Written in red ink on a grid sheet of paper, the text reads 'In this blog series, our members share a selection of sources and explain why they recommend them. It might be a useful resource, a future reference, a source of inspiration or an opportunity to challenge what we view a source to be. This selection has been made by Claudia Treacher, PhD Researcher. Listen: The Reunion (BBC Radio 4) Each radio episode reunites a group of people who were involved in a historical event and facilitates discussion between their perspectives. The programme opens up space to contest and clarify how the guests understand their experiences in relation to each other.' Underneath are 5 screenshots of episode webpages inclding for Greenham Common, Tate, Spare Rib, Dale Farm Evictions and the Trial of the Mangrove Nine. Written in red ink on beige grid paper, the text reads 'watch: These are not exactly sources per se, but these narrative artistic interventions help me to think critically about approaching historical experiences of militarism and warfare. They encourage holistic approaches to consider sensory experience as well as the ongoing material, emotional, and bodily effects of war. In recommending these interventions I’m mindful of the technology they employ having extractivist origins. This is inseparable from the discussions we have about them. The selections also open up discussions about the representation of atrocities and the way in which the creators engage with the testimonies of survivors and witnesses. Scored in Silence by Chisato Minamimura: A performance by deaf Japanese artist Chisato Minamimura that shares the experiences of deaf people during the 1945 atomic bomb atrocities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Minamimura incorporates vibrotactility, soundscapes, 3D holographic illusions, sign-miming, animation, and film interviews to foreground the testimonies of deaf survivors. Collisions by Lynette Wallworth: A VR documentary in which indigenous elder Nyarri Morgan recounts his experience of witnessing a nuclear explosion in the South Australian desert in the 1950s. Visually supporting Nyarri’s oral account, the film bears an expressionistic illustration which places the listener/viewer in the desert as the British carry out the atomic bomb test. To the side are posters for each film/performance. Scored in Silence shows a still of Minamimara's performance. Collisions shows Nyarri Nyarri Morgan sat on the desert floor, a ring circles him and there are flames at the bottom.Written in red ink on beige grid paper, the text reads 'Read: Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay This book explores the workings of imperialist-dependent institutions such as archives and museums. Azoulay leads the reader away from taking the stance of ‘explorer-historian’, and instead encourages historians to engage with our potential to repair. Most powerfully, in the chapter ‘Imagine Going on Strike: Historians’, Azoulay asks what it would look like if historians acknowledged our ‘structural complicity […] in facilitating the violent transition of imperial actions into acknowledged realities’ and then acted on our power to change the discipline. Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent by Priyamvada Gopal Gopal’s work outlines how the struggle of colonized peoples for liberation shaped emancipatory ideas in Britain. It urges the reader to think critically about the direction of travel of anticolonial resistance. In particular Gopal’s work illuminates how pacifist and anti-imperial ideas were shaped by anticolonial agents of resistance in the Empire, and this has been an important influence on my thinking about the British peace movement in the early 20th century.' To the side are the two book covers.

 

Links:

The Reunion, BBC Radio 4

Scored in Silence by Chisato Minamimura

Collisions by Lynette Wallworth

Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay