Ethical Digitization Considerations Workshop

Title: Ethical Digitization Considerations Workshop

Date: Monday, June 10, 2024

Time: 11:45 AM - 5:30 PM (Workshop begins promptly at 12:00 PM)

Capacity: 30

Admission: $25 (A.R.T. and METRO Members Only)

Location: Pen and Brush, 29 E 22nd St, New York, NY 10010

Join the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (ART) in collaboration with the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) and the Feminist Institute (TFI) for a workshop on ethical considerations surrounding digitization and oral history.

As our world becomes increasingly digital, so do archives. Bringing materials online presents a unique set of challenges. The Feminist Institute shapes our archival practices within feminist ethics of care. This means we prioritize building relationships with our record holders, view ourselves as caretakers of their materials, and utilize a collaborative cataloging model to create a participatory archiving environment. An extension of this form of care work, called reciprocal ethnography, asks questions like, “how do we give agency to our narrators to be advocates of their own stories.” By looking at projects like the NYC Trans Oral History Project, we learn how grassroots and volunteer-led collective work can model this by placing an emphasis on accessible materials and community engagement. 

This workshop will allow participants to learn and discuss the ethics surrounding digitizing personal cultural material and oral histories. What kinds of releases are needed? What role does relationship building play in digital archiving? How might we de-professionalize institutional roles so that marginalized communities have more access to the recording and preservation of their histories? Participants will get hands-on experience in wrestling with digitization ethical considerations, oral history exercises, and compassionate listening.

Goals 

• Understanding of feminist ethics of care

• Understanding of digitizing implications and begin building an ethical framework

• Understanding of ethical and care-focused oral history techniques

This is an in-person workshop limited to 30 people (ART + METRO members only). Box Lunch catered by Lenwich will be provided (water bottle and snack included).

Workshop Fee

• ART Member member rate: $25 per person
• METRO member rate: $25 per person. Check here to see if your institution is a METRO member. 

No refunds for cancellations, and registration is non-transferable. Please note that you MUST pay in advance online in order to attend this workshop.

In the occasion that the event is sold out, we highly recommend joining the waitlist. An ART staff member will reach out to you if a spot becomes available. Unless you've been given permission, please do not show up at the event without registering.

This workshop will be led by Allison Elliott and Aviva Silverman. 

About Our Instructors:

Allison Elliott is an archivist interested in queer and counter histories, community archives,  autonomous memory sites, feminist networks, and information activism. She is currently the Manager of Archives and Programs at The Feminist Institute, where she develops content partnerships, curates digital collections, and produces TFI’s annual Pop-Up Memory Lab. She’s recently earned her MA in Media Studies + Social Justice from CUNY Queens College and Interactive Technology + Pedagogy Certificate at the Graduate Center. Her praxis focuses on using archival materials in creative works to activate the present and as a tool for liberatory education.

Aviva Silverman is an artist and activist working in sculpture and performance. Their practice utilizes religion, gender-nonconformity, miniatures, and nonhuman actors to investigate technologies of spiritual and political surveillance. Silverman has exhibited at numerous galleries and museums including MoMA P.S.1, the Swiss Institute and Marta Herford. Their work has appeared in Artforum, The New Yorker, BBC Radio, and Art in America. They do organizing work with prison-abolition and Palestinian-solidarity groups in NYC and are broadly interested in community-based healing through oral history, earth-based diasporic Judaism and transformative justice initiatives. As the former project coordinator of the NYC Trans Oral History Project (NYC TOHP), they have co-developed one of the largest repositories of trans oral history in the world. They have organized and led community conversations with leading trans activists and artists including Cecilia Gentili, Sandy Stone, Ceyenne Doroshow and others and have independently contributed over 30 interviews to the archive. They believe orality is a powerful tool for building a legal and historical record of one’s community.

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