IkonsCentre Digital Archive

Michael Gray

Curator, Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock, UK

The speaker will give a brief outline and overview of this collaborative digital imaging and database project jointly undertaken three institutions based in Austria,I taly and Great Britain, administered and regulated by CPFSSU [La Consorzio di Pordenone per la formazione superiore gli studi universitari e la ricerca, Università di Pordenone, Italy.] set up in1998 as part of the European community's Raphaello Initiative.

As Scientific Director of the project my responsibility has been to work closely and liase with with all three co-partners in the venture to set up and establish agreed criteria for the digitisation, remastering and repurposing of all images to ensure that the overall results are of the highest possible standard and that the integrity of the resultant images matches, as closely as possible, the colour tonality of the photographic originals. Particular emphasis has been placed upon the nature and form of digital manipulation necessary to replicate and to evoke the qualities and appearance of the original images. The restricted use of programmes such as Photoshop, Intellihance, Debabilizer and associated programmes will be discussed in.the course of describing the procedures, processes and methods employed by the three institution. Examining the differences and methods used to synchronize and normalize the results.

Overview

The Fox Talbot Museum is in the process of establishing formal links with a number of academici nstitutions and has been successful in submitting an application for funding under the European Community DGX Raphaello programme. The programmer has been setup and organized under the direction of the * Consorzio di Pordenone per la formazione superiore gli studi universitari e la ricerca, Università di Pordenone, Italy.
[*The Consortium is a new university department set up to direct all new initiatives which relate to Visual Communications, Multimedia, Culture and the Visual Arts.]

The University has recently set up a centre whose purpose is to establish a new audiovisual multimedia and imaging centre. The principal founding partners being:

In Italy: Centro di Ricerca e Archiviazione della Fotografia, Lestans
Austria: Lessing Kunst Archiv, Wein
UK: National Trust, Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock

In addition other participants who have been invited to consider future participation in the project are the Photographic Museum, Reyjavik, Iceland; Academie des BeauxArts, Charleroi, Belgium; Academie des Beaux Arts, Tamines: Ateliér deRestauaration de la Photographie; Mairie de Paris, France, Circulo Fotografico di Atene, Greece; Ente Universitari del Fermano, Italy; Musei Civici di Padova, Padova, Italy; ICCROM / UNESCO, Rome, Italy; Fachhoschüle Anhalt, Dessau, Germany; Lette Verein, Berlin, Germany; Long Island University, New York, USA.

Subject to specific conditions all the participating archives will collaborate in the setting up and organization of a shared image database facility based upon a representative selection of images drawn from each institutional members' archives.

As one of the senior partners in this project the Fox Talbot Museum will have a central role in shaping and forming the policy of this collaborative grouping. The Curator is already a member of the Univiersity of Pordenone's Academic and Scientific Committee which will be overseeing the organization and setting up of this new initiative.

This current project, is part of a European Community Raphaello Initiative. A three-year University of PordenoneI KONSCENTER project.

This project, upon completion will give the Fox Talbot Museum a central role in the formation of this new academic facility. Upon completion of this pilot phase a representative selection of images and documents relating to the evolution, discovery and development of the negative/positive photographic process will be accessible and able to be studied and consulted through JANET (Joint Academic Network) over the Internet.

The Consortium intend to provide a range of courses at postgraduate level, with both practical and theoretical content: all participants will be made aware of the range of ethical and social considerations which it is necessary to address in order to maintained and conserve the integrity of the vast number of visual images which, in the immediate and long term, will be digitized, stored and disseminated within the wider European Community and beyond.

This new initiative will utilize and integrate the most up to date systems and software with the intention of setting up and staffing this facility with individuals who possess:

1. an outstanding and recognized level of knowledge and expertise in the interpretation of visual arts in the broadest sense and

2. who are able to form the basis of a team to organize, set up and run a range of postgraduate courses designed to meet the future needs of members of the European Community who, in the mmediate future, will be required and or motivated to work in the field of multimedia, image processing and image retrieval systems in the private, public, educational and government sectors.

The Fox Talbot Museum will contribute copies of its digitised images and data and in turn receive and be able to use and make available for academic purposes the images and documents it will receive on CD Rom from CRAF [the Centro di Ricereca e Archiviazione dellaFotografia], the Erich Lessing Photographic and Fine Art Archive in addition to all future partners on the basis of reciprocal agreements.

In each case if any request is received from any visitors using the facility for the reproduction of any of the other participants images the Fox Talbot Museum will redirect their enquiries back to the archive/ museum in question. In any case none of the digital images which originate from the archives of other participants would hold sufficient data to maker eproduction possible.

This agreement between the Consortium, CRAF, the Lessing Photographic and Fine Art Archive, the Photographic Museum of Reyjavik, Musei Civici diPadova and the National Trust Fox Talbot each agree to make available a selection of images, documents and archival data to form a collective educational resource which can be used as part of academict eaching and research programmes. This collective resource will be made available to the wider academic community through via the European Universities' JANET Internet programme. It will also be publically accessible through each of the participating organization through terminals and access points located within each of the partners websites and to all citizens of the European Community having access to the World Wide Web.