How do digital practices in curation and use of innovative digital platforms for engagement lead to new interpretations of institutional collections

拟议的目标和方法遵循技术人类学的方法，反映了图像的物质性、流动性和社会表演性（即它们的生产、流通和消费），并使用行动研究和民族志用户体验研究来评估当机构收藏从模拟领域转化为数字领域时如何产生（多重）意义。这是一个包容的框架，允许其他方法和视觉/数字研究方法共存，随着研究的发展和变得更加精细，这些方法可以被纳入其中。记录影响历史机构藏品如何进入数字领域的不同因素（如技术、部门、法律），包括V&A、其他机构和博物馆以外的实践。探索如何（重新）通过数字领域的网络内容将机构历史藏品与其原产地/生产地联系起来，从而产生图像的多重意义3。分析数字化历史收藏品的“材料扁平化”和图像内容（包括颜色、比例、裁剪和表面纹理）的翻译对图像的社会表现和解释的影响4。通过调查机构背景内外图像的分组、链接、排序和分离，评估在界面/平台上使用数字化照片对讲故事和叙事的影响。（最后一个目标将是研究的主要焦点，并可能随着初步研究的进展而扩大。）在项目的不同阶段，将探索和完善广泛的视觉、材料和数字研究方法，以实现每个研究目的和目标。首先，将决定一种合适的方法，最终确定布鲁姆菲尔德收藏的样本（提议的100张照片），用于大部分研究。这些藏品包括大约3万张底片和印刷品（对于整个项目来说太大了），博物馆尚未对其进行编目或数字化。摄影师日志的电子表格列表将用于按日期、地点和频率（例如委托最多工作的公司）选择材料，最初建议关注20世纪中期的英国工业。我已经利用这个机会拜访了一组工作人员和实习生，他们目前正在定期（直到2017年6月底）将这些藏品重新安置到保护标准，以更好地熟悉这些藏品的视觉内容和材料状况，并帮助在夏季结束前完成一系列合适的照片。我也希望在这段时间里，与更多的V&A员工一起使用访谈和参与性观察方法，为目标1做出贡献：记录历史照片如何进入机构的数字领域。一旦选定了样本量，将细化相应的实证研究重点，以便在项目时间范围内完成。例如，以最初提出的技术人类学框架为起点，目标2将涉及探索研究方法，解决与所选样本内容相关的不同地点数字复制图像的流通和消费问题。目标3将使用研究方法来解决所选样本的材料质量，包括摄影师的痕迹和对摄影图像的编辑。研究方法，解决顺序和顺序的图像由不同的机构，并随后由不同的观众叙事将用于探索目标4。此外，行动研究方法将用于结合多种民族志技术（例如材料分析，对象历史，参与者观察和照片提取），通过开发数字平台在我的第二年进行研究，将其应用于目标2,3和4。

Proposed aims and methodologies follow a techno-anthropological approach that reflects on the materiality, mobility and socially performative nature of images (i.e. their production, circulation and consumption), and uses action research and ethnographic user experience research to evaluate how (multiple) meanings are generated when institutional collection are translated from the analogue to digital realm. This an encompassing framework that allows coexistence of other approaches and visual/digital research methodologies that can be incorporated as research develops and becomes more refined.1. To document the different factors (e.g. technical, departmental, legal) that affect how historic institutional collections can enter the digital realm, including at the V&A, other institutions, and practice outside of museums.2. To explore how (re)connecting institutional historic collections with their place of origin/production through networking content in the digital realm produces multivocal meanings of images3. To analyse the effects of 'material flattening' and translations in image content (including colour, scale, cropping and surface texture) of digitised historic collections on the social performance and interpretation of images4. To evaluate how storytelling and narratives are affected by using digitised photographs on an interface/platform by investigating the grouping, linking, sequencing and detachment of images within and outside of institutional contexts. (This last aim will be the main focus of the research and is likely to be expanded as initial research progresses.) A wide range of visual, material and digital research methods will be explored and refined for each of the research aims and objectives at different stages of the project. First a suitable method will be decided to finalise a sample of the Broomfield collection (a proposed 100 photographs) to use for the bulk of the research. The collection consists of an estimated 30,000 negatives and prints (too large as a whole for the project) and it has not yet been catalogued or digitised by the museum. Spreadsheet listings of the photographer's logbooks will be used to select material by date, location, and frequency (for example the company that commissioned the most jobs), initially with a suggested focus on mid-twentieth century British Industry. I have already been taking the opportunity of visiting a team of staff and interns who are currently rehousing the collection to conservation standards on a regular basis (until the end of June 2017) to better familiarise myself with the collection's visual content and material condition, and help finalise a suitable range of photographs by the end of the summer. I also hope to use interview and participant observation methods with wider V&A staff during this time to contribute to aim 1: documenting how historic photographs enter the digital realm at institutions. Once a sample size is selected the corresponding foci for empirical research will be refined for completion within the project timescale. For example, following the initial proposed techno-anthropological framework as a starting point, aim 2 will involve exploring research methods that address the circulation and consumption of digitally reproduced images at different sites related to the content of the chosen sample. Aim 3 will use research methods that address the material qualities of the chosen sample including traces of the photographer and edits to the photographic images. Research methods that address order and sequencing of images by different agencies, and subsequent narrative-making by differing audiences will be utilised to explore aim 4. Further, an action research approach will be used to incorporate multiple ethnographic techniques (e.g. material analysis, object histories, participant observation and photo elicitation), as applied to aims 2, 3 and 4 through the development of digital platforms to conduct research during my second year.