Video Activism and Activist Archiving: Collective Testimonies, Resilient Images and the Case of bak.ma

Abstract

Video activism prominently advocates for human rights and justice by circulating records of abuses and state violence's impact on daily life. However, in the over-saturated online space, these images lose context amid constant sharing, demanding attention. Hence, organizing them within the framework of social struggles, resistance, and justice is crucial. In this context, digital activist archive initiatives (e.g., 858.ma 2018; labournet.tv 2011; Arkib Filem Rakyat 2023; B’Tselem 2012) not only make sense of the surplus of internet images but also act as a counter-practice that challenges the states’ official archiving practices and its claim of monopoly over history. Activist archiving practices wrest control away from established institutions, enabling the dissemination of alternative histories through images. As a result, these archives preserve the experiences of social groups ignored by official ideology and foster the proliferation of grassroots practices. Furthermore, the video activist archive emerges as an alternative platform that is generated collectively to reproduce knowledge and sociopolitical relations based on solidarity. This essay will center on a study of bak.ma - the digital media archive of social movements created following the Gezi Park protests (Istanbul, 2013). It seeks to examine how this archive constructs a social memory beyond state-approved knowledge and practices, achieved through decentralized and collective data collection that restores control of protest movements to the people. Additionally, this essay will also shed light on the challenges inherent in activist initiatives, encompassing issues like censorship, accessibility, the reproduction of knowledge, activist labor and sustainability.