In this assignment we start from thematic considerations of ’violence’ within a broader understanding of power relations. Violence exists in many forms, spaces, and scales, with varying degrees of visibility. On the one hand, we all might have experienced violence. Yet, at the same time, we might barely take note of many other forms and instances of violence, which for us, are invisible. In Recording Violence, we dive into and think together towards an attentive, clear, and complex understanding of ‘violence.’ We approach the topic of violence on/in different scales, registers, and forms. We consider the violence of centering certain forms of being in the world over others, silencing other forms of knowledge, and structural capitalist logics and processes; from the scale of non-human and human bodies to lands and the planet; from everyday temporal encounters to broad economic structures.

This course will focus on ‘recording’ as an overarching method for delving into the above-mentioned issues to make violence legible, visible, tangible. This method can be understood as a practice of collecting, arranging, framing, and making public information; information that could be visual, textual, auditory, evidential, or embodied. In addition, the recording includes practices of documentary making, documentation and archiving, drawing, transcribing, field-recording, mapping, and cartography, to name a few.

GENERAL STRUCTURE OF FINAL ASSIGNMENT:
The assignment has three components: a) Team assignment, b) Writing assignment, and c) Collective making public assignment.

• a) Team assignment (group)
  As a group, collectively choose a theme concerning violence that you would like to investigate. Every group member brings their personal approach, skills, and tools to ‘record’ the instances, traces, or aspects of violence. Here, collect visuals and other material that interest you, which could be made by you, by others, or be found material. Arrange these recordings together as a group and create a complete archive. Over time, keep rearranging, collecting, editing, and making new relations and arrangements. Use annotations to find relations, ask questions, and expand and extend the collection/archive you have made.As you move further, think about how an audience could make sense of this. What media, form, format, and spatial arrangement would this require? How could this be spatialized and made sense of in ways that outline the relations and complexities of violence you have investigated? The archive made over the few months of the course will include conversations and tutorials as the class does the archiving work. The eventual archive is curated collectively by all members of the group who will use it to make the (freeform) final work. Finally, each team presents its archive to the rest of the group.
  *Note that in order to build up a collective, accessible archive, the class works together to construct a Hotglue landing page, including links to all groups’ projects/archives or their documentation. This process is an exercise in documentation, communication, and collectivity

• b) Writing assignment (individual + group)
  The writing assignment consists of two elements: a) an archive/compilation of individual writing assignments throughout the course; and b) a final group brief.

• • B1) Students work on a series of research and writing assignments to submit individually, which correspond to the thematic unit seminar assignments given throughout the course. In each thematic unit, students write a 300-word text where they will reflect on a list of prompt questions on the topic.For the final collection, students will compile all the submissions as an archive at the end of the course. It should contain the students’ reflections and universe of thoughts during this course.This archive must be on the Hotglue page. How to format and present these archives is up to students.
    * For in-person assignments, students are asked to produce a physical ‘publication’ in the broad sense of the term.For example, we offered a thematic seminar on Strangeness and Otherness, where we introduced the students to the notions of ‘encounter’ and ‘strangeness’ using theoretical texts by Sara Ahmed (listed in the references included in this assignment). We then ask students to reflect on a list of questions that prompts their response to the thinking in the text with their work; for instance:
    • What have you learned?
    • What are your thoughts about ‘the imagined’ in relation to power? And regarding the normative?
    • What are your thoughts about the notion of ‘encounter’ in your group project?
    • What are your thoughts on the notion of ’strangeness’?
    • What kinds of examples could you think of?
    • What examples in your group project would be relevant to this concept?

• • B2) Students are asked to create a brief for their final project as a group. This text is part of a viewer’s encounter with the archive. It works both as an abstract and a brief to the archive you put forth. And in this way, it needs to be concise and consistent and lay out the central point of each archive. Make sure it includes: the title, date, maker’s name, colophon, and relevant bibliography.

• c) Collective making public assignment (whole class)
  Together the class members create a (digital) exhibition of the works to share and make visible the archives. This assignment involves coordinating and organizing the public moment, making collective decisions, sharing logistical labor, and other negotiations shared by all class members.

• Ahmed, S. (2000). Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality. Psychology Press.
• Bouteldja, H. (2016). Whites, Jews and Us. South Pasadena: Semiotext (e).
• Butler, J. (2011). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. Taylor & Francis.
• Butler, J. (2006). Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. Verso Books.
• Butler, J. (2020). The Force of Nonviolence: The Ethical in the Political. Verso Books.
• Fanon, F. (2007). The Wretched of the Earth. Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
• Han, B.-C. (2017). Psycho-Politics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power. Verso Books.
• Joler, V., Pasquinelli M. (2020). The Nooscope Manifested. AI as Instrument of Knowledge Extractivism.
  https://nooscope.ai/
• Koopman, S. (2008). Imperialism within: Can the Master’s Tools Bring Down the Empire?ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 7(2), 283-307.
• Mbembé, J. A., & Meintjes, L. (2003). Necropolitics. Duke University Press.
• O’Neal, C. (2016). Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. Crown.
• Said, E. W. (1979). Orientalism. Vintage.
• Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the Pain of Others. Diogène, (1), 127-139.
• Steyerl, H. (2010). “A Thing Like You and Me”.
  http://worker01.e-flux.com/pdf/article_134.pdf
• Tsing, A. (2017). The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton University Press.
• Wekker, G. (2016). White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race. Duke University Press.

This assignment was developed by Rosa Pons-Cerdà and Golnar Abbasi for third-year Bachelor’s students studying within the Powerplay program at Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Versions and variations of this assignment have been worked out together with Sami Hammana, Javier LLoret Pardo, Seecum Cheung, Sarmad Platform, and Neverland Cinema.

Prior Knowledge and Preparation
Familiarity with the history and discourse of violence, colonization, and anthropocentrism is important. Also, understanding the critical viewpoints in the discourse of archiving is crucial in guiding students.

Accessibility:
Assistance for Learners
This assignment could be done in-person or online. It has been done both in-person and online and worked well both ways.

Online tools such as Hotglue, Zoom, Teams, and other similar platforms, provide more accessibility to certain groups of often marginalized students such as disabled and differently abled students, introverted and shy students, and students with social anxiety.

Additionally, since this assignment might require a level of vulnerability, teachers and students should be mindful of what they feel comfortable with and create a space where others can be open safely.

Additional Tools
Hotglue is the main platform for archiving the works in this assignment (www.hotglue.me). However, for the development of the assignment itself, the course is open to media and tools students choose to work with, based on students’ disciplinary training or transdisciplinary encounters in the class/workshop. Previously, students have worked with 3D, augmented reality, video and animation tools, game design, sound recording, and drawing tools (online and physical).
Previously, the course was conducted online via Teams, Zoom, and in-person.