[H-verkko] CFP: The (Web)Sites of Memory: Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age

[agricola at utu.fi]

Agricolan artikkelipyyntöihin on lähetetty uusi ilmoitus:
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The (Web)Sites of Memory: Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age
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International workshop
THE (WEB)SITES OF MEMORY: CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Debrecen, May 28-29, 2015
 
Organized by:
Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä
Institute of Hungarian Literary and Cultural Studies, University of Debrecen
 
Societies of the digital age are facing a twofold process: on the one hand the
spread of digital technology has led to the fading of earlier traditions; on the
other hand (as a response to it) individual and collective remembering of the
past has started to play an increasingly important role in the public sphere.
Therefore, the term “memory boom” seems to be even more accurate than it
ever has been. The last few decades were witness to the appearance of many new
media, some of which may also be used for transferring traditional knowledge. In
addition to websites and online databases, the sharing practice of social media
may be regarded as its most powerful tool. Meanwhile, the shift from print to
digital texts also affected such media of cultural memory as history and
literature. For instance, professional historians have to compete with the
massive presence of ’public history’ online, new literary genres are born,
such as blog or ’electronic literature’. Within these new genres, computers
are not only considered as necessary tools for writing, but also as its
preliminary context: such pieces would become instantly illegible
“off-screen”, in a printed version.

These tendencies have generated new challenges for cultural heritage agents,
primarily for archives, museums and libraries. They use much of their capacity
to digitize so-called cultural materials and to link together various online
archives; with the largest project of this kind probably being Europeana. Such
institutions must also face the fact that cultural heritage in the digital age
is always in motion due to the demands of the nonprofessional audience expecting
interactivity and also because of the companies who regard  cultural heritage
as a field of business. And it is not by chance; cultural tourism and creative
industry rooted in cultural heritage increases its profit year by year.

The digital age raises one more crucial question: if a medium actually plays
such an important role in shaping a social formation or collective memory – as
it was the case at the birth of modern nation states – then what kind of
impact does the internet have? Is it possible that new, supranational networks
will come into existence following the example of the World Wide Web? In
European context it is also thought-provoking to see whether it is possible to
create European ’lieux de mémoires’, as the Europäische Erinnerungsorte
project has already made an attempt to do so (eds., Pim Den Boer, Heinz
Duchhardt, Geeorg Kreis, Wolfgang Schmale, München, Oldenbourg, 2012). It is
without doubt that historically there existed such a common basis, namely
Christianity; which is elaborated on by another volume, Religiöse
Erinnerungsorte in Ostmitteleuropa (eds. Bahlcke, Joachim, Rohdewald, Stefan,
Wünsch, Thomas, Berlin, Akdemie, 2013). However, the accession of the Eastern
European countries into the EU has shown that European memory politics is far
from being homogeneous. Furthermore, there are very visible ruptures in the
field of collective memory between the centre and the periphery (where the
latter one also includes the Mediterranean countries and Northern Europe). A
systematic processing of Europe’s largest traumas (the two world wars and the
Holocaust) and the resulting reconciliation may mean a solution here. That is to
say, monologic memories could become more and more dialogic, integrating each
other’s points of view into their own.


Thus the primary aim of the workshop is to reflect on the processes that were
influenced by digital technologies and that altered cultural memories ranging
from the novel opportunities to transfer cultural heritage through its economic
utilization to the problematic notion of ’lieux de mémoire’.

The workshop welcomes papers that focus on the following topics:
 
- The relationship between public and academic history
- New literary genres, blogs, „electronic literature”
- Online linguistic databases
- Archives, museums and libraries in a new role: digitizing cultural materials,
online archives
- Cultural tourism, creative industry and the „recycling” of cultural
heritage
- The impact of internet on cultural memories
- European „lieux de mémoires”
- Conflicts and ruptures within the European politics of memory
 
The presentations shall not be longer than 20 minutes, and each of them will be
followed by a 10-minute discussion.
 
The written version of the workshop lectures will be published in 2016 by
Debrecen University Press, as a part of the Loci Memoriae Hungaricae series.
 
The working language of the workshop is English.
 
Participation in the workshop is free of charge.
 
To apply:
Send your application to takacs.miklos at arts.unideb.hu containing the title of
the paper, the abstract (max. 200 words) and your personal data (name,
institutional affiliation, telephone) by 15 December 2014.
http://irodalom.arts.unideb.hu/informaciok/websitesofmemory.php

Contact:
 
Address: 4010 Debrecen, P. O. Box 52, Institute of Hungarian Literary and
Cultural Studies, University of Debrecen
Telephone: +36 52 512 900/22291
E-mail: takacs.miklos at arts.unideb.hu
Chairman Coordinator: Dr. Miklós Takács

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Ilmoituksen lähetti: Agricola <agricola at utu.fi>
Ilmoitus vanhentuu: 16.12.2014
Lisätietoja WWW-osoitteesta:
http://irodalom.arts.unideb.hu/informaciok/websitesofmemory.php