SOLD OUT! Echoes from Afar: Build your own archive

Over the past years we’ve seen an increase in censorship, shadow-banning, and blocking of accounts across large social media platforms like Instagram. Many artists, designers, and cultural and social organisations rely on these platforms to connect with their communities and share their stories and their work. What if we could build our own archives, websites, and networks without giving our autonomy away to Big Tech?

In this hybrid workshop, led by Kexin Hong and Yiyao Wei, we will use their project Echoes from Afar—an open-source, living, online archive—as an entry point to explore how digital infrastructures can challenge conventional forms of representation. Their project not only opens space for Asian diasporic communities, but it also lays the groundwork for a living archive, allowing richer, more textured forms of visibility for any project. In its approach to storytelling, the project seeks to safeguard the integrity of personal narratives, to cultivate plurality and openness in how stories surface and circulate.

During this workshop participants will learn how to build their own websites or archives using free, accessible, and open source tools that require no prior coding experience. We will also learn about the workflows behind building and developing our own archives and networks. Throughout this hands-on process, the workshop will draw on AI technologies as one of the working tools that can assist website building, while still remaining grounded in a practice of ethical care.

Participants will also learn about Echoes from Afar and the basics of self-uploading and managing artworks on the platform, so that they can begin contributing their own work if they would like to.

This workshop is hybrid, so you can choose to join onsite in Amsterdam at The Hmm studio or online.

Requirements and Prep

No prior coding experience is necessary and you do not need to be of Asian heritage to join. Please bring your laptop for the workshop. It’s also good to think ahead of time about what kind of archive and website you want to create and collect some texts and images or videos you want to embed in it.

The Hmm experiments…

This event is part of a series of programs that we are developing with The Hmm, where we give space in our studio for our community to explore new ideas and experiment with workshops as part of our public program.

What you need to know

As these workshops are more intimate sessions, there is a limited supply of tickets available. You can find information about physical accessibility at The Hmm’s studio here.