How do digital practices in curation and use of innovative digital platforms for engagement lead to new interpretations of institutional collections
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Sch of Arts and Cultures
Abstract
Proposed aims and methodologies follow a techno-anthropological approach that reflects on the materiality, mobility and socially performative nature of images (i.e. their production, circulation and consumption), and uses action research and ethnographic user experience research to evaluate how (multiple) meanings are generated when institutional collection are translated from the analogue to digital realm. This an encompassing framework that allows coexistence of other approaches and visual/digital research methodologies that can be incorporated as research develops and becomes more refined.
1. To document the different factors (e.g. technical, departmental, legal) that affect how historic institutional collections can enter the digital realm, including at the V&A, other institutions, and practice outside of museums.
2. To explore how (re)connecting institutional historic collections with their place of origin/production through networking content in the digital realm produces multivocal meanings of images
3. To analyse the effects of 'material flattening' and translations in image content (including colour, scale, cropping and surface texture) of digitised historic collections on the social performance and interpretation of images
4. To evaluate how storytelling and narratives are affected by using digitised photographs on an interface/platform by investigating the grouping, linking, sequencing and detachment of images within and outside of institutional contexts. (This last aim will be the main focus of the research and is likely to be expanded as initial research progresses.) A wide range of visual, material and digital research methods will be explored and refined for each of the research aims and objectives at different stages of the project. First a suitable method will be decided to finalise a sample of the Broomfield collection (a proposed 100 photographs) to use for the bulk of the research. The collection consists of an estimated 30,000 negatives and prints (too large as a whole for the project) and it has not yet been catalogued or digitised by the museum. Spreadsheet listings of the photographer's logbooks will be used to select material by date, location, and frequency (for example the company that commissioned the most jobs), initially with a suggested focus on mid-twentieth century British Industry. I have already been taking the opportunity of visiting a team of staff and interns who are currently rehousing the collection to conservation standards on a regular basis (until the end of June 2017) to better familiarise myself with the collection's visual content and material condition, and help finalise a suitable range of photographs by the end of the summer. I also hope to use interview and participant observation methods with wider V&A staff during this time to contribute to aim 1: documenting how historic photographs enter the digital realm at institutions. Once a sample size is selected the corresponding foci for empirical research will be refined for completion within the project timescale. For example, following the initial proposed techno-anthropological framework as a starting point, aim 2 will involve exploring research methods that address the circulation and consumption of digitally reproduced images at different sites related to the content of the chosen sample. Aim 3 will use research methods that address the material qualities of the chosen sample including traces of the photographer and edits to the photographic images. Research methods that address order and sequencing of images by different agencies, and subsequent narrative-making by differing audiences will be utilised to explore aim 4. Further, an action research approach will be used to incorporate multiple ethnographic techniques (e.g. material analysis, object histories, participant observation and photo elicitation), as applied to aims 2, 3 and 4 through the development of digital platforms to conduct research during my second year.
1. To document the different factors (e.g. technical, departmental, legal) that affect how historic institutional collections can enter the digital realm, including at the V&A, other institutions, and practice outside of museums.
2. To explore how (re)connecting institutional historic collections with their place of origin/production through networking content in the digital realm produces multivocal meanings of images
3. To analyse the effects of 'material flattening' and translations in image content (including colour, scale, cropping and surface texture) of digitised historic collections on the social performance and interpretation of images
4. To evaluate how storytelling and narratives are affected by using digitised photographs on an interface/platform by investigating the grouping, linking, sequencing and detachment of images within and outside of institutional contexts. (This last aim will be the main focus of the research and is likely to be expanded as initial research progresses.) A wide range of visual, material and digital research methods will be explored and refined for each of the research aims and objectives at different stages of the project. First a suitable method will be decided to finalise a sample of the Broomfield collection (a proposed 100 photographs) to use for the bulk of the research. The collection consists of an estimated 30,000 negatives and prints (too large as a whole for the project) and it has not yet been catalogued or digitised by the museum. Spreadsheet listings of the photographer's logbooks will be used to select material by date, location, and frequency (for example the company that commissioned the most jobs), initially with a suggested focus on mid-twentieth century British Industry. I have already been taking the opportunity of visiting a team of staff and interns who are currently rehousing the collection to conservation standards on a regular basis (until the end of June 2017) to better familiarise myself with the collection's visual content and material condition, and help finalise a suitable range of photographs by the end of the summer. I also hope to use interview and participant observation methods with wider V&A staff during this time to contribute to aim 1: documenting how historic photographs enter the digital realm at institutions. Once a sample size is selected the corresponding foci for empirical research will be refined for completion within the project timescale. For example, following the initial proposed techno-anthropological framework as a starting point, aim 2 will involve exploring research methods that address the circulation and consumption of digitally reproduced images at different sites related to the content of the chosen sample. Aim 3 will use research methods that address the material qualities of the chosen sample including traces of the photographer and edits to the photographic images. Research methods that address order and sequencing of images by different agencies, and subsequent narrative-making by differing audiences will be utilised to explore aim 4. Further, an action research approach will be used to incorporate multiple ethnographic techniques (e.g. material analysis, object histories, participant observation and photo elicitation), as applied to aims 2, 3 and 4 through the development of digital platforms to conduct research during my second year.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Areti Galani (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Katherine Clough (Student) |