Afrobits: An interactive installation of African music and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade

Pereda, Javier; Murrieta-Flores, Patricia A; Radburn, Nicholas; South, Lois; Monaghan, Christian

doi:10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.19

Author Summary

Summary

This paper introduces Afrobits, an interactive installation about African music and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Its main aim is to bring to light invisible stories hidden behind geographic epistemologies. The installation highlights the contribution that African cultures had on the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the world, such as popular music. Although it covers diverse countries, we focused on the Americas, placing emphasis on Latin-America as the biopolitical space that enabled the integration of native cultures with African peoples. As this project involved web scientists, graphic designers, historians, digital humanists and artists, we also discuss the benefits of interdisciplinary research; contributions from University researchers for the development of storytelling projects for the Cultural Heritage sector; and the implementation of complex technologies and research methods.

Abstract

This paper introduces Afrobits, an interactive installation about African music and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Its main aim is to bring to light invisible stories hidden behind geographic epistemologies. The installation highlights the contribution that African cultures had on the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the world, such as popular music. Although it covers diverse countries, we focused on the Americas, placing emphasis on Latin-America as the biopolitical space that enabled the integration of native cultures with African peoples. As this project involved web scientists, graphic designers, historians, digital humanists and artists, we also discuss the benefits of interdisciplinary research; contributions from University researchers for the development of storytelling projects for the Cultural Heritage sector; and the implementation of complex technologies and research methods.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Javier Pereda

Patricia A Murrieta-Flores

Nicholas Radburn

Lois South

Christian Monaghan

Conference

Publication date: July 2020

Publication date (Print): July 2020

Pages: 106-111

Affiliations

[0001]Liverpool John Moores University

Liverpool, UK

[0002]Lancaster University

Lancaster, UK

[0003]University College London

London, UK

[0004]EatenAlive

Warrington, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.19

SO-VID: 898398ea-069f-4b29-814e-f3fd13a4d3ea

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2020

Conference acronym: EVA 2020

Conference number: 30

Conference location: London

Conference date: 6th July – 9th July 2020

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.19

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

A Abeba 2016 Declaran patrimonio a la rumba cubana [Online] https://elpotosi.net/cultura/20161201_declaranpatrimonio-a-la-rumba-cubana.html October 12 2019
C Berry 1956 Roll Over Beethoven Chuck Berry is on Top
British Library 1992 Yu wele Syliphone record label recordings from Guinea British Library
A Cole 1976 War Rastaman Vibration
E CostanzaJ Huang 2009 Designable Visual Markers Chi2009: Proceedings of the 27th Annual Chi Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1 4 1879 1888
A Earle 1822 Negro fandango scene, Campo St. Anna, Rio de Janeiro [Watercolour – online] National Library of Australia: https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/798007 August 8 2019
D Eltis 2018 A Brief Overview of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade,' Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database [Online] https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/database#tables December 13 2019
R Ennals 2007 From slavery to citizenship John Wiley & Sons
D Fleming 2005 Liverpool: European Capital of... the Transatlantic Slave Trade [Online]. Amsterdam https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/resources/amsterdam_conference.aspx December 15 2019
H FrayJ Pereda 2019 Conductive Circuits Printmaking Today
J GiblinI RamosN Grout 2019 Dismantling the Master’s House Third Text, 33 471 486
P Gilroy 2005 Postcolonial melancholia Columbia University Press
Innovate UK 2016 Bare Conductive: original paint technology opens a digital world [Online] https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/bare-conductive-original-paint-technology-opens-a-digital-world November 29 2018
W Jackson 1780 A Liverpool Slave Ship [Oil on canvas – online] Liverpool Museums: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/visit/floor-plan/middle-passage/slave-ship.aspx September 10 2019
H. S Klein 1978 The English Slave Trade to Jamaica, 1782–18081 The Economic History Review, 31 25 45
P. K Leffler 2006 Maritime museums and transatlantic slavery: A study in British and American identity Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 4 55 80
J LennonP Mccartney 1966 Penny Lane Strawberry Fields Forever London EMI
W. D Mignolo 2002 Colonialidad Global, Capitalismo y Hegemonía Epistémica In: C WalshF SchiwyS Castro-Gómez Indisciplinar las ciencias sociales: Geopolíticas del conocimiento y colonialidad del poder. Perspectivas desde lo andino Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar
Mit Media Lab. 2019 Scratch [Online] https://scratch.mit.edu/ March 1 2019
F Oramas 1997 Candela Buena Vista Social Club Havana, Cuba EGREM
J Pereda 2012 Web Based Tangible User Interfaces to Increase Engagement with Online Museums MSc Web Science, University of Southampton
J Pereda 2017 Exploración del Patrimonio Cultural a través de Interfaces Tangibles en la Red Arqueología Computacional. Nuevos enfoques para el análisis y la difusión del patrimonio cultural INAH
J Pereda 2019 A TUI To Explore Cultural Heritage Repositories on The Web Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction ACM
J PeredaH FrayN Morris 2018 Printeractive. Printeractive Workshops [Online]. Liverpool https://www.printeractive.trinkermedia.com/2018/12/04/printeractive-workshop/ January 13 2020
J PeredaP Murrieta-FloresP. D RitsosJ. C Roberts 2017 Tangible User Interfaces as a Pathway for Information Visualisation for Low Digital Literacy in the Digital Humanities IEEE VIS 2017 – 2nd Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities Phoenix, Arizona IEEE
E RestrepoA Rojas 2016 Conflicto e (in) visibilidad: Retos en los estudios de la gente negra en Colombia Organización Internacional para las Migraciones OIM-Misión Colombia
H Rowell 1966 Ee wan wabina ikuk and Lukembe tuning Peter Cooke Uganda Collection British Library
D Rycroft 1979 Musical bow lecture examples 1979: Tsongo/ Angola bows David Rycroft South Africa Collection British Library
N Sadler 2018 The Legacy of Slavery in Britain Amberley Publishing
F Sanderson 1972 Liverpool and the slave trade: a guide to sources Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 124 154 176
Slavery Images 1807 Plantation Scene and Slave Houses, Barbados, 1807–08 [Engraving – online]. Available at: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1472 July 8 2019
Smith Sc 1834 Slave ships on the ocean. Wood engraving by Smyth [Wood Engravings – online] Wellcome Collection: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/sebfmc2m September 12 2019
E Souto 1929 “Seu” doutor [Analogue sound – online] Biblioteca Nacional (Brasil): http://acervo.bndigital.bn.br/sophia/index.asp?codigo_sophia=13081 September 20 2019
C SyllaP BrancoC CoutinhoE Coquet 2012 TUIs vs. GUIs: comparing the learning potential with preschoolers Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 16 421 432
J Wesley 1941 Alabama Red [Field Recording – online]. Available at: Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000016/
C Wintle 2013 Colonial collecting and display: encounters with material culture from the Andaman and Nicobar islands Berghahn Books
M Zeuske 2012 Historiography and research problems of slavery and the slave trade in a global-historical perspective International Review of Social History, 57 87 111

Comments

[1] A Abeba 2016 Declaran patrimonio a la rumba cubana [Online] https://elpotosi.net/cultura/20161201_declaranpatrimonio-a-la-rumba-cubana.html October 12 2019

[2] C Berry 1956 Roll Over Beethoven Chuck Berry is on Top

[3] British Library 1992 Yu wele Syliphone record label recordings from Guinea British Library

[4] A Cole 1976 War Rastaman Vibration

[5] E CostanzaJ Huang 2009 Designable Visual Markers Chi2009: Proceedings of the 27th Annual Chi Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1 4 1879 1888

[6] A Earle 1822 Negro fandango scene, Campo St. Anna, Rio de Janeiro [Watercolour – online] National Library of Australia: https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/798007 August 8 2019

[7] D Eltis 2018 A Brief Overview of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade,' Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database [Online] https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/database#tables December 13 2019

[8] R Ennals 2007 From slavery to citizenship John Wiley & Sons

[9] D Fleming 2005 Liverpool: European Capital of... the Transatlantic Slave Trade [Online]. Amsterdam https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/resources/amsterdam_conference.aspx December 15 2019

[10] H FrayJ Pereda 2019 Conductive Circuits Printmaking Today

[11] J GiblinI RamosN Grout 2019 Dismantling the Master’s House Third Text, 33 471 486

[12] P Gilroy 2005 Postcolonial melancholia Columbia University Press

[13] Innovate UK 2016 Bare Conductive: original paint technology opens a digital world [Online] https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/bare-conductive-original-paint-technology-opens-a-digital-world November 29 2018

[14] W Jackson 1780 A Liverpool Slave Ship [Oil on canvas – online] Liverpool Museums: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/visit/floor-plan/middle-passage/slave-ship.aspx September 10 2019

[15] H. S Klein 1978 The English Slave Trade to Jamaica, 1782–18081 The Economic History Review, 31 25 45

[16] P. K Leffler 2006 Maritime museums and transatlantic slavery: A study in British and American identity Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 4 55 80

[17] J LennonP Mccartney 1966 Penny Lane Strawberry Fields Forever London EMI

[18] W. D Mignolo 2002 Colonialidad Global, Capitalismo y Hegemonía Epistémica In: C WalshF SchiwyS Castro-Gómez Indisciplinar las ciencias sociales: Geopolíticas del conocimiento y colonialidad del poder. Perspectivas desde lo andino Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar

[19] Mit Media Lab. 2019 Scratch [Online] https://scratch.mit.edu/ March 1 2019

[20] F Oramas 1997 Candela Buena Vista Social Club Havana, Cuba EGREM

[21] J Pereda 2012 Web Based Tangible User Interfaces to Increase Engagement with Online Museums MSc Web Science, University of Southampton

[22] J Pereda 2017 Exploración del Patrimonio Cultural a través de Interfaces Tangibles en la Red Arqueología Computacional. Nuevos enfoques para el análisis y la difusión del patrimonio cultural INAH

[23] J Pereda 2019 A TUI To Explore Cultural Heritage Repositories on The Web Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction ACM

[24] J PeredaH FrayN Morris 2018 Printeractive. Printeractive Workshops [Online]. Liverpool https://www.printeractive.trinkermedia.com/2018/12/04/printeractive-workshop/ January 13 2020

[25] J PeredaP Murrieta-FloresP. D RitsosJ. C Roberts 2017 Tangible User Interfaces as a Pathway for Information Visualisation for Low Digital Literacy in the Digital Humanities IEEE VIS 2017 – 2nd Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities Phoenix, Arizona IEEE

[26] E RestrepoA Rojas 2016 Conflicto e (in) visibilidad: Retos en los estudios de la gente negra en Colombia Organización Internacional para las Migraciones OIM-Misión Colombia

[27] H Rowell 1966 Ee wan wabina ikuk and Lukembe tuning Peter Cooke Uganda Collection British Library

[28] D Rycroft 1979 Musical bow lecture examples 1979: Tsongo/ Angola bows David Rycroft South Africa Collection British Library

[29] N Sadler 2018 The Legacy of Slavery in Britain Amberley Publishing

[30] F Sanderson 1972 Liverpool and the slave trade: a guide to sources Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 124 154 176

[31] Slavery Images 1807 Plantation Scene and Slave Houses, Barbados, 1807–08 [Engraving – online]. Available at: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1472 July 8 2019

[32] Smith Sc 1834 Slave ships on the ocean. Wood engraving by Smyth [Wood Engravings – online] Wellcome Collection: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/sebfmc2m September 12 2019

[33] E Souto 1929 “Seu” doutor [Analogue sound – online] Biblioteca Nacional (Brasil): http://acervo.bndigital.bn.br/sophia/index.asp?codigo_sophia=13081 September 20 2019

[34] C SyllaP BrancoC CoutinhoE Coquet 2012 TUIs vs. GUIs: comparing the learning potential with preschoolers Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 16 421 432

[35] J Wesley 1941 Alabama Red [Field Recording – online]. Available at: Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000016/

[36] C Wintle 2013 Colonial collecting and display: encounters with material culture from the Andaman and Nicobar islands Berghahn Books

[37] M Zeuske 2012 Historiography and research problems of slavery and the slave trade in a global-historical perspective International Review of Social History, 57 87 111

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