Abstract
In our paper we discuss the development, applications and evaluation of a
research tool for EYE Filmmuseum’s digitized collection of distributor and
cinema owner Jean Desmet (1875-1956) within the project Data-driven Film
History: A Demonstrator of EYE's Jean Desmet Collection. Inscribed on
UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2011, the Desmet collection’s
unique composition of films, posters, photographs and business documents
from the period 1907 to 1916 offers an unparalleled insight into cinema’s formal
and industrial transition in these years. The collection has engendered significant
historical scholarship on film distribution, consumption and programming,
especially in New Cinema History research.
By combining existing scholarship in these areas with digital methods in film and
media studies, the tool in particular considered the opportunities for researchers
to explore and analyze the Jean Desmet collection with techniques for mapping,
network analysis and moving image content, to better understand cinema’s
emergence as a new cultural industry in Amsterdam, in the early 20th century.
Launched in the fall of 2015, this paper considers the tool's applications from a
tool critical perspective to discuss how it has enhanced existing scholarship and
what could be learned that was not known before while attending to the tool's
limitations and potential biases.
research tool for EYE Filmmuseum’s digitized collection of distributor and
cinema owner Jean Desmet (1875-1956) within the project Data-driven Film
History: A Demonstrator of EYE's Jean Desmet Collection. Inscribed on
UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2011, the Desmet collection’s
unique composition of films, posters, photographs and business documents
from the period 1907 to 1916 offers an unparalleled insight into cinema’s formal
and industrial transition in these years. The collection has engendered significant
historical scholarship on film distribution, consumption and programming,
especially in New Cinema History research.
By combining existing scholarship in these areas with digital methods in film and
media studies, the tool in particular considered the opportunities for researchers
to explore and analyze the Jean Desmet collection with techniques for mapping,
network analysis and moving image content, to better understand cinema’s
emergence as a new cultural industry in Amsterdam, in the early 20th century.
Launched in the fall of 2015, this paper considers the tool's applications from a
tool critical perspective to discuss how it has enhanced existing scholarship and
what could be learned that was not known before while attending to the tool's
limitations and potential biases.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Creativity & the City, 1600-2000, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 27/10/16 |
| Publication status | Published - 29 Oct 2016 |