At a time when Geneva-based multilateral institutions are in crisis and in need of critical and imaginative perspectives, the Centre for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism (CDHM) hosted the Art, Archives and Multilateral Futures Workshop at Villa Barton.
The SNSF-funded workshop was organized by Prof. Grégoire Mallard and Dr. Hannah Entwisle Chapuisat and co-sponsored by CDHM and the Global Governance Centre. It also received the support of other departments and research centres at the Geneva Graduate Institute, including the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding.
Thirty presentations, grouped around seven thematic panels, provided an overview of the state of the art on the workshop themes, identified research gaps, shared practice examples, and offered proposals for follow up research and joint projects. Presenters represented diverse disciplines and practice (art, art history, archives, international relations, law, digital humanities, futures studies, policymaking, anthropology/sociology, communication, etc.) bringing together leading researchers, global experts, early-career researchers, artists, diplomats, and Geneva-based practitioners.
Panelists addressed questions such as: What is the current and emerging role of artist researchers in exploring topics related to multilateral institutions, their archives, and futures studies? How are artistic research and practice currently addressed within international relations, digital humanities, and futures studies research? What are the most pressing challenges facing the multilateral system at global, regional and local levels that critical, artistic archival research could investigate, and how could such artistic practices contribute to addressing them?
Presentation formats included academic papers alongside artistic lecture performances, video, and song – prompting a lively discussion and rich exchange between workshop participants following each set of panel presentations.
CDHM will continue to develop the workshop outcomes in the months ahead as part of its longer-term research on art, archives and multilateral futures.
