Humlab Talk: Which histories reside in the study of web archives?
Thu
2
Jun
Thursday 2 June, 2022at 15:15 - 17:00
ZOOM - registration required
Richard Rogers, University of Amsterdam
Abstract
The talks discusses how different historiographical ways of thinking are embedded in the four dominant approaches to web archiving to date: single-site, events, national and the self. It also discusses approaches that critique but also enliven each historiography. Special attention is given to the tension between the single-site (‘everything’) tradition of the Internet Archive and the national library turn, especially how the past web has become enfolded into the traditions of archival culture and 'old media', while it still may seek to maintain itself as exceptional, or as novel digital culture. In exploring this tension, the talk examines how particular ideas of how the web is constituted, novel or less so, have effected its capture and recording and will affect its study.
Richard Rogers is Professor of New Media & Digital Culture, Media Studies, University of Amsterdam. He is also the Director of the Digital Methods Initiative. Rogers is author of several books including two award-winning ones, Information Politics on the Web and Digital Methods, both published by MIT Press. He most recently published Doing Digital Methods (Sage).