Prix

The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica. 

Interactive Art + Anerkennung - Honorary Mention 2022

BLACKTRANSARCHIVE.COM / WE ARE HERE BECAUSE OF THOSE THAT ARE NOT

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
Traditionally Black Trans people have been misrepresented or absent within archives. BLACKTRANSARCHIVE.COM also known as WE ARE HERE BECAUSE OF THOSE THAT ARE NOT is an archive built and designed by and for Black Trans people. The archive's aim was to find a way to more accurately store Black Trans Existence, an archive that would erase us as it attempts to remember us. Culminating in a 3D animated game, the project preserves the stories of Black Trans people generating a space where our existence cannot be ignored. The piece, designed alongside artists Ebun Sodipo, Tobi Adebajo, Jacob V Joyce, and contributors, was assembled from the ground up by a team of Black Trans people using their own lived experiences as the bases for development. From these conversations, all characters, landscapes, and stories were fleshed into a breathing resemblance of themselves.  

Using the style of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” as well as influence from PS1 games, visitors are required to reveal their own identity in order to access the work. Depending on how you treat the archive, your journey through the work will mirror your treatment of it. 

“WE ARE HERE BECAUSE OF THOSE THAT ARE NOT” 
WELCOME TO THE  
PRO BLACK PRO TRANS ARCHIVE  
THIS INTERACTIVE ARCHIVE WAS MADE TO STORE AND CENTRE BLACK TRANS PEOPLE 
TO PRESERVE  
OUR EXPERIENCES 
OUR THOUGHTS 
OUR FEELINGS  
OUR LIVES  
TO REMEMBER US EVEN WHEN WE ARE AT RISK OF BEING ERASED  
YOUR OWN IDENTITY WILL DETERMINE HOW YOU CAN INTERACT WITH THE ARCHIVE  
AS WELL AS WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS  
BE HONEST WITH THE ARCHIVE  
TO USE THE ARCHIVE TAKE A SEAT IN THE CHAIR IN THE CENTRE OF THE ROOM. 
USE THE BUTTONS 1,2,3 TO NAVIGATE THE CHOICES WHEN THEY ARE PRESENTED. 
IN ENTERING THIS SPACE YOU ARE AGREEING TO CENTRE THE BLACK TRANS EXPERIENCE 
THIS IS A PRO BLACK PRO TRANS SPACE 
THIS IS NOT YOUR SPACE  
THIS IS OUR SPACE  
YOU MAY FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE  
IF YOU DO NOT SUPPORT BLACK TRANS PEOPLE 
THEN YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN 

THEN YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN

Links: https://blacktransarchive.com/
Directed by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley 
Programming, coding: Emily Martinez 
Contributors: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Marikiscrycrycry, Pacheanne, Tobi Adebajo, Ebun Sodipo, Bernice Mulenga, Ornella Ospino Blkmoodyboi, Jacob v Joyce, Shay P-W, Zamy, Camus-Doughen, Elijah Che, Travis Alabanza, Raks, Arthur Kibet, Vik, Aaron Marlowe, Christopher 
Special thanks to METRO Transcend 
Commissioned by Science Gallery
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (GB) was born in London in 1995 and lives in Berlin, Germany. They work predominantly in animation, sound, performance, and Video Games to communicate the experiences of being a Black Trans person. Their practice focuses on recording the lives of Black Trans people, intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell Trans stories, as Black queer and Trans people have been erased from the archives throughout history. Brathwaite-Shirley’s work has been shown in Arebyte, Quad, David Kordanski, Science Gallery, MU, Barbican, Tate, and Les Urbains as well as being part of the BBZ Alternative Graduate Show at the Copeland Gallery.