SOME INSIGHTS FROM THE AHRC INTERNATIONAL NETWORK E-VOICES: REDRESSING MARGINALITY

1. DIGITAL ACTIVISM AND MARGINAL VOICES
SOME INSIGHTS FROM THE AHRC INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
E-VOICES: REDRESSING MARGINALITY
Isabella Rega – Bournemouth University
http://evoices.cemp.ac.uk
https://www.facebook.com/BUevoices

2. Bournemouth University
Universidade Federal Fluminense
PAWA254SparkLab/ICTPlus
THE PARTNERSHIP

3. • Report emblematic uses of digital media to document
everyday experiences of marginalised groups in order to
build bridges to the wider, international public sphere;
• Track the process from community building to
communication, to gaining a share of voice
and having impact;
• Identify similarities and peculiarities of this process in
each in-depth case study;
• Reflect on methodologies to approach marginalised and
at risk groups to identify good practices
without exposing them to the risk of further harm;
• Identify trends, opportunities and challenges for global
practitioners, activists, and academics
G E N E R A L
O B J E C T I V E S
• Brazil: Favela residents’ uses of digital media to
foster community engagement and active
citizenship
• Kenya: “artivists” and their uses of digital tools to
promote a dialogue around human rights and
power structures
• Syria: How development organisations working
with displaced populations are using digital
technologies to foster peace and reconciliation in
the country.
C A S E S T U D I E S

4. KEY MOMENTS
In/Visible Margins
Exhibition
Experimental
Animation Workshop
Visit to Museum of
Maré and discussion
with activists
Meeting with the
partnership

5. • “Visibility is essential. We have to deal with the corporate media and
they create distorted realities. This form of manipulation might even
turn the population against the social movements and their agendas.
So, visibility is key to clarify what are the true agendas of social
movements and to generate a debate about such dynamics,
contracting the dominant views” (Interview with media activist,
13/06/2018)
• “To become visibile is to be become vulnerable. We keep questioning
ourselves. Do we need to grow this much? Do we need that much
visibility? We really don’t know what the balance is. Marielle’s murder
really messed with us but it didn’t intimidate the social movements.
On the contrary, we are seeing more people engaged and people
from the favelas who are becoming candidates for elections”
(Interview with media activists, 13/06/2018)
VISIBILITY

6. • Marginalisation: the involuntary exclusion from participation in normal
spheres of life, with people being forced into a state of economic,
cultural or political deprivation, including the stripping of human
rights, feeling cast out of mainstream society or being physically
excluded from participating in community action (Wong et al, 2006).
• Visibility associated with people who have been neglected, ignored,
rendered invisible. If we don’t see them, we don’t care.
• Social media have spurred hopes that the internet can help civil
society hold governments accountable for their operations (Bennett,
2003; Hestres, 2013; Uldam, 2018)
• Social media can undermine the territorial, coercive and social
underpinning of autoritarian governments by exposing and breaking
the state’s power to silence popular grievances and to criminalize
opposition (Youmans et. al, 2012)
VISIBILITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA

7. • Visibility as recognition – the importance of being seen to identity
formation and being acknowledged in society. Issues such as
poverty, class and identity politics rely on visibility to be addressed.
Invisibility leads to exclusion (empowering)
• Arcana imperi – tied to the capacity of invisibility to hide centers and
agents of power. The invisibility of the watcher to those being
watched produces practices of self-discipline by instilling a sense of
being suspected. This enables centers and agents of power to
exercise control over subjects through surveillance rather than force.
(disempowering)
(Brighenti, 2007, Uldam, 2018, p. 44)
DUAL CAPACITY OF VISIBILITY

8. FAVELA DIGITAL ACTIVISM

9. • Fake page was created in 2015
• Page moderators threatened by military and members of drug traffic
(meeting with military commanders)
• Moderators sent inbox messages threatening to sue fake page,
appeal to Human Rights Commissions
• Contacted TV Record. Balanço Geral Program (15/04/2015)
• Fake profile sent a message to moderator (standard procedure,
apologies)
FAVELA DIGITAL ACTIVISM

10. ART-IVISM IN KENYA
Nairobi Noir

11. • Msingi Sasis was almost lynched by the mob, while taking pictures of Nairobi at night,
it was arrested as terror suspect
• Boniface Mwangi went to look for him. The police said that no one was arrested (anti-
terrorism bill).
• PAWA254 started a social media campaign to free him, he was booked him as terror
suspect, and then he was released.
• Start loosing jobs (as a photographer) because on social media and press he was
called a terrorist suspect, this affected him professionally and personally
• He run out of money and got into debts, not able to pay rent anymore and was locked
out from his home
• No family connection, he became homeless for two weeks and was surviving
• People online were looking for him and helped him by buying his work
ART-IVISM IN KENYA

12. • To reach out mainstream media
• To join powerful collectives
• To partner with international
organisations
THE VISIBILITY JOURNEY
CRITICAL
MOMENTS:
visibility becomes
a danger (forces
from the outside
and from the
inside)

13. EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATION WORKSHOP

14. • City councilor – only black woman
• Human Rights activist: Fight against police brutality directed at favela
residents (war on drugs/ militarisation)
• Favela offspring (cria de favela)
• Murdered in March 2018, the case is still unsolved
MARIELLE FRANCO

15. EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATION WORKSHOP
Preparation:
Selection of the subject
Selection of the sequences and
printing of the frames (more than
900!)
The Workshop:
Presentation of Marielle’s story and
context
Discussion on similarities and
differences between contexts
Individual work and group work on
frames
Soundtrack creation and recording
Debriefing:
Screening of the
animation
Discussion

16. A PORTRAIT OF MARIELLE

17. • “the same problems we go through, people in Brazil go through [...]
and it is our prerogative to stand up.” (artivist 23/08/18).
• “they are not alone in this world, they are not alone in this fight”.
(artivist 23/08/18)
• “It's like a collective loss. From here in Nairobi, we are heartbroken
that Marielle died in Rio. This connection is very strong and it made
the piece much more intimate. People knowing that they are not
alone because you always feel that you fight alone. The point is they
want to separate us, and we always rely on the North but us in the
Global South we have very similar struggles among our different
countries, and if we can connect across, we may find the solutions
that we need to elevate our lives”. (Ng’endo Mukii, 23/08/2018)
A PORTRAIT OF MARIELLE

18. STORYMAPPING MEDIA ACTIVISM IN RIO

19. THE VESSEL OF SECRETS

20. • October 25: Retrato de Marielle – Criando pontes entre o Brasil e o
Quênia, at Museum da Maré
• December 12-14: Final Dissemination Event in Costa Rica, together
with a
• 1-day dissemination event here in Bournemouth and
• a virtual panel gathering organisations working for peace
and reconciliation in Syria
NEXT STEPS

21. DIGITAL ACTIVISM AND MARGINAL VOICES
SOME INSIGHTS FROM THE AHRC INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
E-VOICES: REDRESSING MARGINALITY
Isabella Rega – Bournemouth University
http://evoices.cemp.ac.uk
https://www.facebook.com/BUevoices