Photographic History Research Centre (PHRC)

Autumn seminar series

General Research

Hannah Imlach’s Research Blog

Updating the Iris website.

The Iris website has been updated, and is now hosted by Loughborough University. It has been a long journey and the difference between what is required by Iris and an academic institution sometimes seem to far apart to ever reach resolve. However despite this the site is up and nearly finished.

www.irisphoto.org

Dissertation time…..

As part of the MA in Photographic History and Practice at DMU we are required to write a thesis, at present mine will be concerned with the Photographic postcards donated by the Suffrage Fellowship to the Museum of London in 1950 as part of a larger collection of Sufragette artefacts.

My interest is not only on the face of the postcard and its image, but has expanded to include the text on the reverse. A strange half-public, half-private form of discourse I believe that we can use these as significant sources of historical information that expand our knowledge of the Suffragette movement in Britain.

MMU Degree Show.

Visited the show at MMU this Saturday with friends from London College of Fashion. A good show, with interesting work in 3D and Libby Ralph’s work in the Interactive Arts show was very interesting. A lovely sunny day with friends, who could ask for more?

Call For Papers

(De)constructing the Archive in a Digital Age.

(De)constructing the Archive in a Digital Age.
November 24th,  2010, School of the Arts Loughborough University, UK.

Paper Submission Deadline; Friday 30th July 2010
A one-day debate on the possibilities of the archive.
This event aims to provide an environment for sharing information whilst stimulating debates about the role of the archive within art, culture and design.
Possible topics of enquiry may include but are not limited to;

• The discussion about how the archive should respond to the digital age continues. How does the physical archive change and adapt in the face of new technologies?
• When is the archive not an archive? What is the difference between the archive and the collection?
• How should we respond to the growing number of images available to us in the digital archive, as increasingly we are exposed to photographs for which there are no original viewing contexts available? What is the value of these decontextualised and dematerialised documents to the researcher as historical evidence?
• How is the institutional archive to respond to questions about the democratization of the archive, not only through the process of digitisation and online access but also the growing use of more interactive forms of viewing/sharing with web 2.0?

Paper presentations, abstracts of 200-300 words may be submitted for a 30-minute paper presentation.
Panel submissions, abstracts for a 90-minute colloquium, which is to consist of 5 participants (1 chair and 4 presenters; each presenter taking no more than 15 minutes) may be submitted. Abstract length should be 250-350 words.
Poster presentations, 200 word abstracts for a themed poster to be shown at the conference will be accepted.
Artworks, submissions for artworks related to the topics will be considered, please send a 200 word abstract. Include details of medium, size and installation requirements on a separate sheet.
Please send abstracts (clearly marked as to which category you are interested in) and a brief C.V. to;
iris@lboro.ac.uk
OR
Mort Marsh, IRIS.
Loughborough University
School of the Arts
Edward Barnsley Building
Epinal way
LE11 3TU.