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Call for presentations

Collaborate, Connect, Transform: A partnership of world experts in media and audiovisual archives

The joint 2020 IASA - FIAT/IFTA conference

Call for Proposals
(submission deadline: extended to 15 April 2020)

In an age where global audiovisual communication has become a highway of social media traffic, audiovisual records offer us the opportunity to transcend the limitations of time and place.  Audiovisual archives convey messages from one era to another. It is the audiovisual archivist’s responsibility that the messages captured are reliable, authentic, persistent and complete. The convergence of technical, organisational and social-political realities are now challenges that can no longer be tackled in isolation. With an explosion of content creation audiovisual archive experts are a vital connector between publishers, industry, technology, policy makers and cultural heritage bodies.

Technological advancements help archives collect, manage and share their collections more efficiently. Audiovisual media archivists need to be open to this evolution. It is the job of the archive industry to redefine heritage and future access methods in this new technology driven multimedia landscape. Therefore, for the first time in 25 years, the FIAT/IFTA Executive Council and the IASA Board have decided to join forces and organize a joint conference with an integrated programme. The 51st IASA Conference will unite with the 44th FIAT/IFTA World Conference. Together with our host RTÉ, a long-standing and active member of both, we bring together the two leading associations in broadcast, media, sound and audiovisual archiving.

Dublin is widely recognized as a hub of technological innovation, it is like much of Ireland, a vibrant destination that boasts a young progressive demographic while steeped in the maturity of a learning and artistic culture, revered internationally. For the goals of the FIAT/IFTA - IASA Joint Conference 2020 our host venue, Trinity College Dublin is an excellent fit.  From the Book of Kells to the Oscar Wilde Collection, it is home to ancient as well as recent cultural icons. Since its founding in the 16th century, Trinity aims to grow, preserve and disseminate knowledge, a mission it shares with IASA and FIAT/IFTA alike.


 

We welcome proposals on the following topics:

A. Turning the temporary into the everlasting

While time is running out for analogue sound and moving image carriers to be digitized, the challenges of the digital domain are already awaiting us: do we just continue to carefully collect, monitor, and document, or are we already venturing into large-scale transcoding, rewrapping, and normalisation? And isn't it about time to start working on that big pile of films that we have always pushed back? We’d love to hear you talk about:

  • Accept, ignore, transform or discard? Strategies to cope with unsustainable file formats
  • Obsolete digital carriers: efficient approaches for mixed media collections
  • Your best 5 dollars spent in preservation: stories of optimising cost and quality as well
  • Advocating, planning and realising film digitisation at large
     

B. Increasing efficiency in media management and metadata creation

With ever higher quantities of objects and files acquired, stored, edited and accessed, keeping control of the traffic running on your archival highways is paramount. To all these processes, metadata is crucial and artificial intelligence is helping us with that, but introducing it into your archive brings technical, ethical and organisational questions. Our audience will be interested in a presentation tackling:

  • Efficiency measurement and comparison of methods of metadata creation
  • Working with the big ones in AI: wolves in sheep’s clothing or unmissable opportunity?
  • From monolith to Lego set: build-your-own, modular and open source in media management
  • Player, coach or referee? Archivist’s and media manager’s roles in the news and sports rooms of the future
     

C. As open as possible, but not more than that

Free and open to all is definitely a commendable goal, but it’s hardly ever applicable to a complete collection. Ethical, commercial and legal rules are indispensable in the operation of audiovisual archives and therefore deserve our attention. How to answer questions about who gets access to what, how, when, and where?

  • Justified inaccessibility: access restriction for ethical reasons
  • Copyright: raising awareness about rules, opportunities and threats
  • Making audiovisual archival content accessible for people with disabilities
  • Role divisions or collaborations? Audiovisual digitisation, preservation and access between broadcasters and national (audiovisual) archives
     

D. The social role of archives here and now

What we preserve carries the truths and values of the past. In addition, many social movements accumulate their own audiovisual archive, thus shaping their own image and a set of historical sources for the future. This makes the archive nolens volens an actor that cannot stay on the sidelines, especially in a time of polarisation. But how do we respond to what is happening around us? When do we come to the fore? Do we offer a forum for debate, or do we also take a position, and for what purpose?

  • Storytelling, new and interactive forms such as podcasts, vlogs and other contemporary means to tell and prove archival value(s)
  • Archives as (big) data: mining the audiovisual collections for unexplored narratives
  • Strongholds of trust: the audiovisual archive’s role in fact checking and unmasking fake news
  • The value of public service in public service broadcasting archives: a matter of independence, neutrality or diversity?
  • Users and user practices: new practices of archival access in the digital age, addressing academic, educational and public communities
     

E. Future proofing the archive: towards new structures and skill sets

To gain global recognition of their profession, audiovisual archivists have to conquer their place. But a credible claim that audiovisual archiving is a profession in its own right can’t be supported by expensive words only. Professionalization and continuous adaptation of the archive as an organization have become a necessity. Therefore we’d welcome papers about:

  • Academic training and certification in audiovisual archiving: necessity or luxury?
  • Radio and TV collections under the same roof: between shared solutions and respect for specificity.
  • Audiovisual collections in archives with a broader scope: no longer the odd one out?
  • Redesigning audiovisual heritage landscapes: regional, national, continental collaborations
  • The broadcast archive in the public media landscape
     

F. The business of archives

Media archives form part of global enterprises today, with demand for content on new platforms and services continuing to grow and be re-invented. Where does the archive process fit into this model? We welcome insights into the sector from traditional and new business perspectives, services and the impacts of technologies through case studies which enhance the use and value of archives.

  • What are the business imperatives of managing archives for revenue generation in different organisations? Who are the new players?
  • What are the latest trends and tools which promote archive value in the commercial and professional markets?
  • Is the market contracting or expanding? Where do archives and commercial libraries meet? Is there a correlation?
     

 

Send us your proposal

We welcome presentations based on user experiences, new initiatives or perspectives, striking conclusions, successes but also failures. Your story is welcome, also if you’re sure that it is not amongst the world’s most advanced ones. The main objective is to share knowledge and results with audiovisual archives professionals in order to understand the lessons learned and new challenges or solutions arising. The topics mentioned above reflect current interests and evolutions. Suggestions for subjects not mentioned are equally welcome but should be contextualised thoroughly.

The conference will have different presenting formats:

FORMAT TYPE DURATION FORMAT INFORMATION
Keynote 45 minutes Keynote speakers will be decided by the Programme Committee
Parallel session presentation 25 minutes A presentation with 5 minutes for Q&A, selected by the Programme Committee from the proposals submitted.
Workshop 3 or 6 hours An in-depth, interactive session, with a strong hands-on component, selected by the Programme Committee from the proposals submitted.
Expert led discussion panel 1 hour An in-depth discussion among more than 2 experts, introduced briefly and led by 1 moderator expert in the subject discussed. Selected by the Programme Committee from the proposals submitted.
Poster To be decided A poster option may be offered to present a summary of a project or key insights through texts, schemes and images, on a poster in a central location of the conference venue at an appointed time slot. Selected by the Programme Committee from the proposals submitted.

 

If you would like to present your work during the 2020 FIAT/IFTA - IASA Joint Conference, we ask you to submit:

  1. a working title of your proposal
  2. an abstract of your proposal (300 words max)
  3. the name(s) and a short bio of the proposed speaker(s), moderator or author(s) (150 words max.)
  4. the kind of format you’d like to see your contribution included in (see above)

 

Please submit your proposal by completing the form below
by 15 April 2020

The selection of presentations will be made in April-May by the Programme Committee. The presenters will receive their notification via email after this selection. The Programme Committee reserves the right to propose to the candidates to present in a different format.

Please note:

  • Speakers are required to cater for their own costs related to travel, stay and conference registration. In order to avoid late speaker withdrawals as much as possible, speakers will be required to register before the early bird deadline passes.
  • FIAT/IFTA and IASA intend to award a number of grants allowing less financially privileged speakers to attend the conference. More details will be announced in the following months. To stay informed please keep an eye on the FIAT/IFTA and IASA websites and social media channels.
  • Commercial companies are welcome to the stage, but their proposals are will only be accepted if they are presenting dual-client case studies, technological breakthroughs, or academically generalized topics. Presentations with an overly commercial tone of voice are generally not appreciated by our audience and will not be accepted by the Programme Committee..
  • All presentations at the conference may be recorded via audiovisual media and photos, in accordance with section 8 of the FIAT/IFTA Privacy and Data Processing Statement. If you explicitly would like to avoid this, please let us know via conferences@iasa-web.org.
  • By submitting the form below, you confirm that you have read and agree to the terms stated on this page.

 


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