Convegno finale

Media Mutations 16 International Conference

Unlocking Television Archives in the Digital Era

Bologna, Dipartimento delle Arti – Palazzo Marescotti (via Barberia, 4)

May 26th-27th, 2025

Organised by Luca Barra, Matteo Marinello, Emiliano Rossi (Università di Bologna), Susanne Eichner (Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Potsdam) and Anne-Katrin Weber (Université de Lausanne)

Keynote speakers: Kit Hughes (College of Liberal Arts, Colorado State University) and Ethan Thompson (Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)

The 16th edition of the Media Mutations international conference – developed as the closing event of the PRIN 2020 research project ATLas - Atlante delle televisioni locali (Atlas of Local Televisions) – explores and engages with the history and recent developments of TV archives, investigated both on a theoretical, technical and operational basis and with attention to their commercial potential. In an age of multi-channel and digital platforms, the use of archives as sources entails constant renegotiations of the ties between technology and memory, opening unexpected glimpses in public history and delving into the political dimension of cultural heritage’s reuse, exploitation and enhancement. Accordingly, the conference fosters dialogue on current practices, policies and emerging trends as far as the establishment, curation and maintenance of media corporations’ archives are concerned, while raising complex questions around their fair use(s). Minor, less-known case studies help in reconstructing a map of European, international and transnational television archives.

This conference is promoted by the Media Mutations Association and financially supported by PRIN 2020 ATLas and DAMSLab, under the patronage of Consulta Universitaria del Cinema and of Società italiana per lo studio della storia contemporanea. The conference is also organised in collaboration with VIEW. Journal of European Television History and Culture, SERIES. International Journal of Television Serial Narratives, and the TV Studies section of ECREA – European Communication Research and Education Association.

The acts of the conference will be published by Media Mutations Publishing.