reference. Additionally, the different types of material hosted by the archives that were objects of study has required a considerable amount of reflections to identify common colonial patterns. |
| Sector | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | 'films for thoughts': A proposal for the "restitution" of anthropological films |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | On the 1st of June, a poster presentation by Danilo Giglitto, Rinella Cere, and Daniela Petrelli was shown at the 2022 Eye International Conference . The talk illustrated the steps undertaken to reach a critical reading of a sample of the anthropological films hosted at the Pitt Rivers Museum's digital archive, their past univocal interpretation, as well as proposed a theoretical framework for uncovering the colonialist bias in anthropological audio-visual material. The talk can be watched at this link: https://youtu.be/RVeFW7H9SzI |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.eyefilm.nl/uploads/downloads/blocks/Eye-International-Conference-2022-Program-Outline.pd... |
| Description | MA in Arts and Cultural Management, in November 2022, presented PICCH as research project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | PICCH has been presented to and discussed with a group of 15 international students that attend the MA in Arts and Cultural Management. Many students are from past British colonies therefore the topic of the lesson was particularly relevant to both Cultural Management and their own personal background. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | PICCH project website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | The project website was setup: - To disseminate the project aims and outcome, mostly via a blog. - To collect visitors' contribution to the creation of a colonial / post-colonial vocabulary of critical terms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://picch-project.org/ |
| Description | Presentation of the PICCH project to the EUscreen Foundation annual network meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | About 30 professionals from audiovisual archives across the world, mostly European, attend this event annually. In 2021 PICCH was presented as it is concerned with the analysis of audiovisual archives. The topic of European colonialism and decolonisation was very well received and created debate and interest in the audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Presentation of the project to JPI-CH and partners |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was an event organised annually by the JPI-CH to present and discuss the ongoing projects. PICCH started in June; at this event in September I presented the aim of the project and the workplan. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.heritageresearch-hub.eu/homepage/joint-programming-initiative-on-cultural-heritage-homep... |
| Description | Research methods lecture across 3 different MAs, I presented PICCH as a research project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | PICCH was use as a case study for qualitative research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Talk given at the 2022 Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA) conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | On 7th September 2022, Danilo Giglitto presented part of the research carried out within the PICCH project at the 2022 Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA) conference. The conference was held at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. The talk, titled "Silenced voices from the archives: Colonialism in British anthropological films", engaged with the Silenced Voices theme of the conference by proposing a critical postcolonial framework to identify the colonial traces in these films and the reuse that has been made of them: the anthropologists' subjectivity, external perception, state of exception, authenticity and filmcraft, use and reuse and reproduction of colonial bias. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://easychair.org/smart-program/MeCCSA2022/2022-09-07.html |