Collected Scatterings: A digital anthology

Collected Scatterings is an online archive of recordings, films, academic papers, blog entries and photographs that started its life as teaching and learning strategy. Initially called O Circulo dos Estrangeiros e minha Lar (The Circle of Foreigners/Strangers is my Home) the premise was a simple one:  to provide good quality recordings and suitable ethnographic films for local musicians and dancers, in exchange for free learning opportunities for our ethnomusicology  and studio recording students.  The musicians and dancers initially recruited were all participating in Afrocentric  art forms  hailing variously from Brazil, Ethiopia and the Gambia/Senegal-region;  diasporic art forms that had scattered throughout the UK  for a variety of reasons.

Consequently, despite the simplicity of our initial expectations of lessons, master classes, participant-observation and professional recording opportunities, it quickly became clear that, considering the groups that we recruit, ideas of diaspora, identity, place and displacement  are constantly at play. Additionally, with ongoing political remits, deepening globalisation and its resultant societal changes, new observations came to light focused on the cultural edgelands of our respective societies where questions of identity, of belonging and belongingness abound.

Therefore, in this collection not only are scattered art forms herein gathered, but highlighted are its repositioned and reimagined stances, not only for the practitioners of art the forms, but also in its transmission. Where some hope to carry the transmission of ideas forth with the same aplomb of that found in the originating country (or country-side), others constantly change their practices, linguistically, performatively, technically and technologically, requiring frequent reassessments of its position held within society.   This then influences its analyses both theoretically and practically – or in the words of one of the engineers “That drum….how authentic do you want it to sound?”