Intertwining spheres: Public archiving of private home video collections

Public audiovisual archives like the Österreichische Mediathek (Austrian National Audiovisual Archive) have long been concerned with documenting the political as well as the cultural public sphere. National and international efforts have worked to collect and preserve historic film documents from the private sphere. An ongoing Österreichische Mediathek project addresses a source typically viewed as marginal: private video sources from the …

Foreword – Unlocking sound and image heritage: Selected readings from the 2015 SOIMA conference

This is the foreword to the book ‘SOIMA: Unlocking Sound and Image Heritage‘. The book offers tips and advice from dedicated professionals from all corners of the world for the preservation and creative use of sound and image heritage. As a resource, it aims to interest collectors, users and educators alike, as it offers compelling examples and strategies founded in evidence-based research. …

The Game-shaped Archive: A Playful, Flexible Approach to the Preservation of Computer Games

Over the past decades computer games have become an established part of a rapidly transforming media landscape. As such they cannot be ignored by cultural heritage institutions. The ephemeral and interactive qualities of games do require a varied and flexible approach to their preservation. Various methods of preservation must be combined in order to do justice to the various aspects …

Challenges at the Europeana Space Project: Dance and the intersections between copyright and intangible cultural heritage

Digital technologies enable us to visualize dance in new ways and to capture recordings of dance which may be preserved and handed down to future generations. In this way, dance starts to become part of our intangible cultural heritage. But capturing dance also raises questions of authorship and ownership of copyright in both the dance and the recording of the …

Someone’s treasure: a legacy for all? The future of La Antigua Guatemala’s Casa K’ojom

The Casa K’ojom in La Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala, houses a unique collection of physical objects and audiovisual materials devoted to Mayan cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. What began as a private collection has evolved into a museum where thousands of visitors have learned about Mayan culture and music. This paper highlights the development and care of the collections from …