DIGIFOLK · Digital Folklore as Critical Heritage Production and Participation in Contemporary Norway
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-09-01 → 2024-08-31
- EU contribution
- €303,238
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Digital Folklore as Critical Heritage Production and Participation in Contemporary Norway
DIGIFOLK aimed to explore how heritage narratives about contemporary Norway represented in folklore archives, namely the Norwegian Folklore Archive (NFS), can be diversified through the integration of digital folklore. Digital folklore is everyday cultural expression performed on or using digital media - such as social media or technologies like emails and photocopiers - and is a more democratic or open form of heritage production. Examples of digital folklore include memes, hashtags, creepypasta and email chains. Digital folklore reflects a more diverse range of communities and individuals, as its performance/production is self-inclusive and not restricted by heritage gatekeepers. At the same time, there has been an increase in the digitisation of folklore and other heritage archives. This can increase public access, but digitisation raises questions of who is (not) represented in these archives, and who would be interested in such archives (particularly if they do not see themselves represented). Despite the recognition of several minorities in Norway (indigenous Sámi, historic minorities, recent immigrants, other under-represented groups), there has been little progress in how these are represented in heritage institutions such as folklore archives. DIGIFOLK thus explored the potentials for how digital folklore can be connected to the folklore archive to diversify heritage narratives and increase interest in, and participation with, the archive. This is both to engage wider groups of people with the folklore archive/heritage institutions, and to represent and more diverse, contemporary Norway. The objectives were to: Explore the relationship between the digital, folklore, and heritage; Investigate the role of social media in the transmission of pre-digital/analogue folklore and the creation of new folklore in Norway; Connect contemporary digital folklore to folklore in NFS to enhance the relevance of the collections to a diverse audience and reflect diverse communities; Understand digital folklore and access to folklore archives in relation to broader identity issues in Europe. DIGIFOLK concluded that digital folklore can highlight heritage and culture of communities in Norway, and in its analysis can create links to folklore archives that draw out important themes (e.g. oppression, dialect, recreation), which can in turn broaden engagement with the archive.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Digital folklore – digitally (re)produced and mediated vernacular cultural expression – is a form of active, ongoing and self-including heritage production that gives us insights into what is culturally, socially and politically significant to a diverse public. Despite the importance critical heritage scholars place on participation, challenging authorised discourses, and the role of heritage in addressing broader social and political challenges, digital folklore is neglected within critical heritage studies. DIGIFOLK bridges this gap and investigates ephemeral and rapidly-changing digital folklore to explore the complex digital reproductions and renegotiations of folklore amongst the varied groups that constitute contemporary Norway. It challenges cultural-normative conceptualisations of folk culture in Norway to examine the hybridising nature of digital folklore in enacting differential social and cultural identification and affiliation, investigating digital folklore’s analogue antecedents in the Norwegian Folklore Archives (NFS) as a means by which a diverse public can meaningfully engage with heritage collections. Employing an innovative quali-quantitative approach combining social media data mining with ethnographic, cultural-historical, and visual and textual analytical methods, this project aims to: a) investigate the role of social media in the transmission and alteration of analogue folklore and the creation of hybridised/new digital folklore in Norway; b) connect contemporary digital folklore to collections in NFS to challenge the authenticating nature of the archive and embed unofficial knowledge in heritage discourse; c) expand participatory heritage models to recognise that the public create and engage with heritage outside of academic/institutional heritage discourse; and d) contextualise digital folklore in Norway within critical discourses on mobility, identity and belonging within Europe, in the context of populist and new nationalist movements.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITETET I OSLO · OsloCoordinatorNorway
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union