Publications | Media Studies

Dr. Catherine Lord in nominated short research film ‘Now Circa’

By professor Redell Olsen

Now Circa (1918) is shortlisted for the Research in Film Award of the AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council). ‘Now Circa’ is a film essay that quotes original archival research undertaken at John Rylands Suffrage Collection, Manchester and The Women’s Library, LSE. It embodies historical detail and texture relating to the material culture of the suffragettes: such as the handwritten inventory of costs for a march. The film marks the one hundred year anniversary of female suffrage in the UK. The judges remarked that this was ‘an interesting, excellent and imaginative use of the medium of film to explore issues of feminism and explain the history of women’s suffrage.’ Read more here. >

Sal Hagen, UvA-alumnus of Media Studies, wins internet thesis prize 2018

Hagen won with his thesis: 'Here I Am, Praying to an Egyptian Frog. Exploring Political Fluidity on 4chan/pol/'

On the 1st of November 2018, Hagen won the internet thesis prize 2018. Hagen wrote this thesis as part of the research master of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Read more here (in Dutch). >

Collecting and Conserving Net Art. Moving Beyond Conventional Methods

by Annet Dekker

In Collecting and Conserving Net Art. Moving Beyond Conventional Methods published by Routledge, Annet Dekker analyses and proposes new views on the conservation of net art, and (re)consider traditional concepts such as authenticity, performativity and networks, while questioning what is a document? As the publisher mentions: Collecting and Conserving Net Art explores the qualities and characteristics of net art and its influence on conservation practices. By addressing and answering some of the challenges facing net art and providing an exploration of its intersection with conservation, the book casts a new light on net art, conservation, curating and museum studies.Viewing net art as a process rather than as a fixed object, the book considers how this is influenced by and executed through other systems and users. Arguing that these processes and networks are imbued with ambiguity, the book suggests that this is strategically used to create suspense, obfuscate existing systems and... >

PhD Defense Hugo Huurdeman

Supporting the Complex Dynamics of the Information Seeking Process 18 april, 10 u, Agnietenkapel

Search engines increasingly serve as the prime intermediaries between user and information. Their features have converged to a very streamlined set: a single search box and 10 ‘blue links’. However, in the context of complex tasks involving learning and knowledge construction, the search process is far from straightforward, as various information seeking models have evidenced. In his thesis, Hugo sheds new light on the apparent contradiction of information seeking models describing drastic changes in searchers’ feelings, thoughts and actions, and the limited task support offered by current search systems. He focuses on research-based tasks conducted via web archives and online search engines. Through literature reviews, user studies and information retrieval experiments, the thesis aims to rethink the currently dominating search approach, and ultimately arrive at more dynamic support approaches for complex search tasks. Supervisors: R.A. Rogers A.P. de Vries Co-supervisor: J. Kamps >

Inflexions: A Journal for Research-creation

Publication Toni Pape, Halbe Kuipers

We are happy to announce the recent publication of the latest issue of Inflexions: A Journal for Research-creation, co-edited among others by our colleague Toni Pape and ASCA Ph.D. candidate Halbe Kuipers. This issue is entitled “Modes of Exhaustion” and explores the wide-spread problem of exhaustion from various angles. Contributors include Barbara Glowczewski, Peter Pál Pelbart, Alanna Thain, Marwin Vos, Sissel Marie Tonn, Nicole de Brabandere, Adam Szymanski and others. From the introduction: “This issue of Inflexions is committed to investigating what minor ways of creatively working with exhaustion might be possible or impossible today while taking into account that the range of possibility is tied to the conditioning of the field that makes these options felt as real. How can one create vacuoles in the strangling networks of social relations and obligations; and what kinds of spatio-temporal compositions might constitute these vacuoles? With this question we, the editors and authors, want to approach... >

Surveillance as a public matter

by Lonneke van der Velden

L.C. van der Velden: Surveillance as Public Matter: Revisiting sousveillance through Devices and Leaks. PhD defense was in Agnietenkapel, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 229, Amsterdam, on 8 February. Lonneke van der Velden investigates concepts of surveillance in the context of digital innovations. As surveillance consists of processes that are technical and often secret, she asks how surveillance is made public, and what kind of translation process this involves. She tackles this question by combining an empirical inquiry into how surveillance is traced and made visible and understandable with a conceptual search for new vocabularies to address surveillance practices and countermeasures. Supervisor Prof. D.A.J.P. Denys Co-supervisor Dr R.A. Rogers >

Digital Methods Summer School project featured in the New York Times

Project from 2016 critiques stock images

The Digital Methods Summer School project from 2016 is a critique of stock images, and shows how the Lean In collection by Getty Images, aimed at empowering women, is used out of context. See ‘From Sex Object to Gritty Woman: The Evolution of Women in Stock Photos’ >