"(Un)archiving the (Post)Industry" project is searching for photos or videos for digitalization

You are invited to share the photo and video materials telling about the life of industrial cities in the Donbas, and other regions, for the free of charge digitalization.

Organizers: Center for Urban History in Lviv, Donetsk Regional Local History Museum, Pokrovsk Historical Museum, and Mariupol Local History Museum.

The digitalized materials will be part of the collections of these institutions. Artists and researchers will be able to use them to produce artistic and academic works. The project is implemented in cooperation with the University of St Andrews (UK) in 2020-2021.

After the digitalization, all original copies will be returned to owners, along with the electronic copies.

Photos and videos are the characteristic features of the industrial epoch of the late 19th – early 20th century. The media helped record the creation and life of plants; they were hobbies and callings for workers and engineers; they acted as the tools for advertising, control, propaganda, and pride for one's work. Professionals and amateurs shall be paid tribute for documenting the epoch. It helps learn about and feel the life of the industrial towns of the Donbas.

The process of economy transformation of the 1990s resulted either into the scattered archives, both factory-owned or individual or into their loss. Our project tries to collect the preserved materials and create a digital archive to illustrate the work, leisure, space and architecture, exceptional events, and everyday routines of industrial towns, of mines and factories, of individuals at work and at home.

We would like to encourage all owners of materials currently held in various collections (whether at home (family), at factories, in museums, in the amateur clubs or in the houses of culture, in newspapers, and production or television studios) – please, share your collections with us for digitalization (free of charge).

A key focus is on the following materials (but not restricted):

• photos (on paper and on films) and video recordings (8, 16 and 35 mm) of factory life and of manufacturing processes: a working team, products, walls of honour, newsreels, materials from the factory museums, bulletin board newspapers, group leisure time spending and informal events,
• photos and videos with cityscapes, street life, nature and environment, civic and political activity, such as participating in parades, demonstrations, informal cultural and youth life, protests and strikes,
• home videos: family events and celebrations, the life of city neighborhoods, trips, colleagues after work.

In the summer, 2021, we plan to have a summer camp for artists and researchers, jointly with the University of St Andrews (UK). During the camp, we shall use the collected materials and create new research and artistic works. Home videos will be included into the screening sessions program, as part of the Home Movie Days, running every October.

All digitalized materials will be held in the project partner institutions and will be available for researchers and the broader public. They will provide for the free of charge access to collections for present and future generations. The right-holders of original materials shall be the actual owners.

Bring your materials or feel free to contact for any questions:

Dmyto Bilko, Donetsk Regional Local History Museum, Kramatorsk, 84а Akademichna Street, tel 0993607954, [email protected]

Oksana Fomenko, Pokrovsk Historical Museum, Pokrovsk, 22 Yevropeyska Street, tel 0501364010, [email protected]

Anna Bahachenko, Mariupol Local History Museum, 20 Heorhiyivska Street, tel 0674391566, [email protected]

Oleksandr Makhanets, Center for Urban History, Lviv, tel 0936200510, [email protected]

The project is implemented with the support of the EU funded program "House of Europe".

Credits

Cover image: photo by Pavlo Kashkel, Mariupol Local History Museum