Subject: On-line
Collaboration
Posted By: Wayne Hanley
Date Posted: June 6, 2003, 9:53 AM
As for the collaborative
nature of this particular project, I had a desire, reading through
the various contributions, to edit, revise,
expand, etc. my own contribution. It is not unlike—for lack of
a better term—a virtual conference, where the feedback, criticism,
and synergy inspire one to improve one's work (or at least my own
work). I think there is a future in that, not only for the contributors
but for those who afterward read the various contributions and
commentary.
Subject: On-line Collaboration
Posted By: Barbara Day-Hickman
Date Posted: July 1, 2003, 4:22 PM
On-line methods enable scholars to see
images that would normally be unavailable because of the limitations
of time, travel, and
the inaccessibility of special collections, particularly in France.
Furthermore,
on-line versions of any given or multiple images can be viewed
comparatively or expanded for detail on screen. The notion of beginning
a study
of visual evidence by discussing or debating a particular problem
with colleagues both near and far could be very helpful, particularly
for scholars working in interdisciplinary research. Obviously this
experiment offers a welcome approach to what has been for most
scholars a very esoteric and solitary process. I particularly learned
much
from Warren's analyses of crowd violence in Le Prieur's study of
Foulon [Image
2] and Bertier de Sauvigny [Image
31]. I likewise
found Vivian's analysis of the ritualistic and redemptive aspects
of the “Execution of Louis XVI” [Image
15] to be both
provocative and inspiring. Both colleagues offer important avenues
to understanding
the issue of revolutionary crowd violence by using historical cues
in the prints to expand their interpretation as well as by incorporating
contemporaneous comments and criticism to address the image from
the purview of the revolutionary epoch.
Subject: on material objects and digital technology
Posted By: Joan Landes
Date Posted: July 12, 2003, 5:33 PM
Regrettably, researchers, like students,
are likely to have to rely increasingly on facsimiles as originals
are withdrawn from both
public and scholarly access. As has been acknowledged, the videodisk
of
the BNF [Bibliotèque Nationale de France]
collection has been a marvelous research tool, facilitating comparison
according to style, genre, medium, and, where available, place,
date, and artistic authorship. Further research – derived
from notarial and police records, censorship directives, business
archives, newspaper advertisements, as well as guild, academic
or sales records – promises to enhance our understanding
of publication and distribution of specific prints (inside and
outside France), as well as the career paths and contributions
of individual artists and engravers. Databases now have the ability
to incorporate both visual and printed information. With enhanced
forums for scholarly exchange and Web publication, we can look
forward to the “next” generation
version of what the BNF and Pergamon Press created in the 1980s
and intended by the larger distribution of the BNF holdings.
I hope for further advantages to be gained by exploiting digitized
images. As the image tool used here indicates, what is most needed
is a technology that can better approximate the sensuous experience
of physical handling and directly examining a material object.
For example, among the many frustrations of the 1980s’s
videodisk and analogue technology, I would include the deficient
quality of the text and image, the restriction of zooming to
pre-selected examples, and the decision to excise accidental
hand or printed markings from the photograph, including perhaps
page numbers, penciled (not engraved) signatures or publishing
house markings. However, improved conditions of reproduction
and a well-designed database could conceivably permit more efficient
ways to answer Vivian’s
or other questions: Was this particular work one of many in a
book or pamphlet? Was it intended to stand-alone or to be part
of a series? Can we discern anything about the print run? Was
the plate reused to make the same or a different engraving, and
did this change the work’s political orientation? Yet,
as more is gained from digital reproduction and on-line viewing,
we will need to find ways to reproduce the impact on the researcher
of viewing two works of different size on the same subject, or
the palpable
result of examining hand-colored additions to a black and white
engraving.
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