Mediating Multiculturalism
Mediating Multiculturalism
Digital Storytelling and the Everyday Ethnic
Daniella Trimboli
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
This edition first published in UK and USA 2020
by ANTHEM PRESS
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and
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Copyright © Daniella Trimboli 2020
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020936448
ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-390-2 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78527-390-6 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
Some parts of this work have been adapted from:
Daniella Trimboli, ‘Faces Sailing By: Junk Theory and Racialised Bodies in the Sutherland Shire’, Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture, vol. 6, no. 2 (2015): 181–91, https://doi.org/10.1386/cjmc.6.2.181_1.
Daniella Trimboli, ‘Affective Everyday Media: The Performativity of Whiteness in Australian Digital Storytelling’, Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, vol. 32, no. 3 (2018): 44–59, https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2018.1488879. Copyright © 2018 Critical Arts Projects & Unisa Press, reprinted by permission of Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group, www.tandfonline.com on behalf of Critical Arts Projects & Unisa Press.
A thorough and diligent attempt was made via ACMI to contact authors Fatma Coskun, Kenan Besiroglu and Rita el-Khoury regarding reproduction of material, but was unfortunately unsuccessful. The authors are encouraged to contact ACMI or Daniella Trimboli should they have any questions or concerns.
For my brothers Matthew, Domenic and Tony
for always standing behind me when I need to step forward
CONTENTS
List of Figures
Foreword by Sandra Ponzanesi
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Multiculturalism as a Crisis of Contradiction
Part One Convergences
Chapter OneDifference Returns to the Everyday: Multiculturalism, the Arts and ‘Race’
Chapter TwoDigital Storytelling and Diversity Work
Chapter ThreeMeeting in the Middle: A Theoretical Framework
Part Two Multicultural Bodies
Chapter FourEveryday Ethnicity in Digital Publics
Chapter FiveHarmonising Diverse Voices: Ethnic Performativity in Collaborative Digital Storytelling
Chapter SixIn Pursuit of the Promise
Chapter SevenThe Heart of the Matter
Chapter EightSlipping Up: Performative Glitches
Part Three Future Digital Multiculturalisms
Chapter NineDiasporic Disturbances: Alternative Digital Storytelling Techniques
Chapter TenThe Cosmos in the Everyday
Chapter ElevenDigital Cosmopolitanisms, Diasporic Intimacies
Conclusion: Remediating Multiculturalism
References
Index
4.1Screenshots from Fatma Coskun’s digital story New Life, New Country (2007)
4.2Screenshots from Fatma Coskun’s digital story New Life, New Country (2007)
4.3Screenshots from Sam Haddad’s digital story Loving Lebanon and Australia (2007), courtesy of the author
4.4Screenshot from Sam Haddad’s digital story Loving Lebanon and Australia (2007), courtesy of the author
6.1Screenshots from Rita el-Khoury’s digital story Where Do I Belong? (2007)
8.1Screenshots from Jimmy Domain’s digital story Ithal Damat = Imported Groom (2007), courtesy of the author
8.2Screenshots from Sam Haddad’s digital story Loving Lebanon and Australia (2007), courtesy of the author
9.1Screenshot from Carla Pascoe’s digital story The Spaces In Between (2007), courtesy of the author
9.2Screenshots from Adam Nudelman’s digital story The Shoemaker (2007), courtesy of the author
9.3Adam Nudelman’s Mania’s Shoes (2002) and Diaspora (2002), courtesy of Adam Nudelman
10.1Screenshots from Newman Film Group’s The Chronicles of Liam’s Hair (2010), courtesy of the authors
11.1Screenshots from Curious Works’ short film Khaled vs. Khaled (2014), courtesy of the author
C.1Portrait of Sam Haddad
Sandra Ponzanesi
To talk about multiculturalism today seems not only obsolete but also irrelevant. Yet nothing could be more untrue and problematic. Despite the decline in the popularity of the term and the somewhat shared feeling that multiculturalism has failed or is inadequate, multicultural coexistence and conviviality is more a reality now than ever before.
The necessity of continuing to address contemporary migrant flows, with the unresolved tensions about increasing diversity and intercultural conflicts, only testifies to the need to revisit multiculturalism not as a top-down policy instrument but as a part of everyday reality that is not going to wane any time soon. Doing multiculturalism as a form of participatory culture, where different voices and creative representations