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.