Coproducing digital archives with 2SLGBTQ+ Atlantic Canadian youth amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

PurposeThe authors explore the coproduction of a digital archive with 50 2SLGBTQ+ youth across Atlantic Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to catalyze broader public participation in understanding 2SLGBTQ+ youth-led activism in this place and time through art production.Design/methodology/approachThrough a mail-based participatory visual research project and an examination of collage, zines and DIY facemasks, the authors highlight how the production, sharing and archiving of youth-produced art adds to methodological discussions of exhibiting and digital archiving with 2SLGBTQ+ youth as a form of activist intervention.FindingsIn reflexively examining the cocuration of art through social media and project website, the authors argue that coproducing digital archives is an important part of knowledge mobilization. Also, the authors consider how the work has been interacted with by a broader public, so far in an exclusively celebratory manner and note the benefits and challenges of this type of engagement to the youth and to the understandings of 2SLGBTQ+ youth archives.Originality/valueThe authors suggest that these modes of engaging in participatory visual research at a distance offer original contributions in relation to how participation can be understood in a digital and mail-based project. The authors see participant control of how to share works within digital archives as a contribution to the understanding of people's capacity to negotiate and take ownership of these spaces. These strategies are participant-centered and suggest ways that archiving can be made more accessible, especially when working with communities who are socially marginalized or otherwise excluded from the archival process.