Toward a Web Decolonial Archive: The Case of the Acervo de Literatura Digital Mato-Grossense, Brazil

Abstract

Latin America has witnessed various initiatives over the past decade aimed at identifying, archiving, and curating digital literature, particularly on a continental or national scale. However, there remains a notable scarcity of archives focusing on a more localized (province/state/city) level within the continent. This deficiency hampers our comprehension of the dynamics within digital literature communities formed by creators and readers who share immediate geographical references, as well as closer personal and institutional connections. The primary aim of this article is to undertake a comprehensive analysis and description of a digital literature archive that fills this gap: the Acervo de Literatura Digital Mato-Grossense , showcasing digital literature produced by artists residing in or hailing from the state of Mato Grosso (Brazil). In contributing to similar endeavors, we document and expound upon the key decisions we made, considering the distinct characteristics of digital literature in a region distant from Brazil’s major urban centers (itself a peripheral country within the technocapitalist world system). We elucidate the decolonial concept of digital literature adopted, the archival and curatorial strategies tailored to accommodate these works’ realities, the selection of the open-source hypertextual collection management platform Tainacan to structure our archive, and the exploratory methods employed to identify and select works for archiving. Subsequently, we provide an overview of the materials archived to date and outline the forthcoming phases of the project.

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