Strategies for Tactical Archives: Public keynote lecture and conference, October 27 - 28, 2023
The Strategies for Tactical Archives conference investigates how documentation and archiving can feed into living practices of activists, artists and media makers that address the position of communities who feel aggrieved or excluded from the wider public culture.
The program consists of a public keynote lecture on Friday evening October 27 (starting 19.30) by Sarah Schulman, writer, activist and co-initiator of the ACTUP Oral History Project and author of Let the Record Show - A Political History of ACTUP New York, 1987-1993. This is followed by a one day conference on Saturday October 28 (10-17 hrs.) at Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam.
Public Lecture Sarah Schulman (ACTUP Oral History Project)
27 October 2023 19:30 - 21:00
In a keynote lecture writer and activist Sarah Schulman will share insights into her work around LGBTQI+ rights and AIDS advocacy. Schulman will discuss the context in which ACTUP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) emerged in the late 1980s, and how the group successfully campaigned against the silencing out of the HIV / AIDS pandemic.
Two respondents for the evening will be artist and activist Anne Krul, and Eliza Steinbock (Maastricht University). The evening will be moderated by Sara Rosa Espi Jacobson (Network Archives Design and Digital Culture).
Sarah Schulman
Sarah Schulman is an American writer and activist, known for her impactful contributions to LGBTQ+ rights and AIDS advocacy. With a prolific literary career spanning various genres, she fearlessly tackles social justice issues, shedding light on the challenges faced by marginalised communities. Her book Let the Record Show provides an invaluable historical perspective on the influential work of ACT UP, highlighting the importance of collective activism in times of crisis.
Sarah Schulman is the author of more than twenty works of fiction (including The Cosmopolitans, Rat Bohemia, and Maggie Terry), nonfiction (including Stagestruck, Conflict is Not Abuse, and The Gentrification of the Mind), and theatre (Carson McCullers, Manic Flight Reaction, and more), and the producer and screenwriter of several feature films (The Owls, Mommy Is Coming, and United in Anger, among others). Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Slate, and many other outlets.
She is an Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Northwestern University, a Fellow at the New York Institute of Humanities, the recipient of multiple fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and was presented in 2018 with Publishing Triangle's Bill Whitehead Award. She is also the cofounder of the MIX New York LGBT Experimental Film and Video Festival, and the co-director of the groundbreaking ACT UP Oral History Project. A lifelong New Yorker, she is a longtime activist for queer rights and female empowerment, and serves on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Program
19.30 welcome and introduction
19.40 Sarah Schulman
20.10 response by Anne Krul
20.25 response by Eliza Steinbock
20.35 discussion
21.00 program end
Language: English | Location: Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
Tickets: 10,-/5,-/0,-
Please note: This event has ‘suggested’ pricing - in solidarity with the trying times we all face you are welcome to order your ticket free of charge!
_________
Strategies for Tactical Archives: Conference
Saturday, October 28, 2023 10:00 - 16:30
Activists, artists and (tactical) media makers often seem captivated by the urgencies of the present moment. This eternal dominance of the ‘here and now’ can obscure the vital role of (community) memory and documentation in shaping current and future practices. With this conference, we aim to explore the question of how to create more sustainable and dependable documentation and archiving resources for public engagement. What approaches to archiving can ground experiences from the bottom up? In what ways can records contest dominant narratives and form accessible, shared knowledge bases? When and how do documentation resources become productive for community activation?
Speakers
Sarah Schulman (ACT UP Oral History Project)
David Garcia (New Tactical Research / Experimental Media Research Centre, Bournemouth University)
Eliza Steinbock (Maastricht University)
Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (REBOOT, Nieuwe Instituut)
Gaby Wijers (Digital Care, LI-MA)
Ari Ralph (WORM Pirate Bay)
Özge Çelikaslan (bak.ma)
Henry Warwick (Radical Tactics of the Offline Archive / RTA School of Media, Toronto Metropolitan University)
Chris Julien (Waag / Extinction Rebellion)
Per Backhuis (IISH)
Program
09.30 registration open
10.00 auditorium open
10.15 welcome and introduction
Session 1: Time and Memory
10.30 Sarah Schulman
11.00 David Garcia
11.20 response by Eliza Steinbock
11.30 discussion
11.45 break
Session 2: Infrastructure and Care
12.00 Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (remote)
12.15 Gaby Wijers
12.35 response by Ari Ralph
12.45 discussion
13.05 lunch & Reboot exhibition visit
Session 3: Strategies and Futures
14.20 Özge Celikaslan
14.45 Henry Warwick
15.10 break
15.25 Chris Julien
15.50 response by Per Backhuis
16.00 closing discussion
16.30 program end
The conference will be moderated by Eric Kluitenberg (Tactical Media Files) and Alexandra Barancová (Network Archives Design and Digital Culture).
Language: English | Location: Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
Tickets: 10,-/5,-/0,-
Please note: This event has ‘suggested’ pricing - in solidarity with the trying times we all face you are welcome to order your ticket free of charge!
_________
This event is jointly organised by Eric Kluitenberg (Tactical Media Files) and Alexandra Barancová (Network Archives Design and Digital Culture), in the context of the exhibition REBOOT: Pioneering Digital Art, and generously supported by Nieuwe Instituut’s International Visitor Programme 2023 and the Creative Industries Fund NL.