Co-Creation, Digital Art and Agency: Experiences from a Co-created Digital Artwork Project in Colombia

Abstract

This article discusses processes of co-creation of digital art in the context of the Colombian armed conflict. The article situates these processes within a broader panorama of arts-based forms of conflict transformation, testimony and historical memory practices in the current ‘memory boom’ in Colombia, engaging with theorizations of victimhood and survivorhood. It then proceeds to dialogue with recent debates in Digital Humanities that have called for a broadening out of the discipline, indicating key issues in terms of (digital) artistic representation, and hypothesizes the potential that digital artistic methods can have for alternative forms of engagement and representation of traumatic experiences. The article then sets out the conceptualisation of the artistic approach underpinning the digital artwork in question: Voces invisibles: Mujeres Víctimas del Conflicto Colombiano, with a description of the co-creation methodologies followed by a presentation of the resultant artwork itself. The article reflects on the use of digital methods and transcreation through multimodal and multimedia practices to encourage sharing personal, social and collective issues, engaging the participants in exploring art practices in physical co-creative workshops with tailored methodologies and approaches.