The Past in Motion: A Workshop on Cultural Remix and Digital Imagination
From 9 to 12 September 2026, the Digital Al-Andalus project hosted The Past in Motion: A Workshop on Cultural Remix and Digital Imagination in Oxford. The three-day workshop brought together interdisciplinary scholars from around the world to explore how the past is reimagined, reworked and set in motion through cultural and digital practices.
The workshop was designed as a slow, collaborative space for thinking together. Participants reflected on specific case studies and examined how each sits between preserving history and inventing it. A central thread was the idea of tradition not as something fixed, but as a way in which the past moves.
Sessions addressed the fear of the eternal return, tradition and myth, slow academia, as well as decolonial approaches and methodological reflections. There was also time for one-on-one conversations, walks and rest. The programme included a collective zine-making session, where participants turned their ideas into print.
The result was an environment in which ideas, stories and reflections could expand, collide and grow. We are grateful to all the participants for their generosity and energy, and we look forward to sharing more of what emerged from these days soon.
