Video Archives of the Syrian Revolution: A Media Experiment

Abstract

This article builds on ongoing debates in archival theory that point both to the democratic potential of digitization and to its dangers (mass deletion, de-contexualization, algorithmic bias). It considers what happens when visual documents that were once made to mobilize a counterpublic are repurposed as the basis for reflections on memory and loss for a generation of Syrian revolutionaries, who remain exiled from their homeland with little hope of return. Rami Farah’s documentary film, Our Memory Belongs to Us is analyzed as part of a wider effort to counter forms of erasure that now encompass both physical and digital sites.

Notes

1 Cécile Boex writes, “In this context, uploading content online served to confirm the authenticity and scale of the revolt. It also offered the possibility of preserving traces of it, however weak or illegible.”

2 YouTube’s content categorization system also includes a rating system that allows users to give a thumbs up or thumbs down. Videos with higher ratings are more likely to appear at the top of search results.

3 Al-Turkmani told Al-Jazeera that the total number of videos he archived reached 1,554,940 clips, which is equivalent to 22,164 gigabytes obtained from 2026 channels, and the quality of the videos ranges between 240 and 1080 “pixels.”

4 Many protestors used devices like the Nokia 101, an ultra-basic dual-SIM mobile phone manufactured by Nokia. The Nokia 101 was inexpensive as compared to other cellphones and was primarily geared for users in developing countries.

5 Here it should also be noted that the regime was able to construct durable fictions that could appeal to a wide cross-section of Syrian society and not simply to the narrow group deriving obvious benefit from the clientelist system. As Wedeen (2019) notes in her analysis of the ideological bond between citizen and state, “affective investments are related to material enticements, not only for those who can afford them, but also for those who cannot, yet are persuaded to imagine themselves inhabiting a consumerist mirage of pleasure and status.” To the extent that they fixated on the regime’s lies and its repressive strategies of domination, the activists onstage overlook its mobilization of a neoliberal fantasy premised on a dream of social mobility.

6 YouTube’s content categorization system also includes a rating system that allows users to give a thumbs up or thumbs down. Videos with higher ratings are more likely to appear at the top of search results.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chad Elias

Chad Elias is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at Dartmouth College. His research and pedagogy look expansively across geographies and media to engage with debates about state sponsored violence, archival knowledge and the epistemological claims of lens-based media. E-mail: [email protected]