CFP: Postdigital Archives in Contemporary Literature: (Counter-)Practices and New Challenges in (Digital) Memory

June 23, 2027
Goethe University, Frankfurt

Organization: Anna-Lena Eick (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Johanna Vollmeyer (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and Ulrike Mascher (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt) in cooperation with the Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform (FMSP)

Digital technologies have become so pervasive – or in Zara Dinnen’s words “banal” (cf. Dinnen 2018) – that they no longer register as distinct from non-digital aspects of everyday life. This condition, described as “postdigital” (Cramer 2014; Jandrić et al. 2018), is best understood as an interwoven set of cultural shifts that followed the “computerization and global digital networking of communication, technical infrastructures, markets and geopolitics” (cf. Cramer 2014: 13) and likewise affects the epistemic areas of memory and archives. Archives have always been active technologies of governance that produce epistemic order and social hierarchies (Stoler 2009). The postdigital condition raises new questions concerning the archive and memory that cannot be separated from questions of digital infrastructure and mediascape.

While the archive was once conceived as a distinct institutional space governed by curators, selection criteria and access rules, digital infrastructures now distribute it across various platforms, servers, and formats. This undermines the authority that once determined what was preserved and what people were allowed to remember. This offers potential democratizing effects that challenge the archontic power of “traditional” custodians. However, digital platforms and, more recently, the advent and widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) are undermining these effects. While AI transforms the archive into an increasingly generative environment that not only recombines traces of the past into new representations but also produces a synthetic past, digital platforms appropriate and extract value from our collective knowledge. Much of the digital infrastructure through which knowledge is produced, organized, stored, and accessed is controlled by a small number of private companies, primarily based in the United States and China, whose business models rely on the extraction and monetization of accumulated knowledge.

The logics governing these platforms differ from those of traditional archival gatekeepers: rather than relying primarily on institutional authority and curatorial selection, these platforms operate through algorithmic systems that determine what becomes visible, searchable, and ultimately preserved. Yet these systems do not necessarily challenge the biases embedded in existing knowledge structures; instead, they often reproduce and amplify them, while their opacity and limited traceability make it difficult to scrutinize or hold accountable the mechanisms through which knowledge is selected, classified, and transformed. This raises fundamental questions for archival and memory studies: How do our epistemological knowledge and memory change when the past is preserved and circulated in these new terms? How are archival traces stored, and what determines their inclusion in the archive? How is this information disseminated, and what impact does a synthetic past that was never encoded in human memory, but is instead stochastically produced, have on memory?

This workshop asks how archivization and cultural memory are changing under postdigital conditions that increasingly include generative AI systems. To this end, we turn to literature, which does not merely record shifts in media and archival practice but works through them, representing and highlighting what is

otherwise habitual and invisible. By analyzing contemporary literature, we examine the evolving practices of archives and memory as manifested in literary texts. Drawing on postdigital theory (Cramer 2014; Thon 2025), media archaeology (Parikka 2012), memory studies (De Kosnik 2016; Badir/Baetens 2004), and critical archive theory (Derrida 1995; Ricoeur 2004), we understand literary form as both a critical and epistemological practice. On the one hand, print fiction can imitate digital formats such as databases, feeds, chats, and metadata, while also exposing their material and ideological conditions; on the other, electronic literature can directly interact with platforms, networks and generative AI systems and thereby leverage the affordances of the digital sphere. Contributions may therefore draw on contemporary print fiction, digital and generative literature, digital archives, archival interventions, and other forms of artistic and literary practice that engage with the changing conditions of memory and archivization. Possible questions include, but are not limited to:

● How can literary and artistic practices, in print, digital, and hybrid forms, represent the digital archive and its gaps, silences, and power asymmetries, and what becomes visible about the structures of the postdigital mediascape when these are transferred, rebuilt, or discussed in another medium?

● How does the use of digital tools, including generative AI, transform the concepts and practices of archives and cultural memory in the postdigital mediascape?

● What happens to concepts such as authenticity, testimony, evidence, and historical experience when generative systems produce representations of a past that no human being has experienced?

● How might postdigital and AI-mediated archives require us to rethink established theories of memory, mediation, and archival practice?

● Can non-digital artifacts and print literature create counter-archives – spaces that point to the opacity and incompleteness of (digital) archives, in opposition to the algorithmic legibility imposed on the past by the postdigital condition?

● How do generative systems inherit and reproduce the biases of digital and non-digital archives, such as gender inequalities and colonial hierarchies? And how can literary texts or art make these biases visible?

Organizational Information:

The interdisciplinary workshop “Postdigital Archives in Contemporary Literature: (Counter-) Practices and New Challenges in (Digital) Memory” will take place on June 23, 2027, at Goethe University Frankfurt as part of the program of the Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform (FMSP). Proposals for 20-minute presentations from literary and media studies, cultural studies, memory and archival studies and related disciplines may be submitted by December 10, 2026, to: Anna-Lena.Eick@vub.be and johvollm@ucm.es. Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and must include brief biographical and bibliographical information. Notifications of acceptance will be sent in January 2027. The workshop language is English; a proceedings volume is planned.

CFP: Faire parler les archives. Écritures de l’enquête familiale entre document et fiction. / Making the archives speak. Writings of family investigation between document and fiction.

Faire parler les archives. Écritures de l’enquête familiale entre document et fiction. XVIe rendez-vous de la critique (Porto)
Porto, FLUP, ILC/APEF
APPEL À COMMUNICATIONS
Porto/Vila Nova de Gaia, 3-4 juin 2027

Depuis quelques années, la fiction narrative en langue française voit se multiplier des récits dans lesquels un objet (re)trouvé : photo(s), album-photo, correspondance épistolaire, carnet, archives, carte postale, maison, meuble, tiroir, objet, jouet, cadeau d’enfance, tatouage, etc., permet de déclencher une enquête sur la famille de l’écrivain(e) ou du / de la narrateur(trice).

En fait, ces récits se construisent bel et bien à partir du présent, mais sont motivés et interpelés par un manque, un silence, une faille qu’une trace matérielle vient interroger par le biais de l’enquête, cherchant par-là à restituer une histoire familiale incomplète et fragmentée, à recomposer un puzzle identitaire parcellaire.

Cette dynamique prolonge ce que la critique littéraire a décrit comme étant un « récit de filiation » (Viart, 1999, 2015 ; Viart & Vercier, 2005 ; Demanze, 2008), à savoir une écriture ascendante qui procède par collecte, hypothèses, documents et bribes de mémoire plutôt que par la transmission évidente et directe de cette même mémoire réelle ou symbolique, raison pour laquelle l’enquête y devient le véritable levier narratif, alors que la quête documentaire, le témoignage, la photographie, les archives et les objets-témoins que l’on cherche à faire parler,  y entrent en tension avec l’imagination romanesque et les fragments mémoriels ou historiques, et y engage parfois un propos réparateur  (Gefen, 2017).

Plusieurs titres de romans remarqués, voire primés par la critique, et par un vaste lectorat hétéroclite, illustrent la consistance de ce filon, que l’on ne saurait dissocier des sensibilités occidentales contemporaines, souvent marquées par des processus civilisationnels de déconstruction, mais en mal d’enracinement et de souci généalogique, ce qui explique le succès, dès sa parution, de Vies minuscules de Pierre Michon en 1984.  Ce filon s’inscrirait-il aussi dans ce nouvel âge de l’enquête sur lequel Laurent Demanze (2019) et Marie-Jeanne Zenetti (2019) se sont attardés.

Citons, pour exemples plus récents : La Réparation de Colombe Schneck (2012), Max, en apparence de Nathalie Skowronek (2013), La Carte postale d’Anne Berest (2021), Les Presque Sœurs de Cloé Korman (2022), La Maison vide de Laurent Mauvignier (2025) ou Le Bel Obscur de Caroline Lamarche (2025), entre autres, qui partagent un même geste initial : la découverte, la relecture ou la remontée d’un document matériel / d’une archive matérielle qui met en branle une enquête personnelle sous forme de recherche généalogique, de tentative de compréhension des complexités du passé familial ou l’interpellation de la découverte d’un secret de famille. Ces textes illustrent, selon des modalités narratives, certes, différentes, le désir de remonter vers des absences, ou d’exhumer matériellement ou symboliquement des aspects énigmatiques du passé à partir d’un élément indiciel concret, mais intrigant.

Cette 16e édition du Rendez-Vous de la Critique se propose, dès lors, d’examiner cette mouvance comme un fait littéraire à part entière, et non comme une simple thématique récurrente, ou mode fictionnelle passagère. Il s’agira d’interroger la manière dont l’objet-archive organise la forme même du récit (structure en enquête, alternance des temporalités, ekphrasis du document, doute herméneutique sur l’authenticité, considération des aspects ou objets lacunaires).

Aussi, se demandera-t-on ce que devient la fiction lorsqu’elle prend pour point de départ une preuve incomplète, une archive équivoque ou un objet silencieux. Comment l’écrivain(e) articule-t-il/elle la part de savoir et d’hypothèse, de document et de fiction, d’écriture et d’enquête ? Que signifie enquêter sur sa propre famille lorsqu’une histoire intime croise l’histoire collective, la guerre, l’exil, la shoah, les migrations, ou les violences politiques ? Dans quelle mesure l’archive (ré)active-t-elle une approche et un vécu postmémoriels pour les générations d’après le trauma et le drame historique collectif (Hirsch, 2012).

On pourra également s’intéresser aux dispositifs formels mobilisés dans ces textes : le traitement d’archives, l’usage des photographies, la relecture des échanges épistolaires ou le jeu testimonial dans sa choralité.

Ce Rendez-Vous de la Critique entend ainsi dresser un état des lieux critique et bibliographique de ce courant, en accueillant des communications portant sur des études critiques, théoriques, intermédiales ou des approches comparatistes.

Axes thématiques autour du roman d’enquête et de filiation en langue française :

·       Statut narratif du document/de l’archive ;

·       Enquête, filiation et secret de famille ;

·       Enquête comme modalité/manifestation du care, d’une attention réparatrice ;

·       « Vies minuscules » face à l’Histoire ;

·       Frontières génériques hybrides (autofiction, récit, essai) ;

·       Perspectives et études comparatistes ;

·       Traductions et circulation éditoriale et commerciale ;

·       Discours d’escorte critique et légitimation/reconnaissance littéraire.

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Modalités de soumission :

Les propositions de communication, en français, comprendront un titre, un résumé de 300 mots environ précisant l’axe retenu, ainsi qu’une notice bio-bibliographique de quelques lignes (rattachement institutionnel).

Délai de soumission : 31 mars 2027

Une publication est prévue sur évaluation scientifique préalable.

Dates : 3-4 juin 2027

Lieu : Salle âmbito Cultural ElCorteInglès (Porto-Vila Nova de Gaia)

Courriel pour la soumission et contact : rdvcritique16@gmail.com

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Comité d’organisation :

José Domingues de Almeida

Maria de Fátima Outeirinho

Making the archives speak. Writings of family investigation between document and fiction. 16th Critics’ Meeting (Porto)
Porto, FLUP, ILC/APEF
CALL FOR PAPERS
Porto/Vila Nova de Gaia, June 3-4, 2027

In recent years, narrative fiction in French has seen a proliferation of stories in which a (re)found object: photo(s), photo album, epistolary correspondence, notebook, archives, postcard, house, piece of furniture, drawer, object, toy, childhood gift, tattoo, etc., triggers an investigation into the family of the writer or the narrator.

In fact, these stories are indeed built from the present, but are motivated and challenged by a lack, a silence, a flaw that a material trace comes to question through the investigation, seeking thereby to restore an incomplete and fragmented family history, to recompose a partial identity puzzle.

This dynamic extends what literary criticism has described as a “narrative of filiation” (Viart, 1999, 2015; Viart & Vercier, 2005; Demanze, 2008), namely an ascending writing that proceeds by collection, hypotheses, documents and fragments of memory rather than by the obvious and direct transmission of this same real or symbolic memory, which is why the investigation becomes the true narrative lever, while the documentary quest, the testimony, the photography, the archives and the witness objects that one seeks to make speak, enter into tension with the novelistic imagination and the memorial or historical fragments, and sometimes engages in a restorative purpose (Gefen, 2017).

Several novels, noted and even awarded by critics and a vast and diverse readership, illustrate the consistency of this vein, which cannot be dissociated from contemporary Western sensibilities, often marked by civilizational processes of deconstruction, but in need of rootedness and genealogical concern, which explains the success, from its publication, of Pierre Michon’s Vies minuscules in 1984. Could this vein also be part of this new age of inquiry on which Laurent Demanze (2019) and Marie-Jeanne Zenetti (2019) have focused.

More recent examples include: Colombe Schneck’s *La Réparation* (2012), Nathalie Skowronek’s *Max, en apparence* (2013), Anne Berest’s *La Carte postale* (2021), Cloé Korman’s *Les Presque Sœurs* (2022), Laurent Mauvignier’s *La Maison vide* (2025), and Caroline Lamarche’s *Le Bel Obscur* (2025), among others, all of which share a common initial impulse: the discovery, rereading, or retrieval of a physical document or archive that sets in motion a personal investigation in the form of genealogical research, an attempt to understand the complexities of the family past, or the challenge of uncovering a family secret. These texts illustrate, albeit through different narrative approaches, the desire to delve into absences or to exhume, materially or symbolically, enigmatic aspects of the past from a concrete yet intriguing clue.

This 16th edition of the Rendez-Vous de la Critique therefore proposes to examine this movement as a literary phenomenon in its own right, and not as a mere recurring theme or passing fictional fad. The aim will be to explore how the archival object shapes the very form of the narrative (investigative structure, alternation of temporalities, ekphrasis of the document, hermeneutic doubt about authenticity, consideration of incomplete or missing aspects or objects).

We might also ask what becomes of fiction when it takes as its starting point incomplete evidence, an ambiguous archive, or a silent object. How does the writer articulate the interplay between knowledge and hypothesis, document and fiction, writing and investigation? What does it mean to investigate one’s own family when an intimate history intersects with collective history, war, exile, the Holocaust, migration, or political violence? To what extent does the archive (re)activate a post-memorial approach and experience for generations following trauma and collective historical tragedy (Hirsch, 2012)?

We can also look at the formal devices used in these texts: the processing of archives, the use of photographs, the rereading of epistolary exchanges or the testimonial game in its chorality.

This Critics’ Meeting aims to provide a critical and bibliographical overview of this movement, by welcoming communications focusing on critical, theoretical, intermedial studies or comparative approaches.

Thematic areas surrounding the detective novel and family ties in French:

• Narrative status of the document/archive;

• Investigation, parentage and family secrets;

• Investigation as a modality/manifestation of care, of restorative attention;

· “Tiny Lives” in the Face of History;

• Hybrid generic boundaries (autofiction, narrative, essay);

• Comparative perspectives and studies;

• Translations and editorial and commercial circulation;

• Critical escort discourse and literary legitimation/recognition.

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Submission guidelines:

Communication proposals, in French, will include a title, an abstract of approximately 300 words specifying the chosen theme, as well as a bio-bibliographical note of a few lines (institutional affiliation).

Submission deadline: March 31, 2027

Publication is planned following prior scientific evaluation.

Dates: June 3-4, 2027

Location: Salle âmbito Cultural ElCorteInglès (Porto-Vila Nova de Gaia)

Email for submissions and contact: rdvcritique16@gmail.com

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Steering Committee :

José Domingues de Almeida

Maria de Fátima Outeirinho

CFP: Symposium of the 2027 FIAF Congress, “Times of Political Change: Film Heritage, Archiving and Agency”

Symposium of the 2027 FIAF Congress
“Times of Political Change: Film Heritage, Archiving and Agency”
Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 April 2027
Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin

In light of profound political upheavals around the world, the Symposium of the 2027 FIAF Congress in Berlin is dedicated to political changes in the context of film archives. What role does film heritage play in the collective memory of political upheavals? What impact does political change have on film heritage institutions? What can be learned from the past, what questions do archives face today, and how can they position themselves as resilient archives for the future? How have political changes been captured on film, and what has happened to these films once they entered the archive (and what if they did not)? This Symposium builds on the key reflections and proposals put forward in many previous FIAF Symposia, including those held in Bangkok in 2024 and in Rabat in April 2026. The goal is to provide a space for shared learning both within the FIAF community and in dialogue with all film heritage practitioners, scholars and institutions worldwide.

For the purposes of this Symposium, political change is understood broadly as significant moments of transformation, upheaval, instability or uncertainty, whether sudden or unfolding over time, whether perceived as positive or negative by those involved and affected. This may include changes in government and political institutions, legislation and cultural policies, geopolitical situations, wars, revolutions, public protests, reforms, or the political and social aspects of such phenomena as pandemics and climate change. It also encompasses broader changes in social and cultural awareness, visibility and representation, including the emergence of socio-political movements. The Symposium does not seek to define political change in terms of party politics, nor does it imply a particular ideological position. Rather, it asks how significant changes in the political and social environment affect the preservation, accessibility and interpretation of film heritage.

With this call for proposals, we invite contributions exploring two interconnected strands: the archival status of films that have captured, participated in or emerged from moments of political change, and the experience of film archives themselves as they operate within changing political contexts. These strands can include examples from the past, the present and looking into the future.

Films stemming from different political and social movements are often produced under precarious conditions. What happens to these films immediately after they are made and when the political circumstances change? How are they collected, preserved and made accessible, and by whom? Periods of political and social upheaval can result in the loss, destruction, manipulation, displacement and disappearance of audiovisual heritage, creating gaps and distortions in film historiography and determining whose memories and histories are preserved and whose are not. At the same time, political or social change can give new relevance to archival holdings once considered marginal, insignificant or taboo. This strand also invites reflection on the emergence of counter-archives and non-institutional, non-national or grassroots film archives based on independent and self-managed preservation practices.

On the other hand, film archives themselves are always embedded within political landscapes, national frameworks and cultural policies. These conditions differ from place to place and can change through legislation, government priorities, funding, censorship, geopolitical developments or events that challenge the routines in which archives operate. How does political change influence the mission and operational work of archives? What agency do they have in responding to it and what are the (sometimes unorthodox) solutions envisioned or implemented? Through these solutions, archives can provide spaces in which new histories, perspectives and forms of dialogue and knowledge can emerge. At the same time, archives must be mindful that their own actions might contribute to creating and stabilizing (or destabilizing) particular histories and forms of power. What role do archives play here, historically or in the current socio-political climate? This direction also invites reflection on the resilience of archives and on the role of the FIAF community as a space for communication and international cooperation. Contributions may explore strategies for safeguarding cultural heritage in times of crisis, as well as historical examples of preservation projects, agreements and other forms of archival cooperation that have enabled film heritage to survive political upheaval.

The Symposium of the 2027 FIAF Congress will bring together contributions from across the world in Berlin, a city whose history has been profoundly shaped by political change and whose film culture and heritage continue to bear the traces of these transformations. We invite proposals addressing, but not limited to, the following subjects:

  • Film heritage and political upheaval: loss, destruction, manipulation, displacement and disappearance, as well as preservation and recovery of audiovisual heritage in times of political and social change.
  • The archival lives of socio-political movements: the collection and preservation of films emerging from or documenting political and social movements.
  • Marginalized histories and counter-archives: alternative, community-based, non-institutional, non-national and grassroots approaches to preserving audiovisual memories and non-canonized materials.
  • Archives, power and knowledge: the role of archives in producing, shaping and stabilizing or destabilizing knowledge, dialogue, histories and relations of power.
  • Decolonial archival practices and the politics of restitution: past, existing and necessary archival practices aimed at decolonizing collections; the challenges and the outcomes of restitution.
  • Political frameworks and film archives: the impact of legislation, cultural policies, government priorities, funding, censorship and changing political contexts on the work and missions of archives.
  • Archival resilience: institutional resilience and strategies for safeguarding film heritage under political pressure, during war, instability and other moments of upheaval.
  • Archives and changing relevance: the rediscovery and renewed use of films and collections following changes in political or social climates.
  • International cooperation and solidarity: the role of FIAF and the archival community in fostering dialogue, cooperation and support during political crises, including historical case studies.
  • Film historiography and political change: gaps, silences and transformations in film history resulting from political change and respective shifts in archival policies.
  • Past lessons, future archives: what historical experiences of political change can teach film archives about their role and resilience in the future.

The Scientific Committee welcomes suggestions by all interested parties – by staff of FIAF institutions and expressly also by practitioners, scholars and institutions beyond the FIAF community. We look forward to your suggestions for the following presentation and discussion formats:

  • Individual contributions
    Individual contributions (articles, presentations, etc.) should last between 15 and 20 minutes (including extracts), with strict respect for time limits. Each contributor will share a session with a maximum of three other proposals, with room for collective discussion.
  • Pre-constituted panels (roundtables or other formats)
    Pre-constituted panels should last 90 minutes (including discussion). Each speaker needs to fill the submission form individually but abstracts of panelists may overlap or be identical. We encourage you to consider inviting partners and colleagues from outside FIAF.
  • Poster Presentations / Lightning Talk (short project/case presentation)
    Short individual presentations of 5 to 7 minutes to draw attention to projects in progress, aiming at facilitating future collaborations.
  • Other formats not listed above are welcome.

Please submit your proposals via the dedicated online form by 6 December 2026. Submissions via email will not be accepted. The Symposium Scientific Committee will announce the final selection of papers by 22 January 2027.

Presentations may be delivered in any of FIAF’s three official languages (English, French, Spanish). Please submit your proposal in one of these three languages and clearly indicate the language of the proposed contribution.

Note that all contributors in need of financial support will be able to apply for funding offered by the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts for assistance with travel and accommodation costs. In addition, colleagues from the FIAF community delivering presentations at the Symposium will be able to apply for funding from the Christian Dimitriu Fund for assistance with travel and accommodation costs.

Members of the Scientific Committee

Peter Bagrov, George Eastman Museum (Rochester)

Ricardo Cantor Bossa, Cinemateca de Bogotá (Bogotá)

Sanchai Chotirosseranee, Thai Film Archive (Salaya)

Dr. Michael Fürst, Filmmuseum Potsdam (Potsdam)

Heleen Gerritsen, Deutsche Kinemathek (Berlin)

Dr. Elisa Jochum, Deutsche Kinemathek (Berlin)

Dr. Maral Mohsenin, Eye Filmmuseum (Amsterdam)

Prof. Dr. Rebecca Ohene-Asah, University of Media Arts and Communication (Accra)

Drika de Oliveira, Cinemateca do Museu de Arte Moderna (Rio de Janeiro)

Coordination: Anke Hahn, Deutsche Kinemathek (Berlin)

For questions or comments, please contact the committee at fiafcongress2027@deutsche-kinemathek.de.

You can download the Call for Papers as a PDF here.

New Issue: Patrimoines, special issue on photography heritage

Patrimoines 21 (2026)
« 200 ans de photographie / Patrimoine dans la rue »
“200 Years of Photography / Heritage in the Street”
(open access)

S’inscrivant parmi les célébrations du bicentenaire de l’invention de la photographie, ce numéro de la revue Patrimoines retrace l’histoire de la patrimonialisation de la photographie en France, au sein de laquelle l’INP a joué un rôle pionnier. Cette livraison s’intéresse par ailleurs aux problématiques de conservation-restauration et de médiation soulevées par les patrimoines exposés dans l’espace public (monuments historiques, œuvres contemporaines, peintures murales, art urbain, etc.).

200 ANS DE PHOTOGRAPHIE

Support de notre mémoire visuelle, archive du passé, objet artistique et technique, poétique ou politique, la photographie est multiforme et occupe diverses fonctions selon l’intention de son auteur et l’usage qui en est fait. Depuis son invention en 1826, ses techniques, supports et pratiques n’ont cessé d’évoluer, et avec eux le statut de l’image photographique, sujette à expérimentations, manipulations et détournements. Objets fragiles, longtemps ignorés par les professionnels de la conservation et de la restauration, les photographies sont au cœur de la formation à l’Institut national du patrimoine, qui fut pionnier en la matière et continue de proposer une formation unique en Europe.
Afin de célébrer le bicentenaire de l’invention de la photographie, Patrimoines propose un dossier consacré au patrimoine photographique. Ouvert par un grand entretien avec Anne Cartier-Bresson qui revient sur l’histoire de cette patrimonialisation récente, ce dossier expose la diversité des objets photographiques et la place qu’ils occupent dans les institutions. Auteurs, chercheurs, responsables de collection, restaurateurs, artistes partagent leur regard et leur expertise sur les enjeux de la préservation et de la valorisation des collections photographiques.

PATRIMOINE DANS LA RUE

Accessibles à tous, parties intégrantes d’un environnement quotidien et partagé, les œuvres et monuments exposés dans l’espace public sont l’objet d’une attention et d’un attachement qui incitent les communautés locales à s’engager dans leur préservation et leur valorisation. Ils sont aussi confrontés à de nombreuses contraintes qui les fragilisent : dégradations environnementales et anthropiques (volontaires ou non), pollution, oubli… L’espace public étant un lieu d’échanges et de revendications diverses, les patrimoines « dans la rue » (monuments historiques, œuvres contemporaines, peintures murales, art urbain, etc.) sont également susceptibles d’être contestées, appropriées ou détournées.
Les auteurs réunis dans ce dossier présentent les problématiques de conservation-restauration particulières de ces patrimoines, l’usage qu’en fait le public, leur appropriation et les initiatives en matière de médiation.
Enfin, Patrimoines s’achève sur une sélection d’articles rédigés par des anciens élèves conservateurs et restaurateurs de l’INP, ainsi que des doctorants par le projet en « Études patrimoniales » et « Conservation-restauration des biens culturels ».

Cette publication est labellisée Bicentenaire de la Photographie par le ministère de la Culture et s’inscrit dans la programmation officielle du Bicentenaire du 1er septembre 2026 au 30 septembre 2027.

As part of the bicentennial celebrations of the invention of photography, this issue of the journal Patrimoines traces the history of the preservation of photography as heritage in France, in which the INP (National Heritage Institute) played a pioneering role. This issue also examines the conservation, restoration, and public engagement challenges posed by heritage displayed in public spaces (historical monuments, contemporary works, murals, urban art, etc.).

200 YEARS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

A support for our visual memory, an archive of the past, an artistic and technical object, poetic or political, photography is multifaceted and fulfills various functions depending on the intention of its creator and its intended use. Since its invention in 1826, its techniques, media, and practices have constantly evolved, and with them, the status of the photographic image, subject to experimentation, manipulation, and reinterpretation. Fragile objects, long ignored by conservation and restoration professionals, photographs are central to the training at the National Heritage Institute, a pioneer in this field and which continues to offer a unique program in Europe.
To celebrate the bicentenary of the invention of photography, Patrimoines presents a special issue dedicated to photographic heritage. Opening with an extensive interview with Anne Cartier-Bresson, who recounts the history of this recent recognition as heritage, this issue explores the diversity of photographic objects and the place they occupy within institutions. Authors, researchers, collection managers, restorers, artists share their views and expertise on the challenges of preserving and promoting photographic collections.

HERITAGE IN THE STREET

Accessible to all and integral to a shared daily environment, the works and monuments displayed in public spaces are the object of attention and attachment that encourage local communities to commit to their preservation and promotion. They also face numerous constraints that weaken them: environmental and human-induced degradation (intentional or unintentional), pollution, neglect, and more. As public space is a place of exchange and diverse demands, heritage “in the street” (historical monuments, contemporary works, murals, urban art, etc.) is also susceptible to being contested, appropriated, or misappropriated.
The authors gathered in this collection present the specific conservation and restoration challenges of this heritage, its use by the public, its appropriation, and initiatives in the field of public engagement.
Finally, Patrimoines concludes with a selection of articles written by former students of the INP, conservators and restorers, as well as doctoral students from the project in “Heritage Studies” and “Conservation-restoration of cultural property”.

This publication is labeled Bicentenary of Photography by the Ministry of Culture and is part of the official Bicentenary program from September 1, 2026  to September 30, 2027.

New Issue: International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, Special Issue: Digital Futures: Archives, AI and Access in Indian Digital Humanities

International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 20, no. 2 (October 2026)
Special Issue: Digital Futures: Archives, AI and Access in Indian Digital Humanities
(subscription)

Associate Editor’s Note
Maya Dodd

Guest Editors’ Introduction: Digital Futures: Archives, AI and Access in Indian Digital Humanities
Shanmugapriya T, Simran Bhimjyani, Sourav Ghosh, and Mehulkumar Desai

Articles

Decolonizing Digital Dialogues: How New Archival Practices are Transforming the Art, Culture and Heritage of India
Sudeshna Rana and Akash Bharadwaj

SINDHU: An Audio-Digital Archive of Rare Historic Sindhi Books for Revitalizing Sindhi Language and Literary Heritage in India
Vandana Govindani and Nirmala Menon

Beyond Nationalism: A Digital Humanities Intervention in the Canon of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
Pallavi Singh and Yashee Singh

The Digital Turn in the Sarala Mahabharata: Text Variance and Pedagogy
Urmishree Bedamatta

Bengali Literary Texts at Scale: Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Humanities
Vinayak Das Gupta

Synthetic Reading: Towards a Hermeneutic-Computational Method for Literary Interpretation through Tagore’s ‘A Wife’s Letter’
Sourav Ghosh, Shanmugapriya T, and Sanatan Mandal

The Role of Wildlife Deepfakes in Shaping Digital Discourses in India: Anthropocentric Gaze, Digital and Cognitive Divides
Sabeela Rasheed and Tonisha Guin

New Issue: Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture

Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 55, no. 3 (2026)
(open access)

Editor’s Note
Bogdan Trifunović

Articles

Building Better Environments: A Baker’s Dozen of Methodologies for Configuring and Selecting Emulation Environments in EAASI
Cynde Moya, Melanie Swalwell

Traveling Salesman Problem Algorithm-Based Uniqueness Explainable Features of the Jawi-Arabic Manuscript for Digitalization
Dian Andriana, Zulhaj Aliansyah, Anto Satriyo Nugroho, Risnandar

Digital Materiality and Archival Discursivity: A Unified Approach to Archival Processes
Arian Rajh

Interoperability of Indonesian Manuscripts Digital Repositories: Readiness and Challenges
Agus Iswanto, Cahyo Trianggoro, Husnul Fahimah Ilyas, Ilham Nurwansah, Moch. Lukluil Maknun, Foni Agus Setiawan, Mahmudah Nur, Koharudin, Dede Hidayatullah, Muhammad Fadly Suhendra

A Post-Quantum Digital Preservation and Secure File Sharing Framework for Library Repositories
Shanmugam Balachandran, Sivankalai Sivankalai

Web Application at Heritage Site: A Case Study at Sungai Batu Archaeological Complex (SBAC), Bujang Valley, Kedah, Malaysia
Mohd Hasfarisham Abd Halim, Hilman Nordin, Giselle Su Hong Gick, Kevin Chan Leong Kit, Mokhtar Saidin

Archiving Built Heritage Façades: Reprocessing LiDAR and Photogrammetric Data from OpenHeritage3D
Chung-Ting Esmond Lo, George Bevan

New Issue: Journal for the Preservation of Library and Archival Material

Journal for the Preservation of Library and Archival Material 47, no. 3 (2026)
(open access)

Original Works

Inks and Pigments in Greek Codices of the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Period: Material Analysis and Insights into Scribal and Artistic Practices
Vassiliki Kokla, Agamemnon Tselikas

Detection of Gypsum and Syngenite in Gelatine-Alum Sized Papers by ATR-IR and Raman Measurements
Enrico Pigorsch, Tina Grette Poulsson

Letters to the Editors

Information on Handling Potentially Harmful Colourants in Historical Library Collections (in this Case: Arsenic-Containing Pigments)
Torsten Arndt, Almuth Corbach, Michael Vogel, Roland Suchenwirth, Stephanie Preuss

Review

A Review of Emerging Contaminants in Library Indoor Spaces: Sources, Exposure, and Health Risks
Xiaofen Zhao, Jinxiu Zhang, Yun Zhao, Xiaofang Zhao, Ruijuan Zhu, Yan Zhang

New Issue: Archives: The Journal of the British Records Association

Archives: The Journal of the British Records Association 61, no. 1-2 (2026)
(subscription)

FOREWORD
Sir Geoffrey Vos

INTRODUCTION: THE 1922 LAW AND PROPERTY ACT, AND MANORIAL DOCUMENTS
Mark Bailey

Research Articles

KEYNOTE: A LIFE IN MANORIAL RECORDS – FROM PHD TO MDR
P.D.A. Harvey

ACCOUNTING FOR ABSENCE: EXHIBITING THE MANORIAL RECORDS OF RAVENSER ODD
Kathryn Maude and Emily Robinson

LET THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE PERSON: MANORIAL AMERCEMENTS FOR BLOODSHED IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY YORKSHIRE
Stephanie Emma Brown

TENURES, TITHES AND THE MANAGEMENT OF A SMALL ECCLESIASTICAL MANOR: KINGSTON (SUFFOLK) IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
Mark Bailey

THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND LEGAL IMPORTANCE OF LATE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY MANORIAL LORDSHIP: THE BLOUNT FAMILY OF THE WEST MIDLANDS
Elizabeth Norton

MANOR FROM HEAVEN: MANORIAL RECORDS AT LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY
Rachel Freeman

THE EVERYDAY LIFE IN A NORTHUMBRIAN MANOR PROJECT
Bethany Elliott

THE WELSH MANORIAL DOCUMENTS DATABASE PROJECT, 1993–6: AUTOMATING THE MANORIAL DOCUMENTS REGISTER (MDR)
Helen Watt

Tribute

P.D.A. HARVEY (1930–2025) and the British Records Association
David Robinson

Obituary

P.D.A. Harvey (1930–2025): A life in records
Angus J.L. Winchester

New Articles: Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

“A Historian and a Sociologist Walk into a Bar: A Data Archive for Social Sciences and Digital Humanities Hosted at a National Archives Institution” by Benjamin Peuch, Oliver Lenaerts, Rolande Depoortere, Johan Van der Eycken, and Youssef Ouahalou of Archives de l’État en Belgiquehttps://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol13/iss1/19/

“Curating the Liberal Arts: High-Impact Approaches to Teaching Medical Humanities in the Archives” by Alyssa Culp and Liz Bloodworth of Illinois Wesleyan University: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol13/iss1/20/

“Assessing the Ability of a Large Language Model to Perform Recall Searches of Archival Finding Aids” by Will J. Gregg of Washington State University Libraries Pullman and Perry Gowdy: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol13/iss1/21/

CFP: IPRES 2027

Get ready for the next installment of iPRES! iPRES 2027 will be happening in Quebec City, Canada, October 4-8, 2027.  We’re pleased to announce the launch of the Call for Proposals<https://event.fourwaves.com/ipres2027>.

Our themes for this conference are Accountability, Authenticity and Adaptability<https://event.fourwaves.com/ipres2027/pages/c1507c8f-9a8b-4d29-8d00-133f5e820202>.

Deadline for peer-reviewed submissions: 12 March 2027
Deadline for Non-Peer Reviewed Submissions: 14 April 2027
More information to come on Digital Preservation ‘Bake Off’

For more details on how to prepare your proposals, please refer to our website<https://event.fourwaves.com/ipres2027> for more information.

We look forward to seeing everyone next year!

iPRES 2027 General Committee

info@ipres2027.ca

About iPRES

Held since 2004, iPRES<https://ipres-conference.org/> brings together colleagues from all over the world to share, learn, and foster relationships on the topic of digital preservation.