Visual Peacetech
Exploring digital visual images as security-building tools to support multi-track holistic peace processes.
Lisa Glybchenko’s Ph.D. Research “Visual Peacetech: Digital Visual Images as Security-Building Tools” at Tampere University, Finland, explores digital visuality of security and peace, virtual reality holistic design for peace, and the potential of augmented reality technologies to aid in implementing peaceful futures. Being the first-ever thorough academic investigation of peace technologies, the project theorizes “visual peacetech” and develops original artistic-technological tools, which practitioner peacebuilders can start using already now.
“What could happen if developments in digital technology, visual art-making processes and security practices were by design directed at achieving sustaining peace? Could we, then, rightfully speak of ‘peace technology’ - or even ‘visual peace technology’ - as enhancing experiences of security for people in conflict-affected communities? What would the role of digital visual images be in such peace work?
These questions, in their first and most basic form, appeared in my head as, partly due to the pandemic, I found myself increasingly immersed in digital technologies in general and, as my interests go, digital visual art-making. The questions eventually turned into a research plan, which is now the basis of my PhD project summarized here...”
Yelyzaveta (Lisa) Glybchenko
Read more about the project, its components, findings, outreach activities on the project's website HERE.
Funding
Funding source
This project has received the following funding:
- 2-year research funding from Kone Foundation, Finland, (2023-2025) – awarded to Lisa Glybchenko.
- 2-year research funding from Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Germany (2021-2023) – awarded to Rune Saugmann Andersen, Post-Visual Security Project.
People
Partners
The partner of this research is Color Up Peace, a peacebuilding startup that works at the intersection of art-making and technology to leverage artistic innovation as a peacebuilding tool. Color Up Peace was founded in 2016 by Lisa Glybchenko as her response to external aggression against her home country Ukraine. From a student initiative at the American University in Bulgaria, Color Up Peace has grown to have projects/programs in Ukraine, Israel-Palestine and Kenya, as well as a special support program for Ukrainians who relocated to Finland during Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The idea behind Color Up Peace is to encourage participants to think about peace and what peace means to them; to create opportunities for sharing visions of peace through artistic and digital means; to foster dialogue through collective art-making; to challenge the abundance of violence-centered visuals in the media and popular culture; and to employ digital visual art-making as a peacebuilding tool. Color Up Peace invites people from all over the world to submit photos of what peace is to them which Lisa turns into coloring pages (by drawing each one by hand digitally) for others to engage with and transform the original vision of peace. This digital-artistic transformation is at the core of such Color Up Peace activities as international trainings, context-specific workshops, virtual exhibitions, 8 coloring books, and a newly developed virtual workshop series to support people affected by war – especially Ukrainians.