Final Report Summary - BABE (Bodies across borders: oral and visual memory in Europe and beyond)
The main research achievement of the BABE project has been the exploration and analysis of changes induced by global mobility in the oral and visual memories of Europe, focusing on the traces of memory produced by mobile people and visual art. Connections and divergences between the Italian and Dutch national cases in the last four decades have been the main object of the research, with the aim of contributing to the debates on Europe and memory, postcoloniality and migration. The results of the research consist in a collection of individual and collective audio-visual interviews, visual material produced spontaneously or induced during the fieldwork, archival documentation, participant observation in exhibitions, theatre performances, websites and social media sites that were related to the topic of migration and colonial history.
Our interpretative approach considered oral and visual data as documentation of subjectivity and used textual and content analysis as well as the analysis of the narrative structure. The terminological and conceptual analyses of the language concerning mobility towards and within Europe has enabled us to assess the intersection between private narratives and public discourse. Closely related has been the focus on counternarratives, resistance, and dissonance which are crucial in our writing. New conceptualizations have emerged considering inter-subjectivity in a transcultural perspective, emotional geographies, and the relationship between forms of embodied memory and archival practices. Another methodological challenge was the connections emerging from different fields of the research: the issues raised by the archival processing of materials collected during fieldwork resonated with the exploration of a wider meaning of "archive" thematized by contemporary art practices and debates.
The Project developed cross- and transdisciplinary approaches to the connection between memory, mobility and visuality, situating it in the context of the relationship between, on the one hand: oral history, anthropology, geography, cultural and memory studies and, on the other: contemporary visual art. Visual art inspired the methodological framework of the fieldwork and was crucial in the latter stage of research when the project sought to present the data gathered in various settings (academic, artistic, scholastic, as well as for the general public).
Various strategies of knowledge transfer involved both intra-academic and extra-academic organizations and audiences. Fieldwork in educational contexts and with migrants’ support associations impacted not only on the institutions and organizations involved but more widely on local and city contexts. This activated relevant transformations in terms of students' empowerment and teaching and cultural planning, One relevant outcome of inter-institutional collaboration was represented by the Summer School co-organized with the Oral History Master of Arts, Columbia University (NY) "Memory, Visuality and Mobility" (EUI, 19-30 June 2017).
The dissemination of the new forms of knowledge emerging from the research activities required different channels in order to achieve effective uptake, vis-à-vis its academic and social impact. Besides, the Project's website and blog, collaborations with art scholars, video-makers and curators played a crucial role in the organization of three exhibitions and the production of two documentaries as part of the attempt to experiment forms of dissemination able to take into account the specific nature of the material collected and to address larger audiences. Finally, numerous collective and individual publications were produced by the project, ranging from strictly academic to educational to discursive (all accompanied by numerous images), in both printed and digital formats.
Our interpretative approach considered oral and visual data as documentation of subjectivity and used textual and content analysis as well as the analysis of the narrative structure. The terminological and conceptual analyses of the language concerning mobility towards and within Europe has enabled us to assess the intersection between private narratives and public discourse. Closely related has been the focus on counternarratives, resistance, and dissonance which are crucial in our writing. New conceptualizations have emerged considering inter-subjectivity in a transcultural perspective, emotional geographies, and the relationship between forms of embodied memory and archival practices. Another methodological challenge was the connections emerging from different fields of the research: the issues raised by the archival processing of materials collected during fieldwork resonated with the exploration of a wider meaning of "archive" thematized by contemporary art practices and debates.
The Project developed cross- and transdisciplinary approaches to the connection between memory, mobility and visuality, situating it in the context of the relationship between, on the one hand: oral history, anthropology, geography, cultural and memory studies and, on the other: contemporary visual art. Visual art inspired the methodological framework of the fieldwork and was crucial in the latter stage of research when the project sought to present the data gathered in various settings (academic, artistic, scholastic, as well as for the general public).
Various strategies of knowledge transfer involved both intra-academic and extra-academic organizations and audiences. Fieldwork in educational contexts and with migrants’ support associations impacted not only on the institutions and organizations involved but more widely on local and city contexts. This activated relevant transformations in terms of students' empowerment and teaching and cultural planning, One relevant outcome of inter-institutional collaboration was represented by the Summer School co-organized with the Oral History Master of Arts, Columbia University (NY) "Memory, Visuality and Mobility" (EUI, 19-30 June 2017).
The dissemination of the new forms of knowledge emerging from the research activities required different channels in order to achieve effective uptake, vis-à-vis its academic and social impact. Besides, the Project's website and blog, collaborations with art scholars, video-makers and curators played a crucial role in the organization of three exhibitions and the production of two documentaries as part of the attempt to experiment forms of dissemination able to take into account the specific nature of the material collected and to address larger audiences. Finally, numerous collective and individual publications were produced by the project, ranging from strictly academic to educational to discursive (all accompanied by numerous images), in both printed and digital formats.