The following piece is a discussion between filmmaker and visual-media anthropologist Dr. Steffen... more The following piece is a discussion between filmmaker and visual-media anthropologist Dr. Steffen Köhn and artist, curator and visual anthropologist Lillian Dam Bracia, both of whom presented their work at the Data-Stories Confestival in Volos in 2019. In their conversation, held online on July 14, 2020, they assess the potential of the desktop documentary genre for contemporary ethnographic filmmaking and as a new research and dissemination method for digital anthropological research projects. This interview has been edited for clarity. Links to images, video and supplemental material have also been added.
With online access heavily restricted, Cuba has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in t... more With online access heavily restricted, Cuba has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the world. Yet Cuban citizens have found a way to distribute all kinds of web content in the form of El Paquete Semanal, a one terabyte collection of data that is compiled by a network of people with various forms of privileged internet access and then circulated nationwide on USB sticks and external hard drives via an elaborate network of deliverymen. In this paper, I show how El Paquete has come to constitute a nested media ecosystem that facilitates the publication of independent local media content, hosts several digital marketplaces, and offers an otherwise non-existing space for advertisement. Its enormous local relevance and scope sets it in competition with the Cuban state that reacts ambiguously: it largely tolerates the Paquete as long as compilers continue to self-censor overtly political content. While state officials have repeatedly criticized the 'banality' of its material, the government however recently felt obliged to distribute its own alternative weekly data compilation called Mochila (backpack) via its youth computer clubs and official cybercafés. Hence, I seek to understand El Paquete as an arena in which the relationships between citizenry and the state are currently being renegotiated .
The following piece is a discussion between filmmaker and visual-media anthropologist Dr. Steffen... more The following piece is a discussion between filmmaker and visual-media anthropologist Dr. Steffen Köhn and artist, curator and visual anthropologist Lillian Dam Bracia, both of whom presented their work at the Data-Stories Confestival in Volos in 2019. In their conversation, held online on July 14, 2020, they assess the potential of the desktop documentary genre for contemporary ethnographic filmmaking and as a new research and dissemination method for digital anthropological research projects. This interview has been edited for clarity. Links to images, video and supplemental material have also been added.
With online access heavily restricted, Cuba has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in t... more With online access heavily restricted, Cuba has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the world. Yet Cuban citizens have found a way to distribute all kinds of web content in the form of El Paquete Semanal, a one terabyte collection of data that is compiled by a network of people with various forms of privileged internet access and then circulated nationwide on USB sticks and external hard drives via an elaborate network of deliverymen. In this paper, I show how El Paquete has come to constitute a nested media ecosystem that facilitates the publication of independent local media content, hosts several digital marketplaces, and offers an otherwise non-existing space for advertisement. Its enormous local relevance and scope sets it in competition with the Cuban state that reacts ambiguously: it largely tolerates the Paquete as long as compilers continue to self-censor overtly political content. While state officials have repeatedly criticized the 'banality' of its material, the government however recently felt obliged to distribute its own alternative weekly data compilation called Mochila (backpack) via its youth computer clubs and official cybercafés. Hence, I seek to understand El Paquete as an arena in which the relationships between citizenry and the state are currently being renegotiated .
Uploads