https://padlet.com/daniel2603/intervention-001-collect-7whqd4rjjsgaygfu

My research network begins with Venezuelan artists, producers, DJs, cultural organisers and listeners who are connected to musical memory, migration, remix culture and contemporary reinterpretation. Because my project asks how Venezuelan musical heritage can be preserved, transformed and transmitted through a living archive, I need a network that includes both people who create music and people who carry music as collective memory.

My first network is personal and community-based. I have friends and contacts within the Venezuelan artistic and musical circuit, including artists who began shaping Caracas’ contemporary music scene in the 2000s. This generation is important because it witnessed a shift in how Venezuelan music could sound: electronic production, indie scenes, nostalgia, remix practices and urban reinterpretations started to create new ways of expressing Venezuelan identity beyond traditional forms. These contacts are not only potential participants; they are cultural witnesses whose practices can help me understand how Venezuelan music has already been transformed across time, migration and reinterpretation.

As evidence that this network is already active, I have spoken with Alberto Stangarone, a Venezuelan artist, musician, producer and creative director whose practice is relevant to my research. Stangarone was part of Todosantos, a Caracas-based project whose album Aeropuerto became significant for a generation of listeners. The album used nostalgic reinterpretations and contemporary production to build a new musical landscape for Caracas, opening possibilities for later artists. His project, Sunsplash, is also important because it works with remix culture: original tracks were often expanded through remixes by other artists, a practice common in electronic music that allows one musical idea to grow into multiple interpretations.

Speaking with Stangarone helps me test one of the central tensions of my project: whether Venezuelan musical heritage can be preserved not by freezing it, but by allowing it to be remixed, reinterpreted and transformed into future cultural memory.

My first intervention, Archive 001, will activate this network through a chain invitation method. I will invite Venezuelan artists and migrants to contribute one song to a Padlet-based archive, explain the memory or meaning behind it, and then invite another Venezuelan to participate. This allows the archive to grow through trust, relationships and collective memory rather than through an anonymous open call.

My second network will include Venezuelan artists working with remix, reinterpretation and diasporic sound. My third network will include podcast guests, music journalists, playlist curators, cultural researchers and Venezuelan listeners who can help me understand how music circulates, disappears and reappears across migration.

I bring to this network my own position as a Venezuelan abroad, my practice as a music producer, and my interest in collective intelligence and cultural imagination. What I offer participants is a space where their musical memories and references can become part of a living archive. The driving forces will be pride, visibility, reconnection and artistic curiosity. The restraining forces may be distrust, lack of time, copyright concerns, political fear or digital fatigue. My role is to make participation simple, safe and meaningful enough for people to continue the chain.

WHAT

How can Venezuelan musical heritage be preserved despite migration for future generations’ cultural identity?

WHY

As a Venezuelan abroad, I understand Venezuelan identity as something carried through songs, memories, news, images, jokes and cultural symbols. These fragments connect us to where we come from, but they can also keep us attached to the past.

Venezuela is experiencing a historical paradox: the past has become emotionally dominant, while the future feels uncertain or threatening. This affects Venezuelans inside and outside the country. Migration has not only displaced people; it has also displaced memories, relationships, expectations and cultural practices (Granado, 2026).

This matters because Venezuelan migration is one of the largest displacement movements in the world, with nearly 7.9 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants living outside the country (UNHCR, 2026).

Contemporary Venezuelan music is already being deeply shaped by migration. Many Venezuelan artists now create from outside the country, and some of the most internationally visible Venezuelan musicians have emerged from the diaspora (Remezcla, 2026). Migration is therefore not only a context around Venezuelan music; it has become one of the forces transforming how Venezuelan music is made, heard and recognised.

In this context, preserving Venezuelan musical heritage cannot mean only looking back at traditional forms. Joropo, for example, has been recognised by UNESCO as part of Venezuela’s intangible cultural heritage, combining music, poetry, singing, dancing and collective celebration (UNESCO, 2025). However, preservation also requires paying attention to the present: to the songs, remixes, samples, reinterpretations and experimental practices through which Venezuelans are already processing displacement, nostalgia, adaptation and belonging.

This research proposes a living musical archive as a point of encounter and recognition for Venezuelans. It asks how the music marked by this migratory moment can be collected, understood and transmitted to those who come after us.

HOW

This research proposes a community-based musical archive where Venezuelans can contribute memories, references and reinterpretations.

I will create a three-stage archive methodology.

Archive 001: Heritage, Nostalgia and Symbol will be a Padlet-based community collection of musical memories from Venezuelan migrants and artists abroad. It will use a chain invitation method: each participant will contribute one song connected to Venezuela, share the memory or meaning behind it, and invite another Venezuelan to do the same. This will allow the archive to grow through trust, personal networks and collective memory.

Archive 002: Remix and Reinterpretation will collect remixes and contemporary reinterpretations of Venezuelan music, exploring how heritage is already being transformed.

Archive 003: Future Production will invite new musical sketches or productions inspired by the archive, testing whether it can become a creative resource for future Venezuelan sound.

The project will be developed ethically through consent, participant choice, copyright awareness, stakeholder feedback and reflective documentation.

WHAT IF

If successful, this project will create a living musical archive that helps Venezuelans abroad understand their heritage not as something frozen in the past, but as something that can be remixed, transformed and projected into the future. It could support pride, visibility, cultural transmission and new creative production.

Professionally, this project connects to my practice as a music producer, artist and cultural organiser. I am interested in music as a tool for collective intelligence, collaboration and cultural imagination.

Reference list

Granado, B. (2026) ‘Venezuelan Nostalgia Is a Trap That Makes It Difficult to Imagine the Future’, Caracas Chronicles, 15 March. Available at: https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2026/03/15/venezuelan-nostalgia-is-a-trap-that-makes-it-difficult-to-imagine-the-future/

Remezcla (2026) ‘8 Voices Shaping Venezuela’s Music’, Remezcla, 23 February. Available at: https://remezcla.com/lists/music/8-voices-shaping-venezuelas-music/

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (2025) ‘Joropo in Venezuela’. Available at: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/joropo-in-venezuela-02092

UNHCR (2026) ‘Venezuela Situation’. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/emergencies/venezuela-situation

By: Daniel Vargas