Abstract
This chapter explores the tensions between the physicality and materiality of photographs and how these play-out in relation to digitized photographs displayed on a community social media site. The focus is around how physicality and materiality are experienced in practice, with illustrations from a particular case study: the Pebble Mill project, a community website and Facebook page commemorating the broadcasting history of BBC Pebble Mill. The focus of the chapter is around three principle areas: the relationship between the digitized image and memory in the online space, how digitization affects the material properties of the image and how online spaces present new digital encounters with the material image. I argue that whilst the physicality of photographs is altered through digitzation and online sharing, the benefits to online community archives in activating collective memory through photo-elicitation, outweigh any diminution of tangible material integrity. Such digital encounters have the potential to aid historical contextualisation thus improving and building online community archives
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Media Materialities: Form, Format and Ephemeral Meaning |
| Editors | Oliver Carter, Iain Taylor |
| Publisher | Intellect |
| Chapter | 9 |
| Pages | 205 |
| Number of pages | 227 |
| ISBN (Print) | ISBN 9781789388176 |
| Publication status | Published (VoR) - 12 Dec 2023 |
Keywords
- Photograph; digitization; photo-elicitation; online community