As part of the project “GENIAC: Generative Artificial Intelligence for Archival Images of the Colonial Period,” we are organising a one-day international workshop at Imperial War Museums, London, on Tuesday 13th May, from approximately 9:15 to 16:00.
This not-to-be missed event brings together leading professionals from the GLAM sector, AI researchers, historians and digital humanists to explore the ethical and technical challenges of applying AI to colonial-era photographic archives. Colonial historical records are often very sensitive, for example when they show violence and humiliation of colonised populations. Even when collections have been digitised, they are not always easily discoverable, for instance in the case of missing or problematic metadata containing racist or outdated language. Making archival records more accessible, in a responsible way, is a key priority.
The GENIAC project, funded by the British Academy, will harness AI to enable responsible access to colonial images from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Co-designed with source communities from formerly colonised countries, the project will lead to a series of outputs—such as datasets and AI-powered tools, including a chat box that will allow users to ask questions using natural language.
Our speakers include representatives from prominent cultural institutions such as the Imperial War Museums, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Musée de l’Armée (France), Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium), The National Archives UK, ECPAD, and the Digital Benin project. We will also welcome academic contributors from top universities and research groups across the UK and Europe, including King’s College London, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Oxford, KU Leuven, University of Amsterdam, and CNRS/INHA (France).
A collaborative session will focus on preparing a Horizon Europe collaborative proposal (2 to 3 million euros) for a future project on ethical access to colonial archival images.
To express your interest in participating, please email the following to L.zhao6@lboro.ac.uk and l.jaillant@lboro.ac.uk by 29th April 2025:
- A short bio (maximum 100 words)
- An Expression of Interest (maximum 100 words) explaining your expertise and your interest in this topic.
- There is a limited number of places for this event. We will contact you in early May to let you know if you have been selected.
We hope you can join us for what promises to be a rich and timely conversation.
Professor Lise Jaillant, GENIAC PI
Dr Lingjia Zhao, GENIAC research associate
Comments