Abstract

Colonial archives have historically been centralised and exclusive in spatial as well as ideological terms. Digitalisation paved the way for the decentralisation and democratisation of institutional archives as digital proxies have become accessible to wider and geographically disperse audiences through different online platforms. This online presence as well as the possibilities for user interactivity and repurposing of content that Web 2.0 offered has opened new channels and networks for the critical examination of the colonial archive, its ontology, politics and power.

This panel sought to investigate novel readings of the colonial photographic archive in the digital era. Papers reflected on how the concept, content and taxonomy of colonial and postcolonial archives in Southeast Asia have been used, challenged, appropriated and repurposed by contemporary artists, curators and academics, within western and nonwestern explorations of ethnicity, identity, history and memory. Speakers also explored the ways that these new interpretations, located on or disseminated through the Web, constitute an expanded postcolonial archive that may afford us a reimagining of Southeast Asia.