Digital Humanities Chair | Abdeslam Ziou Ziou: Culture & Technics Workshop | 10-12 November 2025

Digital Humanities Chair | Abdeslam Ziou Ziou: Culture & Technics Workshop | 10-12 November 2025

by Abdeslam Ziou Ziou

Humanities, Social Sciences & Thought Computing & Cybersecurity UXApplied computingUXADigital Humanities
🎙 Abdeslam Ziou Ziou 👥 1K 📅 June 22, 2026 ⏱ 81 min 👁 16 📄 expert opinion 🧭 2026-08-16
Available in: English (current) Français

Keywords

anthropologypsychiatryartpostcolonialmemory

Summary

In this workshop presentation, Abdeslam Ziou Ziou, a Moroccan anthropologist and artist, shares his research on the intersection of art, psychiatry, and postcolonial memory. He begins with a personal family story: his father, a psychiatrist, opened the doors of the Berrechid psychiatric hospital in Morocco to artists in 1981, leading to a 10-day cultural intervention. This event, set against the backdrop of Morocco’s ‘years of lead,’ sparked Ziou Ziou’s investigation into alternative approaches to psychiatry. He traces a global network of similar experiments, including the institutional psychotherapy movement in France, the anti-psychiatry movement in Italy, and connections to Frantz Fanon’s work in Algeria. He highlights the role of figures like Jean Wilto, a Martinican psychiatrist who brought these ideas to Morocco, and the influence of Senegalese practices. Ziou Ziou emphasizes the concept of ‘unforgetting’ from Thai historian Thongchai Winichakul, which describes a condition of memory in authoritarian post-independence societies where one cannot forget but also cannot remember. He proposes artistic practice and the concept of ‘socializar’ archives from Red Conceptualismos as ways to address this. The talk concludes with a call to listen to silence and to use art to give meaning to residual stories.

195 words

Critical Evaluation

Value of the Information & Strength of the Argument

The presentation offers valuable insights into the intersection of art, psychiatry, and postcolonial history, drawing on personal experience and a wide range of historical examples. The argumentation is coherent and passionate, but it is largely anecdotal and lacks systematic evidence. The speaker’s position as an insider provides unique perspectives, but the lack of formal citations weakens the scientific rigor. The discussion of ‘unforgetting’ and the role of silence in memory is thought-provoking and adds theoretical depth.

Scientific Rigor, Source Quality, Title Accuracy

The presentation demonstrates a good level of scientific rigor in terms of historical accuracy and contextualization, but it relies on personal narratives and mentions of key figures without formal citations. The title accurately reflects the content, which is a workshop presentation on culture and technics. The speaker does not provide a list of sources, but the description includes links to the Centre for Humanities Research and the Iyatsiba Lab, which may contain relevant resources. The lack of explicit citations is a limitation for verification.

175 words

Title / Content Match

The title accurately reflects the content: a workshop presentation by Abdeslam Ziou Ziou on culture and technics, focusing on the intersection of art, psychiatry, and postcolonial memory.

Quality & Reliability

7/10

The speaker is a trained anthropologist and practitioner, presenting a well-documented personal and historical account. The content is grounded in specific events and figures, but lacks formal citations or peer-reviewed references. The presentation is subjective and exploratory, typical of an expert opinion.

Key Moments

Markers derived by PSI from the transcript: the creator did not define chapters.

Cited Sources

  • Centre for Humanities Research, UWC — The host institution for the workshop.
  • Iyatsiba Lab — The venue for the workshop, mentioned in the description.

Concurring Sources

  • Centre for Humanities Research, UWC — The host institution, which aligns with the workshop's themes.

Contribution & Novelties

The presentation offers a unique personal and historical perspective on the intersection of art, psychiatry, and postcolonial memory, particularly in the Moroccan context. It highlights the importance of ‘unforgetting’ and the role of silence in memory, and proposes artistic practice as a method to engage with archives. The concept of ‘socializar’ archives from Red Conceptualismos is introduced as a practical approach.

Pour aller plus loin :

  • Institutional psychotherapy — A movement that influenced the Moroccan experiment.
  • Frantz Fanon — His work in Algeria is directly relevant to the discussion of colonial psychiatry.
  • Red Conceptualismos — The network mentioned for its approach to archives.
  • Thongchai Winichakul — The historian who developed the concept of ‘unforgetting’.

114 words

Radar Profile

The radar profile shows a balanced distribution across all dimensions, with slightly higher scores in information quantity and quality, reflecting the rich historical and personal content. The technical level is moderate, indicating accessibility to a general audience, while reliability is good but not exceptional due to the lack of formal citations.

Reliability 7/10