Tha AIM:
The aim of the workshop is to contribute to the understanding of the ways in which historical revisionism uses both familiar and recently discovered audio-visual material – from popular cinematographic imagery to previously classified information. The principles of exhibiting these materials and other ways of making them available to the broad public will be in the focus of the workshop discussions.
The conveners invite you to contribute a presentation to one of the following panels:
I. Museums: Between Terror and 'Normalization'
The presenters at the panel will analyze different cases of recent historical exhibitions which addressed the socialist past, introduced new archival documents, drew attention to the sites of political repression, and challenged the established socialist historiographies.
Scope of issues:
Sites of terror turned into museums and exhibitions
Representations of everyday socialism
Commemorations of the transition: the roles of state museums in transitional justice
Multi-media presentations and the role of video material in representing history
II. Archives: the source of the unique and unknown
The presenters at the panel will analyze the use of archival (especially audio-visual) footage in recent historical research as well as in works intended for the wider public, such as documentary and fiction films. The panel will discuss the consequences in terms of expanded access to the footage as well as methodological issues of its presentation to audiences with different degrees of historical and audio-visual expertise.
Scope of issues:
Emergence of previously classified material in (re)shaping the past
East, West, elsewhere - Unification of sources
The emergence of new political borders and the division of previously shared heritage
Educational role of the audio-visual material,
The change in reading the material depending on the context and audiences' competence.
III. Cinema: shaping the public
The panel will analyze recent works of fiction and non-fiction addressing the image of the socialist past, discussing whether inter-country comparisons are meaningful when speaking about the socialist past in the region.
Scope of issues:
Historical accounts presented to the mass audience: are there any rules of the game?
Private footage and home video in cinema: contrasting 'big' and 'small' histories
Archival research in filmmaking and the role of experts
Authenticity in creating historical accounts: modes and methods
May 25-27, 2006
Location: OSA Archivum, Budapest
Please send a short presentation abstract (ca. 500 words) and your CV by March 31, 2006 to Oksana Sarkisova at sarkisovao@ceu.hu
A number of travel grants will be offered to the participants, please indicate in your cover letter if you would like to be apply for a travel grant to attend a workshop. Selection of the presentations and notification of the participants will take place by April 15, 2006.