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
| Title | First Contact by Soloman The Wizard |
| Description | The poem 'First Contact' written and recited by the artist SoloMan The Wizard recount the vision of a shaman observing the flight and landing of an airplane carrying colonialists around the 1930s. Looking at the plane, the shaman foresees the dramatic impact and changes the colonialists will have on the local population, their culture and their environment. The images are archival footage from the Pitts River Museum selected and recomposed by SoloMan the Wizard (aka Kai Larasi); the poem is a response to the archival material that inspired the artist. The video was created in collaboration with the PICCH project (Polyvocal Interpretation of Contested Colonial Heritage). It is an artistic and personal interpretation of some footage in the Pitt River Museum archive aiming at opening a conversation on using a decolonial framework to look at material recorded during colonial dominations and currently stored in western archives. PICCH project (2021-2023): https://picch-project.org/ Pitt Rivers Museum: https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ SoloMan The Wizard: https://www.solomanthewizard.com/ |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The video is part of a set of reinterpretations of archival material (from the Pitt Rivers Museum on line video archive) by 3 artists engaged by the PICCH project to open up a dialogue around the need for the inclusion of critical voices in the presentation of colonial archives. The videos are part of the creative co-creation aspect of the project; they will be part of the academic dissemination of the research. |
| URL | https://youtu.be/MDCUNbv4KxA |
| Title | Intersection Interception |
| Description | This video juxtaposes fragments of indigenous people and their land done by colonial anthropologists at the beginning of the 20th century (left) against images from the western world. The sharp visual contrast is underlined by the different sounds recorded in the tow stereo channels. The video was created by Daniel Fawzi, a music and sound artist, in dialogue and collaboration with the PICCH project (Polyvocal Interpretation of Contested Colonial Heritage). It is an artistic and personal interpretation of footage in the Pitt River Museum archive. The aim is to open a conversation on how a decolonial framework could be used to reinterpret the recordings done during colonial dominations and currently stored in western archives. PICCH project (2021-2023): https://picch-project.org/ Pitt Rivers Museum: https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ Daniel Fawzi: https://dfawzi.carrd.co/ |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The video is part of a set of reinterpretations of archival material (from the Pitt Rivers Museum on line video archive) by 3 artists engaged by the PICCH project to open up a dialogue around the need for the inclusion of critical voices in the presentation of colonial archives. The videos are part of the creative co-creation aspect of the project; they will be part of the academic dissemination of the research. |
| URL | https://youtu.be/jUmUi4jA19k |
| Title | Operation Legacy - the true colours of colonialism |
| Description | This video reinterprets the recordings of indigenous people done by colonial anthropologists at the beginning of the 20th century. The video was created by Daniel Fawzi, a music and sound artist, in dialogue and collaboration with the PICCH project (Polyvocal Interpretation of Contested Colonial Heritage). It is an artistic and personal interpretation of footage in the Pitt River Museum archive. The aim is to open a conversation on how a decolonial framework could be used to reinterpret the recordings done during colonial dominations and currently stored in western archives. PICCH project (2021-2023): https://picch-project.org/ Pitt Rivers Museum: https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ Daniel Fawzi: https://dfawzi.carrd.co/ |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The video is part of a set of reinterpretations of archival material (from the Pitt Rivers Museum on line video archive) by 3 artists engaged by the PICCH project to open up a dialogue around the need for the inclusion of critical voices in the presentation of colonial archives. The videos are part of the creative co-creation aspect of the project; they will be part of the academic dissemination of the research. |
| URL | https://youtu.be/QjI-Y3JtSXY |
| Title | Year 3000 news - What in the colonizer |
| Description | This mock-news video imagines what indigenous people could have thought of the colonial anthropologists who recorded their everyday life around the 1930s. The video was created by Meduulla, a rapper artist from Manchester in dialogue and collaboration with the PICCH project (Polyvocal Interpretation of Contested Colonial Heritage). It is an artistic and personal interpretation of some footage in the Pitt River Museum archive aiming at opening a conversation on using a decolonial framework could be used to look at material recorded during colonial dominations and currently stored in western archives. PICCH project (2021-2023): https://picch-project.org/ Pitt Rivers Museum: https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ Meduulla Music: https://thenewagemagazine.co.uk/in-conversation-meduulla/ |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The video is part of a set of reinterpretations of archival material (from the Pitt Rivers Museum on line video archive) by 3 artists engaged by the PICCH project to open up a dialogue around the need for the inclusion of critical voices in the presentation of colonial archives. The videos are part of the creative co-creation aspect of the project; they will be part of the academic dissemination of the research. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9ytKs5av1s |
| 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 | Co-organising the International Conference "Heritage, Community, Archives: Methods, Case Studies, Collaboration" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The conference was co-organised with the Archive Research Community at Sheffield Hallam University. Dr Giglitto and Dr. Cere were instrumental to the definition of the topics addressed by the conference, the review and selection of the contributions presented as talks. Over 80 people from around the world attended and presented their work. Countries represented were from: the Americas (Peru, Bolivia, Chile, USA - Alabama and Florida), Europe (Spain, France, Scandinavia, Italy), Africa (Morocco) and the UK. PICCH was presented and discussed at the conference opening (see program https://research.shu.ac.uk/arc/programme/ pg. 7). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://research.shu.ac.uk/arc/conference/ |
| Description | Creative co-creation workshop with participants from ex-colonies and UK second-generation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The creative workshop engaged a group of participants (PG students) form past British colonies in an exercise of reinterpretation of the content of visual archives. During and after the activities participants discussed their previous knowledge and new awareness of issues related to decolonisation. The workshops also advance the project providing data for further publications. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Guest editing "Aphaville - Journal of Film and Screen Media" on "Film and media archives: mapping screen heritage" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Following the conference "Following the conference, Dr Giglitto and Dr Cere are guest editor for Aphaville, a refereed film-study journal, of a fore-coming dossier (a single special issue) on the topic of: "film and media archives: mapping screen heritage". Contribution to the conference have been selected and extended in full and and short papers currently under peer-review. The dossier is expected to be published in late 2024-early 2025. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| 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 | MA in Arts and Cultural Management, in November 2023, 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 25 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. This lecture, informed and inspired by PICCH, is now a permanent contribution to the teaching program. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| 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 at the 2022 Eye International Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On the 1st of June 2022, 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 |
| 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 (Spring semester). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
| 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 (Spring semester). |
| 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 |
| Description | Three short video contributed by British artists from ex-colony descent |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ... |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | presentation at international conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Giglitto, D. (2022). Silenced voices from the archives: Colonialism in British anthropological films . At the 2022 Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association Conference , 29-31 May 2022, Amsterdam, Netherlands. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |