The Female Gaze? Postmodernism and the Search for Women in the Digitized Photographic Collections of Swedish Memory Institutions
Both the photograph and digitization are often defined as democratizing forces. But neither exists outside the system of power dynamics that structure art, history, and cultural heritage. This article uses postmodernist theorization of knowledge hierarchies in the archive developed by archival schol...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2019-05-01
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| Series: | Open Information Science |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2019-0005 |
| _version_ | 1818585978766360576 |
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| author | Pierce Rachel |
| author_facet | Pierce Rachel |
| author_sort | Pierce Rachel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Both the photograph and digitization are often defined as democratizing forces. But neither exists outside the system of power dynamics that structure art, history, and cultural heritage. This article uses postmodernist theorization of knowledge hierarchies in the archive developed by archival scholars Terry Cook and Joan Schwartz to examine the gendered nature of metadata and data connected to digitized photographic material available on the platforms of the three major Swedish memory institutions: the Royal Library, the Nordic Museum, and the National Archives. Given that digitized photographs require the addition of machine-readable data and metadata to be findable, this information demonstrates the extent to which digitization staffs have consciously thought about the visibility of gender in their online collections. The research questions of this article are thus twofold: (1) to what extend have Swedish memory institutions embraced a postmodern approach to the archive in their photography digitization projects, and (2) has this approach resulted in the greater visibility of women-oriented material? The findings indicate that Swedish institutions have adopted postmodernist thinking about archival flexibility to varying degrees, but none have thought thoroughly about increasing the visibility of woman-oriented material. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T08:45:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f18c1fde232c4a409ac5f36448f5fce0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2451-1781 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T08:45:40Z |
| publishDate | 2019-05-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Information Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-f18c1fde232c4a409ac5f36448f5fce02022-12-21T22:37:36ZengDe GruyterOpen Information Science2451-17812019-05-0131617510.1515/opis-2019-0005opis-2019-0005The Female Gaze? Postmodernism and the Search for Women in the Digitized Photographic Collections of Swedish Memory InstitutionsPierce Rachel0University of Borås, Department of Library and Information Science, Allégatan 1, 50190Borås, SwedenBoth the photograph and digitization are often defined as democratizing forces. But neither exists outside the system of power dynamics that structure art, history, and cultural heritage. This article uses postmodernist theorization of knowledge hierarchies in the archive developed by archival scholars Terry Cook and Joan Schwartz to examine the gendered nature of metadata and data connected to digitized photographic material available on the platforms of the three major Swedish memory institutions: the Royal Library, the Nordic Museum, and the National Archives. Given that digitized photographs require the addition of machine-readable data and metadata to be findable, this information demonstrates the extent to which digitization staffs have consciously thought about the visibility of gender in their online collections. The research questions of this article are thus twofold: (1) to what extend have Swedish memory institutions embraced a postmodern approach to the archive in their photography digitization projects, and (2) has this approach resulted in the greater visibility of women-oriented material? The findings indicate that Swedish institutions have adopted postmodernist thinking about archival flexibility to varying degrees, but none have thought thoroughly about increasing the visibility of woman-oriented material.https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2019-0005digitizationgenderpostmodernismcultural heritagephotography |
| spellingShingle | Pierce Rachel The Female Gaze? Postmodernism and the Search for Women in the Digitized Photographic Collections of Swedish Memory Institutions Open Information Science digitization gender postmodernism cultural heritage photography |
| title | The Female Gaze? Postmodernism and the Search for Women in the Digitized Photographic Collections of Swedish Memory Institutions |
| title_full | The Female Gaze? Postmodernism and the Search for Women in the Digitized Photographic Collections of Swedish Memory Institutions |
| title_fullStr | The Female Gaze? Postmodernism and the Search for Women in the Digitized Photographic Collections of Swedish Memory Institutions |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Female Gaze? Postmodernism and the Search for Women in the Digitized Photographic Collections of Swedish Memory Institutions |
| title_short | The Female Gaze? Postmodernism and the Search for Women in the Digitized Photographic Collections of Swedish Memory Institutions |
| title_sort | female gaze postmodernism and the search for women in the digitized photographic collections of swedish memory institutions |
| topic | digitization gender postmodernism cultural heritage photography |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2019-0005 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT piercerachel thefemalegazepostmodernismandthesearchforwomeninthedigitizedphotographiccollectionsofswedishmemoryinstitutions AT piercerachel femalegazepostmodernismandthesearchforwomeninthedigitizedphotographiccollectionsofswedishmemoryinstitutions |