TRANSMEDIA NARRATIVES, TERRITORIAL MEMORY AND COLLABORATIVE PLATFORMS: LATIN AMERICAN EXPERIENCES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE*
Latin America today faces the challenge of preserving and projecting its collective memories in a context marked by digital transformation, audience fragmentation and the accelerated evolution of communication ecosystems. In this scenario, transmedia narratives emerge as a strategy capable of connecting heritage, citizen participation and social innovation, expanding the possibilities for representing, circulating and appropriating local and regional memories.
This symposium proposes to reflect on the role of collaborative digital platforms and transmedia narratives in the preservation and activation of cultural heritage, understanding memory first as a record of the past, but also as a dynamic process of identity construction involving communities, territories and multiple governmental and non-governmental social actors.
The proposal takes as its starting point experiences developed in Valparaíso, Chile, and Medellín, Colombia, linked to digital communication, social innovation, creative economies and participatory cultural management. Among them, notable initiatives include collaborative cultural cartography, digital platforms for creative communities, community archives and cultural mediation projects aimed at making local stories visible through diverse languages and formats.
Special attention will be given to the analysis of projects that integrate expanded narrative universes through written, audiovisual and sound media and immersive experiences, allowing communities to become protagonists in the construction of their own stories. In this context, experiences developed in different regions of Latin America serve as a reference for exploring models of cultural participation supported by digital tools, geo-referencing, community narratives and collaborative content production.
Their designs engage with the principles of transmedia storytelling proposed by Henry Jenkins — expansion, deepening, worldbuilding and performance — and with the concept of living heritage, articulating the voices of artists, communities and visitors in a distributed narrative of the territory.
The symposium seeks to generate a space for interdisciplinary dialogue among researchers, teachers, cultural managers, communicators and creators interested in understanding how digital technologies can strengthen processes of territorial memory and contribute to the sustainability of local cultural ecosystems. It also aims to identify methodologies, management models and best practices that can strengthen the connection between universities, communities and creative territories.
In line with the general theme of the 59th International Congress of Americanists, “Tradition and Innovation: The Memories of the Americas,” this symposium proposes a space for reflection on how transmedia narratives and collaborative platforms can contribute to the preservation, reinterpretation and future projection of Latin American memories, promoting innovative forms of cultural participation, circulation of knowledge and academic cooperation among institutions in the region.
