21 October 2008

October 23rd 2008

1. News

National Archief joins Flickr The Commons

At this very moment the National Archief is diving headlong into experiment as the first Dutch heritage institution to join Flickr The Commons, a project intitiated by the US Library of Congress and international photo-sharing website Flickr. Parts of the special collection ‘Labour Inspectorate’, digitized in the Images for the Future framework, are placed onto the Flickr The Commons website. Users are invited to add tags and comments to the photos. As a result of the new collaboration between the National Archive and Spaarnestad Photo, photographs of this archive have been added to the Flickr collection as well. Part of the same collection is also on display at the Rotterdam Kunsthal (‘Art Hall’) until 23rd November, for the exhibition ‘Girls in the Factory’ (Meisjes van de Fabriek). On the 4th November, there is a seminar about the value of social tagging, with among others, delegates from Flickr and the National Maritime Museum. Take a look at the photographs: www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief

Film 'Twee Vrouwen' ('Twice a Woman') restored and digitized

During the past months, the Filmmuseum has been working hard at restoring and digitizing the film ‘Twee Vrouwen’ (‘Twice a Woman’). After consulting the director, a definitive version was determined. The high quality end result (and Filmmuseum's first public release within Images for the Future) can be viewed in theatres and bought on DVD as of 17th October. That day also marked the start of the ‘Netherlands are reading’ campaign, during which all public library members can take away a free copy of Harry Mulisch’ original book by the same title. A special campaign website (www.filmmuseum.nl/tweevrouwen in Dutch) contains exhibition information, the film’s history (backed by content from Sound & Vision’s and the Fillmmuseum’s archives), and information about the restoration process. Watch www.imagesforthefuture.nl for more information.

Film- and audio conservation and – digitization well under way

Sound and Vision has called for tender in July 2008 for the conservation of 5000 hours of sound film in the upcoming four years. In the mean time the German company Gürtler has commenced this task. This fall a second tender was called for the film-film conservation of 2300 hours of 16mm acetate film, regarding the period from the beginning of Dutch television, as of 1951. Consequently, this important period of time, the beginning of television in the Netherlands, will remain preserved and accessible.

At the beginning of 2009 Sound and Vision will digitize 1500 hours of telerecording under its own management. Telerecordings are direct recordings of television broadcasts on film from the initial period of Dutch television, a time when video recording did not yet exist. At the end of 2008 another tender will probably be published for film digitization and film encoding. The digitization of the audio collection of Sound and Image is proceeding successfully, with an annual goal of well over 14.000 hours of audio in 2008.

Filmmuseum chooses Though Equity Motion for digitzation

The national Filmmuseum in Amsterdam has chosen US company Thought Equity Motion to be their partner in the digitization of the Dutch national film heritage. In the next years this Denver based company will digitize literally thousands of hours of feature films, documentaries, short and animation films. Thought Equity Motion will digitize these audiovisual documents in Amsterdam.

New Education Platform online in 2009

Sound and Vision has developed and carried out a new pilot within the framework of Images for the Future from September 2007 until June 2008 that attempted to find the best solution for the disclosure of collections of archive institutions for educational purposes. This so called Pilot Education Media Platform (Pilot-EMP) was aimed at secondary education. Knowledgeland has evaluated the opportunities offered by the pilot-OMP and advised on its further development.

Based upon the findings of this pilot, Sound and Vision has now begun developing and constructing the real education platform. In this platform archive institutions join together to make their sources available to secondary education. The point is to create a digital environment for making papers and presentations with heritage sources (audio, video, photo, text), a lesson desk and lesson builder, and a search function that can search within several sources at the same time. Read more

The National Archive and Spaarnestad Photo form an alliance

The National Archive and Spaarnestad Photo will collaborate within the framework of Images for the Future. The elaborate photo collections of both organizations supplement each other well. The collections give fantastic insight in the 20th century history of the Netherlands and the rest of the world. The National Archive will contribute a selection within the project Images for the Future that will be supplemented with photographs of the Spaarnestad Photo collection. For this purpose Spaarnestad Photo will give the National Archive long term control over the images that need to be digitized. During the week of the National Archive (September 28th – October 2nd) minister Plasterk presented his personal selection from the photo collections: Plasterks Choice. Also see: www.nationaalarchief.nl

Glass Palace (Glaspaleis) Heerlen: tribute to Harrie Geelen

From Wednesday 1st October till Sunday 16th November, the Glass Palace (‘Glaspaleis') in Heerlen commits itself to a tribute to Harrie Geelen during the event ‘Hamelen, Hilversum, Heerlen’. Harrie Geelen is the creative brain behind famous ‘70s television shows such as ‘Q en Q’, ‘Oebele’ en ‘Kunt u mij de weg naar Hamelen vertellen, Mijnheer?’. The exhibition will be organized by the the Association of Public Libraries and will show archived images from Harrie’s work. Several digital educational products will also be available.

On Wednesday 29th October, the Association of Public Libraries, will organize, in collaboration with the Public Libray Heerlen, a symposium about the meaning of audio visual media in the Library Sector. This symposium marks the kick-off of the Images for the Future project in the public libraries. Check www.debibliotheken.nl for more information.

Sound & Vision Wiki discloses knowledge of collection

Sound & Vision’s Wiki provides access to the institute’s collection by focusing on the films, radio programs and television productions that are being digitized under the Images for the Future project. On the Wiki you can find people’s biographies, an overview of their works, and a description of the broadcasts they attended as hosts or in which they were the subject of discussion. The Wiki also describes the productions themselves, dividing the information up into genre and decade, and also by delving into different contextual topics. In return, the Wiki is to develop itself into a source of information and inspiration for symposiums and publications. It will for instance be used for the October 31st Symposium TV-Versierders (‘TV-decorators’) for the boek 'A Century of Sound and Vision’, to be published in 2010.

Open Images: creative recycling

Within the scope of Images for the Future, Sound and Vision and Knowledgeland are developing a new project called Open Images. The project’s goal is to give online access to a selection of archive material and to subsequently encourage creative recycling of this material. An example of such recycling is the ‘remixing’ of archive images in new videos. Open images also makes it possible to create links to other sources of information (such as Wikipedia), which facilitates the development of ‘mashups’ by third parties. This open ‘approach’ is also carried out in the underlying technology by using open formats and open source software. Open Images will be launched as a beta-version at the end of this year. Read more

New series Tijdsbeeld (Images of the Time) i.c.w. NRC Handelsblad

Films and documentaries preserved and digitized thanks to Images for the Future, are now going to find their way to – among others – DVD. In collaboration with Dutch quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad and Tijdsbeeld Media, Sound & Vision presents a DVD-series about Dutch documentary film, Tijdsbeeld (‘Images of the Time’). Last year saw the release of the first three parts: 1- the Dutch Documentary School  1945-1964; 2 - Innovators 1962-1970; and 3 - the VPRO Documentary School 1971-1977. Coming 19th November will see the release of the next three, titled The Aftermath of the Second World War; Revolt and Rebellion; and Colonial Past. As of the 19th November, the box can be purchased through NRC Handelsblad, Sound & Vision's store, and Tijdsbeeld Media's webshop. Read more

Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven chairman of the board of directors

For Images for the Future, Jeltje van Niewenhoven previously presided over a round table conference concerning copyright during the Filmfestival in Utrecht. As vice-chairman of the Filmfestival, with years of experience as a member of parliament and as chairman of the Second Chamber, Van Nieuwenhoven is the perfect candidate to preside over the consortium Images for the Future.

Explore the archives

Films and photo’s from the archives are on display on the Images for the Future website. But for an extensive collection of video’s, check out the YouTube channel of Sound and Vision. Also, take a look at the interesting pictures of the National Archive image bank. Explore the Archives!

2. Behind the scenes

Innovation Manager Sound and Vision on European projects

Within the program bureau Images for the Future, Sound and Vision has established a Research and Innovation division which endeavors to make digital audiovisual heritage available by using new concepts and techniques. The research projects are generally financed by the European Commission. Images for the Future and Sound and Vision provide the other budgets themselves. At the moment Sound and Vision participates in a variety of national and European research projects, of which Johan Oomen is the project manager. Seems like a good time for an interview.

Read on www.imagesforthefuture.org about the collaboration with universities, the latest technological developments en the Dutch role in ‘the bigger picture’. (photo: Joost Bataille)

3. Colofon

Images for the Future is a joint project by the Filmmuseum (FM), the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Sound and Vision), the Centrale Discotheek Rotterdam (CDR), the National Archive (NA), the Association of Public Libraries (VOB) and the Netherlands Knowledgeland Foundation (KL).

Editors

Marcel Oosterwijk (moo@kl.nl) and Geert Wissink (gw@kl.nl) edit the newsletter and the website.

Consortium partners

Check the website for more information on the partners and how to contact them.