Ivan Sigal

The Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP) is a research centre based in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University.

Developing initiatives to reclaim human agency in information and communications practices Advisor and executive of organizations and initiatives focused on media and journalism, civics, information, technology, human rights, and the arts Interim director, Free Our Feeds, an initiative to create an ecosystem of interconnected apps and companies on the basis of AT Protocol, which underpins Bluesky Founding executive director of Global Voices, for 16 years leading a pioneering community journalism, internet research, language equity, digital inclusion and rights organization Designed, funded and managed hundreds of initiatives, projects and programs, supporting staffs of over 300 at a time, and building collaborative communities of thousands of people Expert on issues of information integrity, trust, civics, media, internet and society, digital rights, authoritarian use of technology, information ecologies, networked publics, and AI practices and ethics, including testimony before U.S. Congress and frequent public speaking, writing, and mentoring Chair and/or member of nonprofit boards, and fiscal agent, mentor, and strategic advisor and funder for dozens of initiatives and organizations Fellow at the Library of Congress, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and the United States Institute of Peace, working on internet and media, civics, conflict, networked publics, and archives

Recognized artist, photographer and writer, with long-term projects and initiatives focused on information and technology, conflict, urbanism and the politics of landscapes, and ecology, with work collected in the National Gallery of Art, a two-volume photography/text book, White Road, published by the renowned publisher Steidl, a solo mid-career exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, dozens of solo museum and gallery shows, publications in major national and international media, including Global Voices, The New York Times, CNN, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, and Places Journal, and frequent interviews, public presentations and talks. Executive Editor functions at Global Voices, including lead editor on stories, investigative research and other reporting projects.

Executive oversight and management of groundbreaking global internet advocacy and media nonprofit, with responsibility for strategic planning, organizational design, fundraising, representation and public speaking, project development, digital and human rights programming and advocacy, and research development. Global Voices is an award-winning multilingual platform for grassroots, people-centered journalism and advocacy that reflects and amplifies the perspectives of Global Majority communities. It focuses on building understanding across cultures and languages, online human rights, Indigenous and minority language activism, environmental reporting, and information ecosystem research. Highlights include: Growing the organization from a project at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society into two independent entities (a Dutch Stichting and a U.S. 501(c)(3)), with a diverse funding strategy and a healthy budget Design and leadership of a newsroom staffed by 20 editors, with hundreds of contributing writers per year, translated into dozens of languages, with a focus on civic activism, digital and human rights, governance, environmental reporting, citizen reporting on conflict and open source investigations Co-creation of innovative online human rights documentation platforms to track threats to citizens for their online expression, Threatened Voices, beginning in 2008, and the Unfreedom Monitor, which offers comprehensive research into authoritarian use of tech Support for dozens of internet-based media initiatives and projects, focused on under-represented communities, perspectives and languages, as an advisor, mentor, funder and fiscal sponsor Research and writing into information ecosystems analysis, including the design and launch of the Civic Media Observatory, a method for understanding the effects of narrative frames on civic information, on topics such as Chinese soft power, authoritarianism and technology, data governance, and elections

Board member of US 501(c)(3) sister organization to Global Voices, with executive authority to manage financials and operations.

Advancing corporate accountability for human rights in the digital age.

Chair of OSF advisory board, supporting strategic direction, navigation of changing information ecosystem, planning, and transition of programming to an arts and culture program.

Research and artistic production of work on transformation of analogue to digital archives, the growth and ethics of machine visioning, AI and ethics in images of violent conflict. Resulting works presented at MIT's Open Documentary Lab and exhibited at Public Trust (formerly Slought Gallery) in Philadelphia.

The Advisory Board formally expands the depth and breadth of Benetech’s knowledge on human rights issues ranging from protection of civil liberties to open source investigations.

Research on digital storytelling and networked publics, online communities, open source investigations, information integrity and civics. Founder of Network/Story working group.

Screen was a visual storytelling production collaborative that created and disseminated documentary-driven projects across media and art platforms. The work ranged from exhibitions and cultural events, to short films, video installations, and immersive transmedia narratives. Screen also supported a network of visual artists and documentarians working across platforms through Screen Labs educational project, running intensive in-person workshops and providing ongoing mentoring and production support for participants.

Logan Nonfiction Program, working on production of a nine-channel, multimedia installation and text about the Karachi Circular Railway, and accompanying essay for Places Journal. Work shown in a dozen festivals, as well as the Fogg Museum at Harvard University and the Image Centre in Toronto, CA.

Provided strategic and operational advice to Creative Times Reports, which published stories and perspectives of artists on the most challenging issues of our times from 2012-2016.

Advised Ashoka media fellows for their Globalizer initiative.

Long-term relationship, with multiple part-time and full-time roles, working in 25 countries in Asia and the former Soviet Union. Select highlights include: Designed and managed projects for television and radio production, and internet-based media, worth upwards of $15 million per year. Subject focus includes journalism, media and conflict, humanitarian information response for natural disasters, environmental reporting, legal reporting, media education and training, and legal advocacy for digital and media rights. Set up new country programs in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and China. Lead writer for over $50,000,000 in grants, including governmental, international organization, foundation and private donors. Designed, funded, and oversaw an unprecedented program to build Afghanistan’s media sector from 2001-2007, including support for the legal and regulatory underpinnings of non-state media, the building of over 40 radio stations, and the launch, expansion, and spin-off of the national radio network Salaam Watandar. Executive production for Open Asia, a weekly current affairs television program broadcast in five languages across Central Asia, produced using an innovative collaboration model working with over 100 local TV stations and production crews, from 2000-2005. Designed, funded and managed humanitarian information programs in response to major natural disasters, including production of humanitarian radio programming in Sri Lanka after the 2004 South Asian earthquake and tsunami, and the set-up of a dozen humanitarian radio stations with accompanying programming in Pakistani Kashmir after the earthquake in 2005. Conducted research into development of media in countries in political transition, use of media in conflict and post-conflict environments, use of information and media for emergency humanitarian response, and topical journalism, including rule of law, human rights, and environmental issues.

Printing and exhibition of WHITE ROAD, a solo show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, November 3, 2012, January 27, 2013. 100 black and white photographs, with accompanying monograph, also titled White Road (Göttingen, Germany: Steidl Verlag, 2012). Resulting work collected by the Corcoran Gallery and the National Gallery of Art. Designed and taught a graduate seminar at the Corcoran School of Art + Design titled New Directions in Visual Storytelling, 2012, focused on the creation and meaning of stories and images in networked publics.

White Road (Göttingen, Germany: Steidl Verlag, 2012), Volume 1, 368 pp. Volume 2, 104 pp., is a two-volume book, one of images, the other of text, that together form an inquiry into 10 years of travel and living in Central Asia. Curator Russell Lord of the New Orleans Museum of Art says: “The publication’s two volumes, beautifully produced, echo each other in text and image. The pictures function like little parts of speech, a noun here, a verb there, that collectively form a poetic interrogation of life in this part of the world. Sigal’s non-fiction text is comprised of fragments, much like his photographs, that form a kind of call-and-response to the images. Coordinated by Paul Roth, this book and exhibition explore the role that photographic sequencing plays in the creation of narrative forms.”

Research, writing, policy, and advocacy work focusing on internet, media and conflict, with emphasis on the effects of increasing access to digital media technologies in countries with endemic conflict.

Visual research project to investigate and photograph changes in the physical spaces and urban design of new states created out of the Soviet Union, focusing on Moscow, Grozny, and the Caucasus. Publications in The New York Times, The MIT landscape journal Terra Nova, Archaeology. Illustration of the book Open Lands by Mark Taplin. Solo exhibit in Moscow, Carnegie Moscow, group show, Leica Gallery, New York.