The Crossing Fonds Digital Archives Symposium, April 25-28, 2024 hosted in Metro Vancouver and online, will share two years of collaborative efforts and stimulate reflection on both the Crossing Fonds platform/ecosystem and the opportunities and challenges of digital archives writ large. This gathering unites academic, GLAM (gallery, libraries, archives and museum) and community-based experts who bring knowledge and practice in digital archive platforms and interface design, visualization, critical archival theory and practice, principles of OCAP and CARE, an ethics of care, participatory and co-design methods and expertise with digital records, particularly from media arts and culture. The symposium combines face-to-face and online presentations and dialogues featuring archival projects from IBPOC, queer, disabled, and other equity-deserving communities. Preliminary workshops allow a deep dive into the Crossing Fonds ecosystem, its tools, visualization approaches, and critical archival methods. The symposium includes a call for short papers by students (due February 29) and student presentation sessions that the Crossing Fonds graduate student team will organize.
The symposium has three themes:
A Collaborative Digital Archives Ecosystem, which will critique and disseminate the Crossing Fonds platform and present case studies including micro sites and methods developed through the program of research. Tools and techniques will be discussed from a socio-technological perspective.
Critical Archival Studies in the Digital Context, which will highlight an ethics of care, framed by dialogues regarding Indigenous engagement with digital archives. Indigenous research team members, archivists and librarians, and artists are featured throughout the symposium. We will engage a wide range of equity-deserving communities and individuals from these communities in presentations and research-creation.
Crosspollination, which explores collaboration across boundaries, whether archives or discipline.
The symposium will begin with a series of workshops on visualization, participatory community tools and the Crossing Fonds ecosystem and end with a go-forward planning session that harvests the seeds planted over the four days and encourages application of the ecosystem.
VIVO is located in the homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples in a warehouse space at 2625 Kaslo Street south of East Broadway at the end of E 10th. Transit line 9 stops at Kaslo Street on Broadway. From the bus stop, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight decline. The closest skytrain station is Renfrew Station, which is three blocks south-east of VIVO and has an elevator. From there, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight incline. There is parking available at VIVO, including wheelchair access parking. There is a bike rack at the entrance. The front entrance leads indoors to a set of 7 stairs to the lobby.
A wheelchair ramp is located at the west side of the main entrance. The ramp has two runs: the first run is 20 feet long, and the second run is 26 feet. The ramp is 60 inches wide. The slope is 1:12. The ramp itself is concrete and has handrails on both sides. There is an outward swinging door (34 inch width) at the top of the ramp leading to a vestibule. A second outward swinging door (33 inch width) opens into the exhibition space. Buzzers and intercoms are located at both doors to notify staff during regular office hours or events to unlock the doors. Once unlocked, visitors can use automatic operators to open the doors.
There are two all-gender washrooms. One has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The other is a single room with a urinal and is wheelchair accessible: the door is 33 inches wide and inward swinging, without automation. The toilet has 11 inch clearance on the left side and a handrail.
To reach the bathrooms from the studio, exit through the double doors and proceed straight through the lobby and down the hall . Turn left, and the two bathrooms will be on your right side. The closest one has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The far bathroom is accessible.