European research grant awarded for research into Europe’s Audiovisual Heritage Online

European History Reloaded: Curation and Appropriation of Digital Audiovisual Heritage (CADEAH) is the title of a programme that is awarded a three-year research grant by the EC Horizon 2020 programme JPICH Digital Heritage. The programme has been designed by a European consortium lead by Utrecht University’s Centre for TV/Screen Cultures in Transition and includes the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, and the Digital Humanities Lab of Umeå University, Sweden. Project kick-off will be in May 2018.

Coordinated by Eggo Müller, Professor of Media and communication at the Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, the programme will investigate the circulation and appropriation of audiovisual heritage online. Earlier European projects lead by prof. dr. Sonja de Leeuw (UU) and Eggo Müller have provided the infrastructure for archives, collections and libraries to share audiovisual heritage on public platforms such as Euscreen.eu and the European Platform for Digital Heritage Europeana.eu. The new project will look deeper into the divers ways users engage online with audiovisual heritage: What do users watch, share, like, or dislike? What are their comments, what videos are downloaded for remix and recirculation? What new interpretations of heritage materials are created? Do these challenge authorised perspectives on historical events? CADEAH will be the first European project to integrate cutting edge video tracing and tracking technologies as part of a mixed methods approach including textual analysis, virtual ethnography and Digital Humanities methods.

The project is based on a longstanding cooperation between Utrecht University, The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum, and more than 35 partners in 25 European countries. Associate partners of the new project are next doe the EUscreen Foundation also the European Platform for Digital Heritage: Europeana, the European Association of History Educators EUOCLIO and the Institute for Contemporary and Digital History, Luxembourg University. This collaboration ensures a flexible exchange of knowledge, sources and ideas between academic institutions and practitioners during the runtime of the project. The project’s outcomes will contribute to a better understanding of popular interpretations of European history circulating online. It will foster critical engagement with audiovisual heritage in a participatory media landscape, including the consequences of digital historiography. Based on outcomes, the project will advise heritage institutions about best practices of user-engaging curation. Outcomes will also provide history educators with accessible material to engage students working online with Europe’s audiovisual heritage.

Contact:

Prof. dr. Eggo Müller, Centre for TV/Screen Cultures in Transition, Utrecht University, Munstraat 2a, NL-3514XJ Utrecht; email: e.mueller@uu.nl