This event is part of the “Narratives From the Long Tail: Transforming Access to Audiovisual Archives” Event Series organised by the consortium of the Swiss National Science Foundation Sinergia Project, a week-long series of events taking place at EPFL, Switzerland from 25th – 29th of September, that focus on exploring the exciting intersection of machine learning, visual analytics, digital museology, and archival science. 

In the context of the transformation, accessibility and curation of datafied content require rethinking to unlock meaningfully the complexity and large volume of audiovisual collections. For instance, standard web interfaces often ignore the potential of exploration and features like visual, auditory, and haptic, which are not easily accessible with traditional metadata. Scoping out an upgrade for accessing audiovisual archives can be facilitated via innovative curatorial access and informatics models that can activate new modes of engagement, interaction, and meaning-making. While pushing the boundaries for accessibility, the new interfaces, experiences, and curatorial models also raise technological and conceptual questions about every corner of the archival practice, especially on the preservation end, in the age of data.

Addressing these challenges, this symposium is stimulated by a growing need for access models for audiovisual collections beyond traditional strategies and the need to reconceptualize curatorial and presentational frameworks and models. It aims to explore the intersection of cutting-edge computational methods and audiovisual archiving through three themed sessions, each designed to cover a specific and unique angle:

• A Blurry Boundary: From Archive to Data

• A New Way of Seeing: Analytics and Curation

• In Progress and Practice: An Institutional Zoom-in

Bring together more than 20 world-leading scholars in various fields (such as media and cultural studies, digital humanities, archival science, informatics and human-computer interaction), archivists and curators from heritage institutions, as well as domain experts and artists, this symposium will serve as a holistic venue to explore and critically reflect on the affordances and limitations of cutting-edge computational methods and tools for preserving, accessing and utilizing audiovisual materials and to push forward a digital and data-driven mindset for the future of audiovisual collections. It is chaired by Prof. Sarah Kenderdine, Professor of Digital Museology; Director of the EPFL Pavilions.

To access the full programme, including bios and abstract, or to register, click here: https://www.epfl.ch/labs/emplus/events/new-paradigms-audiovisual-2023/