Photographic archives have turned to digital means to increase access to their collections to wider publics as well as engage with their materials in creative, ethical and decolonial purposes. This project seeks to engage with our partner, the Arab Image Foundation, to answer a two-fold question: on the one hand, how to organize ontologies that would inform metadata protocols, and on the other hand, how to design digital interfaces to photographic archives. The specificity of the content of the collections requires the development of interactive projects that engage with localized technological means and interdisciplinary collaboration with computer scientists, archivists, artists and digital heritage specialists
Challenges
This practice-based research position will make the space for a critical engagement with developing digital projects that interface photographic archives of the Arab world. There are multiple digital interfaces that can be prototyped and subsequently developed in coordination with the archivists and the digital collections coordinator at the Arabic Image Foundation. This will serve to bridge the computational fields with the archival fields in a creative manner. The students will design and build complex interactive projects in collaboration with artists, designers, and other creative professionals. In addition, students would work on developing ontologies, a shared thesaurus, and a metadata protocol for the collection as the foundation transitions to a new digital asset management system. This exposure will provide invaluable experience to students working closely within one of the leading archival institutions in the Arab world
Methods
Computer Science
Digital Media
Software Design
Web Development
Archiving
Academic Majors of Interest
Computer Science
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Digital Media
Preferred Skills
Front-end web and back-end web development
JavaScript
Html/CSS as well as JavaScript libraries including react
node
PHP
MySQL
Python
Content management systems
Dublin Core and/or other metadata standards
p5.js and/or data viz libraries such as d3.js
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Interpersonal Communication skills
Students
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