Digitising Palestinian identity: Technobiographies and the problems of representation

Abstract

Palestinian history and memory is the object of intense debate. Communal, cultural and personal aspirations are negotiated internally across political landscapes, and are contested externally across memory landscapes in relation to a host of organisations and institutions, which have their own perspectives on the conflict in the Middle East. This article discusses issues that have emerged for me as one of the curators of the Palestine Gallery, London and as an artist conducting practiced-based research for the gallery in a political environment. The aim of this public project is to create a digital archive, representing Palestinian refugee experiences. The curatorial mission of the gallery is to communicate Palestinian culture via contemporary art to mainstream British audiences, resisting attempts to erase Palestinian history from the record.

Keywords:

• refugees
• Palestine
• migration
• identity
• essentialism
• memory