Moving Images: Preservation, Curation, Exhibition
coördinators:
- Giovanna Fossati
- Floris Paalman
members:
- Bas Agterberg
- Martino Cipriani
- Annet Dekker
- Will DiGravio
- Giovanna Fossati
- Geli Mademli
- Mark Paul Meyer
- Maral Mohsenin
- Christian Olesen
- Asli Özgen-Havekotte
- Gülce Özkara
- Kate Saccone
- Wang-Yun Yen
Research programme
The research group brings together scholars and professionals concerned with the preservation, curation and exhibition of moving images and sound. Members study past, present and future processes, practices, platforms (on-site and on-line) and contexts (institutional and professional) for archival and new media, as well as the apparatus with which they are associated. The ‘moving images’ featured can be film or broadcasting materials, screen-based works or installations, and artistic, popular or utilitarian work, and are variously positioned as heritage objects, as the products of creative expression, or as commodities. Group members and affiliates approach their objects from different perspectives (focusing for instance on the institutional dimensions, or alternatively, historiographic implications of a specific set of practices) and co-operate with researchers in related fields (e.g. heritage and identity studies, archival studies, digital humanities, the study of the creative industries). They share the common goal of bridging theory and practice: research concerns concrete cultural and economic praxes, but is also geared towards informing those, both through scholarly insights and tools developed as part of public-private partnerships.
The projects the programme brings together can be clustered around two broad topics:
1) Preservation
Projects reflecting on and (re)defining the practices of preservation and restoration of, and access to, moving images and sound, in light of the profound technological and cultural changes brought about by the digital turn.
2) Exhibition and Curation
Projects focused on practices of on- and offline presentation of moving images and sound, and the curatorial, technical and economic issues they raise/choices they involve. Group members are interested in exhibition in a range of contexts (media, art or heritage museums, festivals and all manner of online platforms) and for a range of purposes (aesthetic, instructional, entertainment, to generate revenue, etc.).
Activities
A seminar once every 1 1/2 months, in which group members discuss ongoing projects, give peer feedback, and read new and classic texts relevant to their work.
Individual and group projects by members (collaborative research projects focused on written output and/or the development of research or presentation tools, the writing of individual peer-reviewed articles, individual and group conference contributions, editorial board memberships, etc.).
Societal relevance
The research conducted within this group not only deals with concrete cultural and economic praxes, but directly feeds into those. The processes, practices, platforms and contexts studied are currently in a process of rapid transformation, affected as they are by fast-paced developments in the production, distribution, exhibition and preservation of moving images and sound. Group members seek to both analyse this transformation and contribute to the development of tools that can help stakeholders (those involved in day-to-day practices of preservation, curation and exhibition, represented also in the research group) deal with the challenges they are confronted with.