A Busy June (and a busy year) on the Conference Circuit
June was a busy month for the project, with presentations at three international conferences. Together, these papers showcased the breadth of our research, exploring filmstrips across different historical periods, geographical contexts, and archival settings.
The month began at the Symposium Audio-visual Media and the Global Dream Space held at University College London (UCL) and Birkbeck in London, where Anushrut Ramakrishnan Agrwaal presented “A Paradigm of Possibilities: the Filmstrip in Post-War Education.” Anushrut then presented, “The Material and Mediator: Filmstrips during the Weimar Era,” co-written with Johannes Praetorius-Rhein, at the Rethinking Weimar Cinema Conference at Worcester College, Oxford.
Next, at the NECS Conference in Montpellier, Johannes presented “Relocating Filmstrips: From Archival Invisibility to Escaping the Laboratory.”
We concluded our conference month at the Annual Screen Studies Conference in Glasgow where Anushrut presented “Forgotten Optimisms: Filmstrips of Independent India,” while Tom Rice spoke about “Recycled Media: Filmstrips through the End of Empire.”
The presentations in June built on the work we have been developing through the last year. Johannes has been developing his ideas through the seminar he has been teaching since October last year. In January, Tom and Anushrut explored the colonial and postcolonial legacies of the filmstrip at the Screen Internationalism Seminar Series organised by David Wood at University College London. Finally, in March, for the IMACS/NECS Lecture Series Anushrut delivered the lecture “Of Lost Frames and Fragments: The Media Historical Possibilities of the Filmstrips.”
All these events, seminars, talks, and discussions provided valuable opportunities to share our work, receive thoughtful feedback and connect with colleagues working across arts, humanities, social science disciplines. We also connected with archivists, artists, and teachers who engaged with the filmstrip from perspectives of preservation, creativity, and media literacy. It proved to us that the filmstrip is a valuable resource for those invested in the histories of creativity, technology, and pedagogy. We look forward to continuing these conversations as the project develops.
