This conference takes its point of departure in the apparently obvious paradox: Museums are commonly described as storehouses for the real and authentic object, but have eagerly been embracing new copying technologies since the beginnings. On the one hand, digitalization can be seen in continuation of older practices. On the other hand, digital technologies apparently offer the possibility of reproducing, recreating, reconstructing, re-enacting, replicating and disseminating originals and copies in an abundance of new (and mixed) ways.

In order to unfold this paradox, we will address the following key questions: How can these changes in new reproduction technologies help us pose new questions to the history of museums and collections? Are they altering the status of objects and collections? Are the roles of museum users and the work of museum professionals being redefined as curatorial agency with digital copies is not limited to the latter? What are currently the best digital museum practises and how do they influence the museum institution and its users.

PROGRAMME

10.30 - 10.45 Introduction, Professor Brita Brenna, University of Oslo and
Professor Hans Dam Christensen, University of Copenhagen

10.45 - 11.20 Anders Houltz: A virtual chamber of models? Circulation, digitization and layers of authenticity
Associate Professor and Head of Research at the Centre for Business History, Stockholm

11.20 - 11.55 Sarah Werner: What makes a copy original?
Book historian and digital media scholar, Washington DC

11.55 - 12.30 Anaïs Aguerre: ReACH: a collective re-think of our approach to copies in the age of digital reproduction
Founder and managing director of Culture Connect Ltd

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch

13.30 - 14.05 Cecilia Lindhé: (title to be announced)
Director of the Centre for Digital Humanities, Gothenburg University

14.05 - 14.50 Jenny Kidd: Object experiences in immersive heritage practice
Senior Lecturer in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University

14.50 - 15.20 Coffee

15.20 - 16.05 Ross Parry: A postdigital history of museum replicas: reclaiming the imitative, the illusory and the uncanny
Professor at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, UK

16.05 - 16.30 Concluding discussion

The event is open to all and participation is free of charge. If you wish to join, registration is mandatory.

The conference is organised by professor Hans Dam Christensen, University of Copenhagen, and associate professor Lise Skytte Jakobsen, Aarhus University ([email protected]), as a part of the research project Museum. A Culture of Copies, funded by the Research Council of Norway: