Global Media and Translocal Publics – Conference 19-21 June, IBZ Munich

FINAL-29.04.2014From 19-21 June, speakers from Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Poland,  Portugal, UK, USA representing 10 disciplines shall discuss the intersection of media, migration and the creation of new translocal publics in the field of  theatre between 1850 and 1950 at the conference Theatrescapes. Global  Media & Translocal Publics. Papers shall address the following sub-topics:

  • Theatre and global media (how did performers, entrepreneurs, directors interact with global media, and how did global media foster the global dissemination of theatrical material (plays, formats, institutions, etc.)
  • Translocal publics (the emergence of theatrical public spheres in situations of cross-cultural contact)
  • The press and globalized theatrical reading publics
  • Networked stages (transnational interconnections of producers and productions, impresarios and agents)
  • New urban centres as theatrical contact zones
  • Theatre-building as a (inter)cultural act

The event is taking place at IBZ Munich. http://www.ibz-muenchen.de.

Sincere thanks to the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (http://www.fritz-thyssen-stiftung.de) for the financial support!

Theatrescapes Conference Programme 19-21 June

Digital Curation and the Performing Arts

Poster Doug ResideOn 8th and 9th May, the Theatrescapes research group organized a talk and workshop with Doug Reside, digital curator of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. (www.nypl.org). The event took place at and was generously co-financed by the Center for Advances Studies (LMU) (www.cas.uni-muenchen.de).

In his talk, Digital Curation and the Performing Arts, Doug discussed his role at the library and demonstrated the impressing tools he has developed to preserve the material of the library’s collections, and to engage new readers/users.

The workshop Whither Digital Humanities? Curators Meet Researchers  aimed at mediating the dialogue between researchers from theatre and art studies, librarians, curators and archivists. Participants explored the chances, benefits and challenges of introducing digital tools into their respective field of work and presented their DH projects and databases. DH Workshop Programme & Participants .

Both the talk and the workshop turned out to be a big success and initiated vivid discussions and exciting plans for future cooperations between researchers, archivists and librarians in the field of Theatre Studies.

The talk has been recorded and will be out soon.

Klick here for Nic Leonhardt’s introductory remarks (in German): 

http://nicleonhardt.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/whither-digital-humanities/

Theatrescapes

This blog is related to the research project “Theatrescapes. Mapping Global Theatre Histories” based at LMU Munich and directed by Dr. Nic Leonhardt. Financed through a LMUexcellent starting grant, this project is connected to the Reinhart Koselleck project “Global Theatre Histories”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) project, and a pioneer in the application of Digital Humanities tools to theatre historiography in Germany. Theatrescapes combines, in an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, questions of global history and transnational theory with the methods and tools of Digital Humanities and adapts these to the analysis of theatre history. The historiography of theatre and media history dedicated to analysing its objects as phenomena of global circulation and exchange, relies on a relational and multi-dimensional perspective which can only profit from established paradigms and recent innovations in Digital Humanities (DH) and Historical Network Analysis. Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai has coined the notion of various “-scapes” for understanding the different dimensions of globalization. The project embraces this key concept of ethnographical, sociological, and historical research in order to collect, visualize, and depict global flows and cultural encounters in 19th and 20th century theatre and opera. As one of the leading media and cultural institutions of this period, theatre of all genres acted as a global currency or good of cultural exchange, mobility, and trade, which calls for a framework of Global Theatre Histories.