Join us for an ongoing series of workshops to learn how to use the new software we are developing for the Digital Archive of Artists’ Publishing. The workshop will open up the strategies that the technological team are developing, with a focus on the software applications developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, and how these can contribute to a more ethically driven archival process. 

​

Before the workshop select your own Artists’ Publications - zines, artists’ books, and other experiments in artists’ publishing - ready for upload, data about the items, and any anecdotal histories you wish to share. The workshops will involve software training and user testing sessions. These will in turn inform the design and development of the technological stack of the archive.

​

More details: In the 4th workshop, participants will get an introduction to Wikimedia and key features of the Wiki software. Members of the Digital Archive team will also briefly describe the goals of the digital archive and how we are working towards trying to eliminate traditional problems associated with the ethics of archival processes.  This workshop will focus on practical work with the archive database. A demo will present the steps necessary to get started adding and editing materials online. Participants who attended previous workshops will be able to continue working with their chosen materials and will have the option to skip the demo. Throughout the workshop there will be time for questions and discussions, particularly focusing on the ethics and biases which may be explicitly or implicitly embedded in database and archive infrastructures.

 

 

With the continued challenges of addressing the public health care crisis of the pandemic across  lockdowns in many countries, we are moving the workshop series fully online. Workshops will be conducted via a private and secure instance of the open-source video conference software: jit.si. Detailed instructions on how to join the online meetings will be provided for those participating .  

​

To reserve your spot, please fill out this short form: https://forms.gle/1YDmoyTGP2s253Vb6

​

Places are limited due to the group dynamics of learning online, so please RSVP early.

​

 

about the digital archive:

​

Inspired by the site of Banner Repeater’s Archive of Artists’ Publishing on Hackney Downs train station, with over 11,000 passengers passing a day, we are building a Digital Archive of Artists' Publishing responding to the need for similar accessibility in an online context, for a growing community of people engaged with Artists publishing. 

​

The online platform aims to provide an interactive, user-driven, searchable database of Artists’ Books and publications, that acts as a hub to engage with others, built by artists, publishers, and a community of producers in contemporary Artists’ Publishing.  With an emphasis on inclusivity from the start, we aim to privilege anecdotal histories and multiple perspectives alongside factual data, establishing an important new precedent in digital, as well as analogue archival practice.  The wiki style approach means that users can upload their own material, single items, or entire collections, choosing appropriate sharing permissions at time of upload.  

​

The archive project is committed to challenging the politics of traditional archives that come of issues regarding inclusion and accessibility, from a post-colonial, critical gender and LGBTQI perspective. The project will work to ensure an equitable and ethical design process occurs throughout the archive development. 

​

 

Telegram channel

​

We are also pleased to announce we have initiated a dedicated Telegram group to facilitate discussions around data entry and the ethics of archiving in between the workshop sessions which will be shared with participants of the workshops.

​