Museum Dialogues: Exhibiting, Collecting and Activating Photography
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sunderland
Department Name: Sch of Arts and Design
Abstract
Photography is everywhere, as visual communication, as a means of expression, as high and popular art, as documentation, and as social practice. But it is exactly this ubiquity and multifarious nature, its expanded field of operations and sheer volume of photographs that exist in physical and online worlds that make photography a challenging practice for 21st-century museums.
This 12-month research network seeks to cross the disciplinary boundaries of Art History, Visual Culture, Photography, Museum and Curating Studies and bridge theory and practice by bringing together academic scholars, museum workers, and artists from across the globe with a view to developing a deeper understanding of and share innovative solutions to the following questions and practical problems:
What is museum photography and its cultural value now that "we are all photographers"?
In an era of "massification" of images, how can museums collect analogue and born-digital photography strategically to create relevant and sustainable photographic collections for the future?
In what ways institutional practices--in terms of collecting, accessioning, documentation, preservation, and accessibility--need to be adapted or what new methods are required to accommodate different types of photographic images, including "networked images" and "computational photography", in museum collections?
What does an inclusive transnational history of photography look like?
How can photography's vernacular cultures may be collected and displayed in the physical and virtual museum?
How can photography be used as an accessible vehicle to consider wider social and political issues and processes?
What is the role of photography in the museum when online platforms and channels for the consumption of cultural production and collective social experience question the function and relevance of the traditional museum?
How can normative modes of curating the photographic image be adapted to accommodate digital and networked images?
The proposal for an online international network that crosses disciplinary and geographical boundaries specifically aims at addressing these issues by opening new channels of communication between academia, museums, and creative communities while providing equal, non-hierarchical opportunities for participation, knowledge and skills exchange, and collaboration, aiming to identify and co-create a best-practice framework. These dialogues will be initiated in the context of three online workshops with invited participants to enable scholars, cultural producers, artists, curators, and museum workers from a range of art and photography institutions of variable sizes and from across five continents to genuinely interact, exchange knowledge and share collecting and programming practices and concerns. The workshops will have different themes but will follow an iterative cycle with Workshop 1 being an agenda-setting event.
Workshop 1: Problems and Definitions (one-day online event, March 2024)
Workshop 2: Building Photography Collections for the Future (one-day online event, May 2024)
Workshop 3: Rethinking Programming: Interpretation, Experience, Inclusion, and Equity (one-day online event, July 2024)
Open-call international conference: Re-evaluating the Past, Capturing the Present, Anticipating the Future (three-day hybrid event, November 2024)
Findings and emerging themes from each workshop will inform the content and discussion of subsequent network activities, including the three-day international conference at the Northern Centre of Photography, University of Sunderland. The workings of the workshops and the conference will also be captured online through a blog, video murals of case studies, videos of the presentations, and transcripts of round table discussions, hosted on the website of the University of Sunderland, and will be critically analysed in a journal article penned by the PI.
This 12-month research network seeks to cross the disciplinary boundaries of Art History, Visual Culture, Photography, Museum and Curating Studies and bridge theory and practice by bringing together academic scholars, museum workers, and artists from across the globe with a view to developing a deeper understanding of and share innovative solutions to the following questions and practical problems:
What is museum photography and its cultural value now that "we are all photographers"?
In an era of "massification" of images, how can museums collect analogue and born-digital photography strategically to create relevant and sustainable photographic collections for the future?
In what ways institutional practices--in terms of collecting, accessioning, documentation, preservation, and accessibility--need to be adapted or what new methods are required to accommodate different types of photographic images, including "networked images" and "computational photography", in museum collections?
What does an inclusive transnational history of photography look like?
How can photography's vernacular cultures may be collected and displayed in the physical and virtual museum?
How can photography be used as an accessible vehicle to consider wider social and political issues and processes?
What is the role of photography in the museum when online platforms and channels for the consumption of cultural production and collective social experience question the function and relevance of the traditional museum?
How can normative modes of curating the photographic image be adapted to accommodate digital and networked images?
The proposal for an online international network that crosses disciplinary and geographical boundaries specifically aims at addressing these issues by opening new channels of communication between academia, museums, and creative communities while providing equal, non-hierarchical opportunities for participation, knowledge and skills exchange, and collaboration, aiming to identify and co-create a best-practice framework. These dialogues will be initiated in the context of three online workshops with invited participants to enable scholars, cultural producers, artists, curators, and museum workers from a range of art and photography institutions of variable sizes and from across five continents to genuinely interact, exchange knowledge and share collecting and programming practices and concerns. The workshops will have different themes but will follow an iterative cycle with Workshop 1 being an agenda-setting event.
Workshop 1: Problems and Definitions (one-day online event, March 2024)
Workshop 2: Building Photography Collections for the Future (one-day online event, May 2024)
Workshop 3: Rethinking Programming: Interpretation, Experience, Inclusion, and Equity (one-day online event, July 2024)
Open-call international conference: Re-evaluating the Past, Capturing the Present, Anticipating the Future (three-day hybrid event, November 2024)
Findings and emerging themes from each workshop will inform the content and discussion of subsequent network activities, including the three-day international conference at the Northern Centre of Photography, University of Sunderland. The workings of the workshops and the conference will also be captured online through a blog, video murals of case studies, videos of the presentations, and transcripts of round table discussions, hosted on the website of the University of Sunderland, and will be critically analysed in a journal article penned by the PI.
