SpokenWeb
Since the introduction of portable tape recording media technologies in the 1960s, writers and artists have been documenting their performances of literary works, events and conversations with creative abandon. Yet, most of these audio archives remain inaccessible or in peril of imminent decay, or, if digitized, are still largely disconnected from each other.
The SoundBox Collection is housed at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan) and is digitized, remediated, and made public as a part of the SSHRC-funded SpokenWeb partnership. The SpokenWeb partnership aims to develop coordinated and collaborative approaches to literary historical study, digital development, and critical and pedagogical engagement with diverse collections of literary sound recordings from across Canada and beyond. These approaches include 1) new forms of historical and critical scholarly engagement; 2) digital preservation and aggregation techniques, asset management and infrastructure to support sustainable access; 3) techniques and tools for searching, visualizing, analyzing and enhancing critical engagement (for features relevant to humanities research and pedagogy); and 4) innovative ways of mobilizing digitized spoken and literary recordings within pedagogical, performative and public contexts.
The SoundBox Collection
The SoundBox collection contains literary audio that represents important UBC and Canadian cultural heritage.
The SoundBox Collection contains literary audio that represents important West Coast and Canadian cultural heritage. In particular, the poetics conversations contained in the collection reveal much about the gendered division of labour in artistic communities, the custodianship of community history, and the practices of dialogue and critique that subtend the production of literature at UBC, in Vancouver, and in the wider arts community in Canada and the U.S. Other literary audio genres in the collection include the poetry reading, interview, literary lecture, speech, and recital. The direction of collection, its processing, as well as the research on the collection is guided by SpokenWeb UBCO Lead Co-applicant Dr. Karis Shearer in collaboration with Co-applicant Marjorie Mitchell.
Data Feminism
The UBC Okanagan SpokenWeb team has made a commitment to consent and trust during the preservation and research of the collection. Due to this, the rate at which the collection has been made publicly available has been slow by traditional institutional standards, inspired by adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy principle to “move at the speed of trust.” The team is dedicated to ensuring the enthusiastic and continuous consent of those represented within the collection, as well as participating students and the broader community.
The SoundBox collection site, like the research undertaken by the UBCO SpokenWeb team, is built with attention to the principles set out in Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein, whose work we gratefully acknowledge:
D’Ignazio, Catherine and Lauren F. Klein. Data Feminism. MIT Press, 2020.
1. Examine Power
Data feminism begins by analyzing how power operates in the world.
2. Challenge Power
Data feminism commits to challenging unequal power structures and working toward justice.
3. Elevate Emotion and Embodiment
Data feminism teaches us to value multiple forms of knowledge, including the knowledge that comes from people as living, feeling bodies in the world.
4. Rethink Binaries and Hierarchies
Data feminism requires us to challenge the gender binary, along with other systems of counting and classification that perpetuate oppression.
5. Embrace Pluralism
Data feminism insists that the most complete knowledge comes from synthesizing multiple perspectives, with priority given to local, Indigenous, and experiential ways of knowing.
6. Consider Context
Data feminism asserts that data are not neutral or objective. They are products of unequal social relations, and this context is essential for conducting accurate, ethical analysis.
7. Make Labour Visible
The work of data science, like all work in the world, is the work of many hands. Data feminism makes this labour visible so that it can be recognized and valued.