Women in the World - A Digital Timecapsule
Jun 21, 2022
Initiative
Seeking
Connections
![Profile Photo](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.worldpulse.org%2Fimages%2Fuser_profile%2F60605%2F1567054593.jpg&w=256&q=75)
Aparna Nagesh
India
Dec 19
Joined Aug 29, 2019
![A performer wearing black is looking at a black satin cloth that she is holding in her right hand. Her left hand is hovering above the cloth.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.worldpulse.org%2Fimages%2FFw7yBiCBWmK8bjvdd_IMG_0024.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
Photo Credit: (Photo by Shivanee Shashi)
Skin - A dance theatre production by Aparnaa Nagesh
As the world has discovered in the past two decades, world "history" is skewed in its portrayal and re-telling of women's experiences, achievements and contributions. As the carrier of transgenerational experiences and knowledge, women's place and space in the world has not been documented in an authentic, lived, first hand manner. A wealth of information and knowledge has remained untapped, unknown and undiscovered due to this gap in record keeping. The Digital Timecapsule will be a way to maintain records within multiple contexts and backgrounds, globally as a means of carrying authentic, lived "history" into the future.
Women in the world will be an ongoing digital time capsule of women's lived experiences in the world. Recording and documenting personal stories, ancestral legacies, and current experiences in different geographies, contexts and backgrounds to create an authentic display of women's lives within the contexts of personal, professional, economics, health and safety.
The initiative is scaffolded into 6 levels, namely :
Participation - A space to be visible, identify and share your personal story. The workshop will focus on the self (physical, emotional and cognitive). The recording here is a self story. (Written or video)
Interaction - A space to play. Using the concept of games, the workshop will focus on the inner child. The recording here is a childhood memory/experience. (Written and visual art)
Conversation - A space to get to know women from other contexts. This workshop will focus on the similarities and differences between contexts as a woman. The recording here is reflective.(Spoken word, poetry, singing/music)
Submissions - A space to explore ancestral legacies and share these. This workshop will focus on the knowledge wealth carried through the ancestral women of the participants. These can be home remedies, recipes, medicinal knowledge, mythology, technical savvy, finances . etc. The recording here is story-telling. (Music, dance, poetry, drama, visual art, video/audio)
Collaboration - A space to create friendships and bridges. Participants will be asked to work within groups to create a cohesive recording that can be evocative, creative, and life changing for a woman seeing this recording far in the future. The recording here is abstract and reflective. (Any form of recording)
Expansion - A space for the women to really explore the possibilities of space taking and visibility. The workshop will contain facilitated tools for exploring creativity, body-listening and self-care. The recording will be reflective and idea-based. (Any form of recording)
Using story-telling, group discussions, art making (visual/performing), the narrators are encouraged to document various aspects of being a "woman in the world". Each level contains an online session that will be facilitated after which participants will be given a deadline and a platform to submit their recording. A form of the record keeping will be discussed and arrived at for each level.
As the initiative flows, the participating women are taught practices to reflect deeply on their legacies, patterns, thought processes and purpose. The initiative is aimed at enabling women to use these reflections as a tool for impactful generational change, self care, taking up space and being visible.
All documentation will be recorded on a website as a digital timecapsule exhibit available for anybody in the world to view, read, consume. Participants who wish to remain anonymous can do so (only geographical or cultural background maybe shared for audience to retain contexts). The timecapsule will be ongoing, which means that once the initiative's workshop experiences have ended, future record keepers can participate in monthly exchanges to contribute to the records.
I hope to reach at least 10 women each month once the initial target of 100 women has been achieved through the course of the initiative running. (From as many diverse background and locations as possible)
The levels are cyclical, in that new participants may join in at any point within the first three levels.
The initiative will be represented by the spokes of a wheel that may also be reminiscent of a clock.
Since the levels are cyclical, after the original run of the initiative the monthly exchanges will follow the same order of the levels repetitively.