The Ghost Edit is an interactive talk in which audience members participate alongside remote volunteers, taking part in a live streamed cataloguing session. During the presentation a journey through England’s hidden Black sonic histories, archives and missing ephemera takes place. Examining existing frameworks such as the DWN (Decolonising Wikipedia Network) as tools for archival justice. Multiple participants are real-time broadcast updating content on the Wikipedia and Wikimedia pages of underdocumented artists throughout the 10 minutes. This includes adding material regarding the lost sounds of the Bohee brothers, the first Black musicians to record commercially circa 1890. In the allotted time we will critique the neglect of public forums, blogs and social platforms. Evaluating these as spaces for accessible archives and an increased democratization of information. Data snippets and a link to the process of how to use DWN is handed out to the audience at the end of the day. Aiming to continue this practice outside of the festival and expanding the limits of our virtual traces.
Biography
Jess Rowley is a designer and researcher specializing in sonic cultures, spatial and social histories. She develops visual archives and cataloguing processes as tools to combat cultural amnesia. Driven by a deep fascination with missing ephemera, their project BROTHERS aims to revive the first commercial recording by Black artists in Europe.