ANCESTRAL KNOWLEDGE AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMERICA: PRESERVATION, TRANSMISSION AND CULTURAL REVITALIZATION
The expansion of digital technologies, artificial intelligence and immersive technologies is profoundly transforming the ways in which knowledge and cultural heritage are produced, transmitted and preserved. Faced with these changes, a fundamental question arises: in what ways can new technologies engage in dialogue with ancestral knowledge without reproducing relations of domination, extractivism or cultural appropriation? How can they become tools for the preservation, creation and cultural revitalization of indigenous peoples and other communities that carry traditional knowledge in Latin America?
This symposium proposes to reflect on the multiple ways in which new technologies are today involved in the processes of preserving, transmitting, creating and revitalizing ancestral knowledge in contemporary Latin America. Rather than viewing these tools as mere technical devices, it proposes to analyze them as spaces of mediation, dialogue and exchange between different knowledge systems. Artificial intelligence, digital platforms, audiovisual archives, digital cartographies, virtual reality, augmented reality and the digital humanities open new possibilities for documenting, representing, experiencing, disseminating and reinterpreting ancestral knowledge, fostering new forms of intergenerational transmission, community participation and cultural representation. At the same time, they pose important challenges related to data sovereignty, community representation, collective intellectual property, heritage protection and the cultural rights of indigenous peoples.
The symposium calls for researchers, artists, filmmakers, communicators, heritage specialists, digital humanities professionals and representatives of indigenous communities interested in analyzing these transformations from interdisciplinary perspectives. Academic research, research-creation projects, video essays, audiovisual essays and proposals articulating research, artistic creation and new technologies will be received.
The symposium is also open to presentations of experiences developed by artists, collectives, museums, cultural centers and community organizations that, in close collaboration with indigenous peoples, explore new forms of creation, representation and transmission of ancestral knowledge through the use of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality and other immersive devices. Initiatives built on participatory methodologies, intercultural dialogue and respect for cultural rights, data sovereignty and the collective intellectual property of communities will be especially valued.
Proposed thematic axes:
Artificial intelligence and ancestral knowledge: preservation, documentation and revitalization of cultural heritage.
Virtual reality, augmented reality and immersive technologies as new forms of representing and transmitting traditional knowledge.
Digital humanities, audiovisual archives and digital cartographies for the documentation and preservation of heritage.
Digital platforms, networks and indigenous communities: circulation and intergenerational transmission of knowledge.
Video essays, film, digital arts and research-creation as forms of representing ancestral knowledge.
Digital technologies and artificial intelligence for the revitalization of indigenous languages.
Digital museums, living heritage and immersive experiences.
Ethics, digital sovereignty, cultural representation and collective rights.
Collaborative experiences among indigenous communities, artists, universities, museums and research centers.
This symposium seeks to constitute a space for interdisciplinary dialogue bringing together research, artistic experiences and collaborative projects capable of showing how new technologies can contribute to revitalizing ancestral knowledge today.
