Create, archive, share and enjoy digital albums and community archives
ORÍGENES is a free app for Android devices available on
Google Play. Users may create digital albums from new photos or existing images, to
which audio, text and genealogical information may be added. The albums (or
'narratives') may remain on the mobile or tablet on which they were created, or
be shared with specific people, and also exported as videos to YouTube.
Each
narrative can include as many frames as you want. Each individual frame may
include an image or photo, text and up to three layers of music or audio. All
elements in each frame are optional and may be edited at any time. For example,
you may pause an audio recording and then resume later, or load images from
your media library. Orígenes can also be used simply as a photo
journal, audio recorder, text and sound tool to comment on current news, or
even as a multimedia survey tool.
This tool is complemented by an optional uploading
platform, which can be accessed through a (password-protected) account that
may be created by users. The platform creates a repository by linking the app
with files (images, documents, audiovisual materials, etc.) that each community
will keep in a dedicated Google Drive folder where the digital community
archive will be organised. Storing images and other documents on Google
Drive has the advantage that data do not use up device memory.
Orígenes was
developed as part of a co-design process between indigenous peoples in Southern
Patagonia and a research team linking computer science, humanities and social
sciences. Rather than a simple photo album, users are able to create
interactive narratives which stimulate collective memory and knowledge sharing,
whether in the family, community or civil society organisations. Orígenes thus
supports initiatives by vulnerable groups concerned about their sense of
belonging, interruptions in intergenerational transmission processes and the
past-present relationships that activate memory.
Orígenes is
completely free, and has no ads or unnecessary privacy authorisations.
