Photography, Archive and Memory

Recent debates about photography and the archive are currently being reformulated in relation to ‘memory’ resulting in a critical challenge to more traditional formulations of the history of photography and notions of ‘archive’ Through ‘memory’ the archive becomes open to new interpretations, uses and new formulations; the social material relations, the materiality of the medium and the institutional nature of the archive are potentially revealed and contested. The symposium will aim to map this emerging body of work from practitioners, theorists, historians and curators and critically reflect on the theoretical and methodological implications of the use of ‘memory’ as a conceptual category within photography
Suggested themes papers may address but are not limited to:
• Artistic engagements with archives and the notion of memory.
• Challenges to the institutions and social practices of the archive through memory and remembrance.
• New archives, new histories and the use of memory.
• Critical engagements with institutions and social practices of the archive.
• Photography’s ‘forgotten’ and excluded histories.
• Representations and transformations of the domestic and personal.
• Narrating and recreating the archive as a means of deploying, enlivening and making memory.
• Challenging the disciplinarily of the archive through memory and oral history.
• Familiarity and memory in the archive.
• Remembrances and narratives of the archive.
Confirmed speakers:
Dr. David Bate (Reader in Photography, University of Westminster).
Dr. Joanna Zylinska (Reader in New Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London).
If you wish to present a paper please send an abstract of not more than 250 words, along with a brief biography, by Monday 30th March 2009 to the organisers, Julia Peck and Karen Cross at photoarchive@roehampton.ac.uk
The registration fee for this event, which will include light refreshments, is £15.00 (£12.00 concessions). To receive further announcements about this event please send an email request to the same address.