I just came across this Instagram account called Eva Stories, which is some sort of “Insta-story series” that tells the story of a girl in the Holocaust through her (Instagram's) point of view, as if Instagram existed in the World War II. It’s interesting to think of it as a new way to tell history, but are there any complications in re-creating/shaping history through this contemporary point of view? It is very effective though and extremely heartbreaking... If you’re not familiar with it, it’s worth checking out. Here are a few links for it:
Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/eva.stories/
Trailer:
Full “series” (compiled on YouTube):
This series reminds me a lot about the keynote from the recent First Forum and the possibilities of social media, as a "constellation" to include/exclude, enable/hinder, illuminate/obfuscate, and whatever other "/" permutations may come to mind. This series also reminds me of a recent documentary I saw, They Shall Not Grow Old (2018), in that both projects attempt to (re)depict histories through innovative technologies. They Shall Not Grow Old was heavily promoted as a project that restored WW1 footage, in addition to colorizing the footage as well as adding sound (ambient and voiceover dubbing). I share your ambivalence towards the possibilities and potential of reexamining/retelling these histories. Although I've come to avoid analyzing or evaluating texts in terms of ascribing intentionality, I would have to ask: what purpose is this series made for and to what extent is its mode of representing/rendering necessary for that purpose? Is the series critically examining the potential/limits of Instagram in its varied capacities or is it attempting to depict history through another register?
ReplyDeleteTo bring it back to the keynote, Professor Fuentes reiterated throughout: "the light you gave us / what did you do with the light we gave you?” Whether light refers to the historical event/political activism or the platform and its sociopolitical affordances/consequences (probably all of the above), I am similarly conflicted weighing the importance of "telling" histories against how they're told. Yet I can't help that small bit of skepticism towards the series based on the initial trailer, and how it seems to unquestionably suggest Instagram's "unfiltered" mode of (hi)storytelling.
I follow digital artists on Instagram who supported the Hong Kong protests through illustrations that supported the protests or critiqued China's government. One popular artist noted that users, presumably those siding with the Chinese government, exploited Instagram's algorithm into the site automatically deleting the art posts advocating the Hong Kong protests (https://www.instagram.com/p/B2o6y6Lh7en/). Although the artist appealed and Instagram restored the deleted art, the artist was, and remains, shadow banned, implying that the artist, their work, and their hashtags supporting Hong Kong do not comply with Instagram's T.O.S. Perhaps that tints my lens a little towards "Eva Stories", but personally, I would evaluate the series' "effectiveness" in depicting both Instagram's possibilities and shortcomings as a means of archiving/generating history.
This made me think of this twitter: https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII
ReplyDeleteWhile this account isn't the only one taking a similar approach to (re)historicizing WW2 through the modalities of new media, this process helps us question our own use of social media to narrativize our current political moment(s).