Course Announcement: Middle East Photography Preservation Initiative

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Aug 12, 2013
[MEPPI logo.] [MEPPI logo.]

Course Announcement: Middle East Photography Preservation Initiative

By : Jadaliyya Reports

Applications are currently being accepted for Middle East Photography Preservation Initiative Amman 2014

Workshop date: 20-28 January 2014

Workshop venue: National Library of Jordan in Amman

Distance mentoring: February to September 2014

Follow-up meeting: Fall 2014

Please submit your applications to applications@meppi.me by 19 August 2013

The MEPPI Initiative

The Arab Image Foundation, the Art Conservation Department at the University of Delaware, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Conservation Institute are partners in the Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative (MEPPI), a strategic initiative to promote the preservation and awareness of photograph collections in

the broad Middle East, from North Africa and the Arab Peninsula through Western Asia. Portions of this project are supported by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The initiative has three interconnected components:

  • The MEPPI Survey: a collection survey to assess and identify significant photograph holdings across the Arab World, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan
  • The MEPPI Courses: a series of three courses that will train personnel responsible for the care of photographic collections in the region.
  • The MEPPI Symposium: a symposium focusing on the photographic heritage of the broader Middle East for regional policy- and decision-makers.

A complete description of the initiative is available at http://www.meppi.me.

MEPPI Courses

MEPPI courses are designed to provide basic theoretical and practical training in the care of a broad range of photographic materials found in the collections of museums, libraries, archives and other repositories. The courses deliver learning and hands-on experience in both classroom and workplace settings. They carefully combine theoretical and practical training to inspire a deeper understanding of photographic materials and processes, their deterioration mechanisms, and appropriate strategies for their long-term preservation. International representation among course participants fosters the exchange of ideas, philosophies, and preservation techniques, and strengthens connections between professionals for continued future interactions. MEPPI has trained over 30 collections keepers to date through courses in Beirut (2011) and Abu Dhabi (2012). MEPPI Amman 2014 will be the final course in this series. 

Course Structure

MEPPI Amman 2014 is the last of three courses.

Participants in MEPPI Amman 2014 must commit to taking part in all three phases of the course:

  • An eight-day workshop that will include lectures, demonstrations, hands-on projects, collection visits, and case studies. (20-28 January 2014, National Library of Jordan, Amman, Jordan)
  • An eight-month period of assigned practical work that participants carry out in their own institutions while remaining in contact with an instructor. These assignments will allow participants to apply the concepts and information presented during the workshop to their own collections. Completed assignments will be submitted periodically to the instructor through the MEPPI website. The instructor will mentor participants by providing advice, guidance and additional information to assist them in their work with their collections. The MEPPI website will also allow participants to share information with one another and to take part in joint assignments and projects. Participants can expect to spend from five to ten hours each month on practical work and distance mentoring with an instructor. (February to September 2014, participants working at home institutions)
  • A final five-day meeting where the participants and several of the instructors will share the results of their experiences and consider the potential next steps in advancing the preservation of their collections. Participation in the final meeting is contingent on the completion and submission of all course assignments. (Fall 2014 at a location to be determined).

Workshop Content

The workshop will provide an overview of the technical history of photographic processes with a particular emphasis on the characterization and identification of albumen, silver gelatin, and chromogenic color print materials, glass- and filmbased negatives. Other more rare photographic processes, such as the daguerreotype, will be introduced. Lectures interwoven with hands-on practica will be conducted by conservators Debra Hess Norris, Nora Kennedy and Tram Vo, and scientist Bertrand Lavédrine. The importance of balancing preservation and access will be highlighted in discussions on establishing handling guidelines, improving storage and exhibition practices—including cold storage, environmental assessment and practical control measures, as well as mitigation from airborne contaminants and pollutants. Sessions on best practices for digitization and access will be lead by photograph conservator Klaus Pollmeier. The importance of emergency preparedness, response and recovery will be emphasized. Methodology of collection surveys and prioritizing for preservation will be touched upon in the interest of creating practical strategies for long-term preservation of collections. Lectures and discussions on fundraising, contemporary art, and the history of photography and contemporary art will be provided by Zeina Arida, Director of the Arab Image Foundation, and other invited speakers.

The workshop will be held in English with simultaneous translation available into Arabic. Some written course materials may only be available in English and/or French.

Cost

There are no fees for attending the workshop or for participating in the mentoring and follow-up meeting. Travel, lodging, and per diem for the workshop and final meeting may be subsidized based on demonstrated institutional financial need. Funding requests will be reviewed individually.

Eligibility

MEPPI participants include staff whose duties involve the care of photographic collections in museums, libraries, archives or similar institutions. Such personnel may include archivists, collection managers, but also curators, photographers, and other collection custodians. Applications are welcome from countries of the Levant, the Arab Peninsula and North Africa. Participants from Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan are also invited to apply. Please note that the application process requires a signed statement from the director of the applicant’s institution indicating their complete support for full participation in all phases of MEPPI. Applicants requiring funding assistance will be asked to submit a letter stating their institution’s budgetary constraints.

To Apply

Applications for MEPPI Amman 2014 must be submitted no later than 19 August 2013.

Application forms are available at http://www.meppi.me/meppi-courses/meppi-amman-2014.

To obtain more information, please contact info@meppi.me.

 

Initiative pour la Préservation de Photographies au Moyen-Orient (MEPPI)
Formation MEPPI Amman 2014 

Les candidatures sont ouvertes pour la Formation MEPPI Amman 2014

Dates du workshop : du 20 au 28 janvier 2014

Lieu : Bibliothèque Nationale de Jordanie, Amman

Enseignement à distance: février à septembre 2014

Réunion de fin de formation: automne 2014

Veuillez soumettre votre candidature à applications@meppi.me avant 19 août2013

Le projet MEPPI

La Fondation Arabe pour l’Image, le Art Conservation Department de l’Université du Delaware, le Metropolitan Museum of Art, et le Getty Conservation Institute sont partenaires de l’Initiative pour la Préservation de Photographies au Moyen-Orient (MEPPI), une initiative stratégique qui a pour vocation de promouvoir et de sensibiliser à la préservation des collections photographiques au Moyen-Orient, depuis l’Afrique du Nord jusqu’à la Péninsule Arabique.

Une généreuse subvention de la Fondation Andrew W. Mellon finance une grande partie du projet MEPPI.

 

L’initiative MEPPI comprend trois volets complémentaires.

  • L’Etude MEPPI : une étude dédiée à l’identification et à l’évaluation des collections photographiques significatives du monde arabe, mais aussi de la Turquie, de l’Iran et de l’Afghanistan
  • Les Formations MEPPI : une série de trois formations proposées au personnel en charge des collections de la région
  • Le Symposium MEPPI : un symposium dédié à l’héritage photographique du Moyen-Orient, et destiné aux décideurs politiques et culturels régionaux

Une description complète de l’initiative est disponible sur http://www.meppi.me.

Les formations MEPPI

Chaque formation MEPPI propose un enseignement approfondi sur la préservation des différents types de matériel photographique existant dans les collections de musées, bibliothèques, archives, et autres collections similaires. Les formations MEPPI ont été pensées dans l’idée de proposer un apprentissage intensif en séance, complété par une application pratique sur le lieu de travail des participants. Cette formation, à la fois théorique et pratique, est essentielle pour comprendre les différents types de procédés et de supports photographiques, les mécanismes de leur détérioration, et les stratégies de préservation à long terme.

Le brassage des origines des participants est essentiel pour un échange d’idées et de techniques de préservation, et pour créer des liens renforcés et durables entre les participants. Les trois formations se tiendront entre 2011 et 2014 dans trois villes différentes. A ce jour, MEPPI a formé plus de 30 responsables de collections à travers des formations à Beyrouth (2011) et à Abou Dabi (2012). MEPPI Amman 2014 vient clôturer ce cycle de formations.

MEPPI Amman 2014

Structure de la formation

Les participants à MEPPI Amman 2014 sont tenus de s’engager à participer aux trois phases de la formation :

  • Un workshop de huit jours comprenant des conférences, des démonstrations, des travaux pratiques, des visites de collections et des études de cas.
  • Des travaux pratiques à distance s’étendant sur huit mois, au cours desquels les participants seront suivis, au sein de leur institution d’origine, par un instructeur à distance. Les travaux pratiques permettront aux participants d’appliquer les enseignements du séminaire à leurs propres collections. Les travaux pratiques, une fois accomplis, seront présentés à l’instructeur via le site web du MEPPI. L’instructeur épaulera les participants en se rendant disponible pour les conseiller et les assister dans leur travail sur leurs propres collections, via internet ou par téléphone. Le site web du MEPPI permettra également aux participants de partager des informations et de participer à des travaux pratiques en commun. Au cours de cette période, les participants consacreront entre cinq et dix heures chaque mois aux travaux pratiques et à l’enseignement à distance. Il est essentiel pour chaque participant de remettre l’ensemble des travaux à distance afin de pouvoir assister à la troisième étape de la formation.
  • Une réunion de fin de formation de cinq jours où participants et instructeurs se réuniront pour partager les résultats de leur expérience et discuter ensemble des prochaines étapes pour la préservation de leurs collections.

Programme du workshop

Le séminaire proposera une introduction à l’histoire technique des différents procédés photographiques avec un accent particulier sur la caractérisation et l’identification de l’albumine, des tirages argentiques, des copies chromogènes, des plaques de verre et des films négatifs. D’autres procédés plus rares, comme le daguerréotype, seront présentés à titre introductif. Les sessions théoriques seront accompagnées de travaux pratiques dirigés par les conservatrices Debra Hess Norris, Nora Kennedy et Tram Vo, ainsi que Bertrand Lavédrine, chercheur au CNRS. L’importance de trouver un équilibre entre l’accès aux collections et leur préservation sera abordé lors de discussions sur la mise en place de consignes pour manipuler les photographies, sur l’adoption de bonnes pratiques pour l’archivage, le stockage, le contrôle des conditions environnementales, et la réduction de l’impact des agents de contamination et éléments polluants présents dans l’air. LE conservateur de photographies Klaus Pollmeier animera des séances dédiées à la numérisation.

Les autres sujets abordés incluront les différentes méthodes d’évaluation du contenu d’une collection, l’intérêt d’élaborer des stratégies pour la préservation à long-terme des collections, et l’importance des plans de sauvetage d’urgence. Des présentations complémentaires seront données par des intervenants spécialisés sur l’histoire de la photographie, l’utilisation d’archives photographiques dans l’art contemporain, et la collecte de fonds.

Le séminaire se déroulera en anglais, avec une traduction simultanée offerte en arabe. Il est possible que certains documents de support ne soient disponibles qu’en anglais et/ou en français.

Coût

La participation au séminaire, à l’enseignement à distance et à la réunion de fin de formation est gratuite. Les coûts du déplacement pour assister au séminaire, les coûts d’hébergement, et des per diem pour les repas pourront être couverts par les organisateurs en fonction des besoins de chaque institution. Chaque demande de financement sera examinée individuellement.

Eligibilité

Les participants au MEPPI seront sélectionnés parmi le personnel en charge de collections photographiques de musées, de bibliothèques, d’archives, et autres institutions similaires. Il pourra s’agir de conservateurs, d’archivistes, et de responsables de collections. Les candidatures sont ouvertes aux participants issus des pays arabes depuis l’Afrique du Nord jusqu’à la Péninsule Arabique, mais également aux collections de Turquie, d’Afghanistan et d’Iran. Veuillez noter que le dossier de candidature comprend une attestation signée par laquelle le directeur de l’institution candidate confirme son soutien à la participation du candidat à toutes les phases de la formation. Les candidats nécessitant un soutien financier devront soumettre une lettre attestant des contraintes budgétaires de leur institution.

Pour soumettre votre candidatures

Les candidatures à MEPPI Amman 2014 doivent être déposées au plus tard le 19 août 2013.

Les dossiers de candidature sont disponibles à l’adresse http://www.meppi.me/meppi-courses/meppi-amman-2014.

Pour plus d’information, veuillez contacter info@meppi.me.

 

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Jadaliyya Reports By :
Jadaliyya Reports

Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 

[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412