Museum Digitisations and Emerging Curatorial Agencies Online

This open access book explores the multiple forms of curatorial agencies that develop when museum collection digitisations, narratives and new research findings circulate online. Focusing on Viking Age objects, it tracks the effects of antagonistic debates on discussion forums and the consequences of search engines, personalisation, and machine learning on American-based online platforms. Furthermore, it considers eco-systemic processes comprising computation, rare-earth minerals, electrical currents and data centres and cables as novel forms of curatorial actions. Thus, it explores curatorial agency as social constructivist, semiotic, algorithmic, and material. This book is of interest to scholars and students in the fields of museum studies, cultural heritage and media studies. It also appeals to museum practitioners concerned with curatorial innovation at the intersection of humanist interpretations and new materialist and more-than-human frameworks

Lists, Narratives, and Archives of Intangible Heritage: The Politics of Digital Re-enactments

Intangible heritage is re-enacted through its repeated performance on UNESCO’s websites and YouTube. This re-enactment via media technologies takes shape through narratives, lists, and archives. The political concerns—notably, issues of authority—surrounding the formation of narratives, lists, and archives may nonetheless counter one another. Political underpinnings surface through the material technologies of these media forms as well as the context in which they are situated and circulate. Narratives, lists, and archives in divergent digital environments intertwine with heritage content to produce competing political values that such re-enactments can assume.Le site Web de l’Unesco ainsi que les médias sociaux tels que la plate-forme YouTube entraînent un processus de reconstitution et de réactualisation des performances qui constituent le patrimoine intangible. Les technologies des médias permettent à cette reconstitution ou réactualisation de prendre place grâce à l’élaboration de listes, d’archives et de récits patrimoniaux. Toutefois, ces derniers se trouvent à être politisés et à être au centre de conflits. Ces conflits surgissent lorsque les technologies des médias mettent à jour le système de valeurs existant dans le contexte où la reconstitution des pratiques patrimoniales a lieu. Ces listes, archives et récits patrimoniaux partagés sur le Web divergent parfois de ceux mis en place et confrontent les valeurs institutionnalisées par les autorités politiques. Les médias engendrent ainsi la création de récits secondaire à l’hégémonie culturelle actuelle et préconisée par les autorités d’une société donnée. La reconstitution et la réactualisation de ces pratiques patrimoniales présenteraient donc une menace pour certaines autorités

Salsa and its transnational moves : the commodification of latin dance in Montreal

In Montreal, salsa dancing is both an expression of Latin identity and a cultural commodity. Many Montrealers of Latin descent adopt salsa dance as part of their cultural heritage only after arriving in Canada, connecting, through salsa, to a transnational Latin identity that crosses the Americas. This situation illustrates how cultural affiliations are not necessarily fixed, but can be acquired in response to changing circumstances. Since salsa is not indigenous to the city, residents of Montreal can only access it through cultural institutions and community media outlets. This commodification influences the manner in which salsa expresses Latin identity in the city. At the same time that salsa dancing proclaims Latin identity for certain individuals in the city, the practice thrives in a multicultural context: the Montreal salsa scene comprises diverse individuals who promote, teach, and dance salsa. This dissertation addresses points of division and cooperation among diverse cultures, ethnicities, races, and both sexes, as they are played out in aspects of salsa dancing in the city. The unfolding of these relationships is influenced by both the commodification of salsa dancing and its link to Latin culture. This analysis seeks to provide a theoretical account of the tension between salsa's expression of identity and its status as a commodified cultural practice. This perspective integrates various approaches to the study of dance and culture stemming from anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. Analyzing the Montreal salsa scene, I draw from in-depth interviews with individuals involved in the promotion of Latin dance and music, as well as participant observations in salsa dance classes, clubs and events. The methodology of this research combines ethnography with various areas of concern: the history of salsa, Latin immigration patterns in Montreal, theories of multiculturalism, transnationalism and diaspora, the Latin influence in ballroom dance, Europ

Myths of the body : performing identity in Genet

The issue of sexual and racial identity unfolds in a paradoxical light in Genet's works. Identity as a fixed essence is both deconstructed and maintained. His enigmatic portrayal of identity is addressed from a theoretical perspective which combines seemingly contradictory positions, namely essentialism and deconstruction. Such a theoretical stand claims that although identity categories are not fixed essences and consequently can be deconstructed, they must be maintained as political categories in order to deal with oppressive systems which construct essentialist-based identities. Through Genet's presentation of identity as a body performance, race and sex are deconstructed. At the same time, he illustrates how male dominance and racism maintain identities as fixed categories