‘Staging the Amateur Dispositif’: A media archaeological experiment performed at the 9th edition of the International Orphan Film Symposium, EYE Film Institute Amsterdam

How did people deal with a machine like the projector? What were the social dynamics during this interaction of users with the technology? Who was allowed to handle the thing and who was not? How much experience did you need to have before employing the video recorder? Who were invited to watch the private images? What kind of logistics was needed to make the living room a space for screening movies or videos or iPhone images? What were the rules during the screening? May you talk or not? May you walk or not? May you smoke or not?

With these questions, we – the project team of “Changing Platforms of Ritualized Memory Practices” – opened up an experiment at the 9th edition of the International Orphan Film Symposium held at the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam (March 31st, 2014). Instead of giving an academic lecture, we decided on performing how people watched their home movies in different time periods. The experiment directly relates to our research interest to understand how changing technologies of memory production have shaped new practices and rituals of memory staging. Moreover, it was also a tryout of alternative ways of presenting our research project to an international audience.