VIEW Journal for European Television History and Culture Vol. 4 Issue 08

*** Extended deadline: February 10, 2015 ***

In 1927, when Esfir Schub released her commissioned film The fall of the Romanov Dynasty to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, she hardly knew that her extensive use of film footage and newsreels of the event would mark the invention of a new ‘genre’: the archive based production or compilation genre. Television has adopted this genre, but audiovisual archives have fuelled a wide array of programmes and genres beyond compilation productions.

Government, business, broadcast and film archives as well as amateur collections and home videos are commonly used to spark memories and re-enact events from the past in various contexts. They are made widely accessible and re-used in traditional broadcast productions or given a second life in digital environments through online circulation.

This issue of VIEW invites scholars, archivists, producers and other practitioners to consider, highlight and elaborate on the use and re-use of moving image archives in media productions (for cinema, television, web, etc.). Contributions are welcome in the form of (short) articles or video essays.

Proposals are invited to explore (but not limited to) the following topics and questions:

• Has the digital environment created a paradigm shift in the use of audiovisual archival materials?
• The authenticity of audiovisual archives in the digital environment;
• In what ways can audiovisual archives transform our relationship to the past? What is the role of archives in helping us reconnect with or understand the past? How do national/organisational archive policies impact or limit the histories that are informed by these archives?
• The audio-visual archive as proof, testimony or document of reality, as shared heritage or collective memory;
• Case studies using moving images as historical sources;
• The use of archives in creative productions;
• Ahistoricism in the use of audiovisual archival materials;
• Found footage in moving image productions;
• Compilation programmes studied through issues of representation, distribution, production, reception, etc;
• Various formats and subgenres of compilation programmes: biographies, historical productions, art forms, etc;
• Comparative studies of the compilation genre;
• The search for identity in audiovisual archive collections;
• The use of national audiovisual collections in a European or international context.

Practical

• Contributions are encouraged from authors with different kinds of expertise and interests in television and media history.
• Paper proposals (max. 500 words) are due on January 31st, 2015. Extended deadline: February 10, 2015
• Submissions should be sent to the managing editor of the journal, Dana Mustata (journal@euscreen.eu). A notice of acceptance will be sent to authors in the 3rd week of February
• Articles (2 – 4,000 words) will be due on May 15th 2015.
• For further information or questions about the issue, please contact the co-editors: Mette Charis Buchman (mch@dr.dk) and Claude Mussou (cmussou@ina.fr)

See www.viewjournal.eu for the current and back issues. VIEW is proud to be an open access journal. All articles are made findable through the DOAJ and EBSCO databases.

Photo credits: Felix Janssens CC BY-SA

In March, we published the call for papers for the sixth issue of our open access journal VIEW, which explores Europe’s television history and culture. At the end of December, this latest issue found its way online and it is now available in its entirety at http://journal.euscreen.eu. All articles can be read on screen, where source materials can be found embedded in the article text, or saved as a PDF for reading offline.

The sixth issue is co-edited by Gabriele Balbi, Assistant Professor in Media Studies at the Università della Svizzera italiana, and Massimo Scaglioni, Assistant Professor of Media History at the Catholic University of Milan.

While savouring your favourite Christmas cake,

we of course invite you to travel back in time and discover amazing stories on euscreen.eu.

But more importantly, our wishes to you…

May this time of year be like a breath of fresh air to you and your loved ones.

May it bring peace and joy to your homes.

May it fill you with energy and passion for the coming year.

From all at EUscreenXL

Photo credits: Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid CC-BY

Television has, throughout its existence, been regarded as a window to the world as well as a reflection of national and regional identities and cultures. The art of film has left us with a wealth of works which contribute to our visual world heritage. Television and film archives provide rich collections of images, sounds, and artefacts related to television broadcasts, film screenings, and production practices of both. As with so many archival collections, archive items not digitally born are being digitized, and increasingly collections are made accessible through the internet, providing worldwide access to television’s and film’s history.
Researchers working with online (audiovisual) archives find a wealth of online digital materials. However, to understand such sources, researchers largely depend on metadata, usually provided by the content provider (archives, broadcasters), often in an incomplete and inconsistent manner. At the same time, separated from their original context within a programme, film, or practice, archival material becomes detached from its original meaning creating environment, and may be taken up in a new setting by the researcher, giving it a novel, or additional, meaning. Thus, the use and re-use of archival material by researchers provides opportunities for confirmation as well as resistance to the original, to its context, and its meaning. Re-contextualization opens spaces for reinterpretation, for renewed understanding, and for alternative readings.

A panel on Visual Culture working group is proposed here to create a stage for the discussion of the use of online audiovisual archives in research. It may include but is not limited to:

• theories of the digital archive:
• on forming collections
• the role of metadata for research
• researchers as metadata creators
• ethical issues of metadata creation and publication
• sustainability of the online archive
• collaboration between public and private bodies
• the need for interdisciplinary work
• ontology and epistemology of the digital
• ethics of digital research
• methods and tools for searching, researching, and analysing digital sources:
• epistemologies of research tools
• various uses of tools (black box vs critical)
• challenges of access to online audiovisual archives or archival material
• research practices:
• use of online audiovisual archives as sources of primary material
• challenges of using and re-using digital audiovisual sources (remix, mash-ups)
• publications: academic videos / online publications
• research projects
• digital audiovidual collections and their management and maintenance

Audiovisual history online
On the use of online audiovisual archives in scholarship
Call for proposals
IAMCR 2015 – panel Visual Culture working group

IAMCR

The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) is a worldwide professional organisation in the field of media and communication research. Its members promote global inclusiveness and excellence within the best traditions of critical scholarship in the field.
In line with the CfP of IAMCR’s Visual Culture working group, only abstracts in English will be accepted. However, presentations and sessions in English, French or Spanish will be facilitated.

Proposal submission

Proposals for this panel of up to 200 words are welcome and can be submitted to w.sanders@uu.nl. The deadline for submission is Friday 16 January 2015.

Queries about this call for proposals can be addressed to:
Willemien Sanders, PhD, Utrecht University, w.sanders@uu.nl
Berber Hagedoorn, MA, Utrecht University, b.hagedoorn@uu.nl
Liliana Melgar E., MA, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, lilimelgar@gmail.com

Relevant websites:
www.iamcr.org
http://iamcr.org/s-wg/working-group/visual-culture
http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca

With the aim to investigate remix practices within the EUscreenXL project Aalto University partners have been producing a series of videos together with immigrants living in Helsinki. The goal is to find meaningful uses of online video and to investigate the right way for cultural diasporas to use appropriate technology.

These videos were created in collaboration with a Bulgarian video artist and community worker: Borislav Borisov. One is “The day I won” and the other is “Á la minute with cheff Kolio”.

Participants in the project came up with their stories, chose how to shoot them and made the edition. Audiovisual archive material was used as source of inspiration and as content material. TVR (Romanian Television) has kindly given us permission to pursue this work. These two videos can also be seen in YouTube, through TVR’s channel.

Online archives are underused considering their potential and the magnificent collection that they hold. This proposal makes emphasis in staging encounters with communities of people from different cultural backgrounds to better understand their possible involvement in enriching the archives, specifically by remixing content. People with different cultural background in their host countries could be inspired and eager to create stories with the archives from their country of origin and this interaction could inform the development of online tools. Participatory design explorations such as a community video project with Bulgarian immigrants, is one of the ongoing research activities. The reasons for choosing people with different cultural background are: a) the availability of the audiovisual material without geographical limitations, b) immigrants’ interpretation of their culture once living abroad could be a meaningful addition to the archive, c) multicultural and transcultural studies are specially relevant in relation to the construction of an European archive.

The creation of these series of videos is part of an on going research that will inform the publishing tool that will be built as part of EUscreenXL. After making these videos together with immigrants, we could better identify the functionalities and building blocks that the tool needs. It is part of our plan to publish a detailed documentation of the process that will give an account of what needs to be in place for having the possibility to reuse EUscreen AV materials. In addition, the research into other strategies for the re use of archives materials is part of the future endeavors of Arki research group, in Media Lab, Aalto University.

In the coming months we will keep you informed about further developments of our activities.

Media & Learning provides a platform to those responsible for creating, promoting and using media in the classroom, on and off campus as well as in training and lifelong learning centres.

 

Headlined ‘From passive to active use of media in teaching and learning’, the aim 2014 conference – aptly hosted by the Flemish Ministry of Education in Brussels – was to promote the sharing of best-practice, exchange of know-how and hands-on amongst practitioners. With its clear call for action, it also gave policy-makers and decision-makers the opportunity to discuss how to develop digital and media literacy in the broader context of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and the value and impact of such skills in relation to the European work-force.

The conference programme covered a wide variety of themes grouped around the topic of media education and literacy. 300 participants from 44 countries learned about the value of using video and new media in education and were able to dip into master classes on programming, data mining, creating media productions and educational games.

As a freely accessible multilingual media resource, the EUscreen project effectively complemented the manifold European projects engaged in media and ICT-supported learning introduced over the two days.

In the year that commemorates the centenary of the First World War, media-supported remembrance education represented a special conference highlight with showcases from Europeana, BBC , INA, the VIAA platform  and the IWU Institut Film und Bild.

 

All was wrapped up very glamourously with the MEDEA Awards ceremony, rewarding eight finalists for excellence in the production and pedagogical design of media-rich learning resources.

 

All in all a lot of food for media-related thought to take away and act on …

At the EUscreenXLconference in Rome, between inspiring talks, innovative projects and some sparks of Dolce Vita in Villa Borghese, people also participated in a workshop on Contextualization, which focused specifically on the question how AV contextualization practices can benefit best from the affordances of online publication. AV contextualization practices are a key part of the EUscreenXL project, reflected, amongst others, in an open access multi-media journal VIEW: Journal of European Television History and Culture and the EUscreen virtual exhibitions. Although several tools are currently being developed to explore and analyse digital audio-visual sources (AV), this workshop mainly focused on the next step: how to contextualize and re-use audio-visual materials online.

This activity is part of our endeavours to build a ‘contextualization community’, in the sense of a community of content providers, creators, archivists, scholars, researchers, students and the general audience, who would work and explore the audio-visual material offered on euscreen.eu. Our Core Collection will consist of ca. 60.000 historical items gathered from the audio-visual cultural heritage of 22 European countries. The purposes of the ‘contextualization community’ that we aim to achieve are to enrich and curate such content, as well as to experiment with other creative forms of online multimedia publication.

To this regard, during the workshop in Rome, possible scenarios and prototypes of contextualization strategies were introduced by the workgroup leaders, Berber Hagedoorn (Utrecht University / Luxembourg University), Willemien Sanders (Utrecht University), Mariana Salgado (Aalto University) and Daniel Ockeloen (Noterik BV). Participants then tested and challenged these models stimulating a critical discussion regarding possible (hybrid) models of online publication with AV content. In particular, participants were asked to reflect on meaningful forms of use of publication, drawing upon examples from their own practice. The task was to exchange experiences in contextualization practices and to choose one that better represents what they would like to see realized on the EUscreen portal.

As a result, participants proposed various strategic combinations of publication models and dissemination purposes, which could actively involve users, as well as encourage them to widely spread and share the audio-visual contents. Indeed, they explored innovative ways of doing research through audio-visual materials, and they suggested engaging dissemination strategies which could be appealing not only for academics but also for broader audiences. Moreover, from the workgroup discussion it emerged a hierarchy for the possible functionalities of the publication builder. In particular, three building blocks were seen as necessary elements: 1) translations and quick subtitling that contextualize and explain the AV content in different languages; 2) video collections represented in video posters, as a creative combination of video and/or sound; and 3) extra short videos, which are videos of max. 15 seconds used to illustrate a specific point. This last building block would be handy especially for dissemination purposes, since it could spread content via social media and mobile phone applications in order to engage the users on cross-media platforms. There was a general consensus on how contextualization processes are interweaved with strategic dissemination purposes. In addition to these building blocks, participants emphasized the interest in certain recurrent topics that could engage general audience, such as food and fun clips.

Thanks to the contribution of every participant we gained useful insights and ideas regarding future developments of our ‘contextualization community’ as well as the EUscreenXL publication builder, our next step. Certainly, we are always eager to receive further feedback and suggestions from all of you! If you are keen on exploring innovative forms of multimedia publication, or if you are interested in enriching and curate AV historical contents, we would love to consult you and your contribution will be highly appreciated.

Share your ideas for future developments!

Contact us:

Eggo Müller (e.mueller@uu.nl); Berber Hagedoorn (b.hagedoorn@uu.nl); Willemien Sanders (w.sanders@uu.nl); Mariana Salgado (mariana.salgado@aalto.fi); Daniel Ockeloen (daniel@noterik.nl)

The Balkans brim with history. The Balkan’s Memory project attempted, for the last three years, to reach out and bring tools to the region to preserve it. An ambitious goal, uniting film and television archives from across all different countries in the region.

In Sarajevo, the project celebrated its achievements with a final conference, at the majestuous Hotel Europe  – home to European diplomats and others with interests in the region. Squarely positioned next to the city’s Ottoman-style old town, it was the perfect location to talk about the future of the past.

Balkan’s Memory is a project led by the French Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (Ina), the Mediterranean Permanent Conference for the Audiovisual (COPEAM), the Croatian Audiovisual Centre and the National Film Archive of Albania (AQSHF). With support from the European Commission, it set up a series of conferences and symposia in Zagreb, Tirana, Belgrade, Podgorica and Skopje (the latter also home to this year’s FIAF conference). Together they explored the various skills an audiovisual archive needs to go well into the 21st Century.

What Archives Need

Both Sead Bajrić and Ella Pavlovic from Bosnian broadcaster BHRT stressed the importance or re-establishing a network and links that over the years had gotten lost. As ministers Denisa Sarajlić-Maglić, Deputy Minister of Civil Affairs, and Minister of Culture Ivica Sarić stressed, especially in a time where the budgets for culture areas low as they are, it remains important to research common activities in the region. Especially in the Balkans, which experienced events that didn’t contribute to the preservation of anything, it’s most important to look ahead and apply best practices for preserving cultural objects.