Dear Colleagues,

 

I’m writing with a kind request to pass on to anyone you think may be interested.

 

Many thanks, Daniel – on behalf of the Pararchive Project Team (http://www.pararchive.com)

 

Connecting Communities: Storytelling and the Digital Archive                                                                              

 

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

 

Date: Friday 27^th – Saturday 28^th March 2015

Venue: Stage@Leeds, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

 

This AHRC-funded conference and community showcase marks the climax of an eighteen-month multidisciplinary research project entitled Pararchive: Open Access Community Storytelling and the Digital Archive (www.pararchive.com). The project seeks to build new interactive environments that explore issues of ownership, public and institutional relationships and provide tools for collaborative community research and creative expression using digital heritage resources. It was motivated by recognition that communities are encountering real barriers to organising and connecting to resources and each other. In the field of heritage it is often difficult to access archival materials from public cultural institutions owing to bureaucratic, commercial and geographical barriers, something that impedes community research and connectivity. It is often difficult to establish relationships between communities and institutions that could and should be mutually enriching.

 

We have been asking how best to approach these problems and deal with issues such as copyright,  collaborative working, impact and building an open source digital environment to facilitate connectivity and build a set of lasting legacies. We now want to widen our conversation by bringing together community groups, activists and campaigners, researchers, creative professionals, cultural institutions and policymakers interested in developing and promoting research, education, collaborative working practices, policy and activism around the notion of an open access digital resource.

To celebrate the launch of Pararchive and our community partners’ research projects we invite conference contributions around the following suggested themes:

 

Creativity and innovation

Co-curation models

Co-design and co-production methodologies and experiences

Collaborative practices and community-based participatory research

Copyright in participatory projects

Conservation of artefacts and collections in the digital age

Data ownership and open data

Digital literacy

Digital storytelling

Digitisation of individual and community memory

Emerging business models

Evaluation and measurement of impact in co-produced research

Future notions of digital archives and libraries

Geographical linking

Inclusion/Exclusion

Memory in the arts/digital art preservation

Museum and media archives

Partnership models between communities and institutions

Principles of digital data recording and cataloguing

Research ethics and research data management

(Self)-Representation, identity and privacy in digital public spaces

 

We are also interested in hearing about related screening materials, project outcomes and community creative practice.

 

We welcome contributions from all communities, both inside and outside of academia.

 

Important dates:

Deadline for submission of abstracts: October 1^st 2014

Notification of acceptance of abstracts: November 1^st 2014

Deadline for registration: Main registration for the conference will be free and details of registration and a booking link will be advised after the summer break.

 

Proposals to a maximum of 300 words should be sent to:

 

parachiveleeds@gmail.com

 

Please address any enquiries to the same email address.