Sarah-Mai Dang is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Philipps-Universität Marburg’s Institute of Media Studies. She received a PhD in Film Studies from Freie Universität Berlin and published her dissertation on aesthetic experience and chick flicks as a hybrid self-publishing project on her website oabooks.de. Her current research and teaching focus on digital film historiography, data visualization, open science, feminist theory, and media aesthetics. She is the project leader of the international DFG research network
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Due to the increasing production of digital artifacts, data-driven approaches are gaining more and more importance in the humanities. In order to understand how they affect film and media studies, this article reflects on databases in the context of feminist film historiography. Focusing on the collaborative
unknowabilityof history. How can we identify and include the many blind spots when trying to reconstruct the past? In this article, it is made the case that due to their openness and variable use, digital databases, such as the
Discusses the role of feminist film historiography in constructing film databases
Apart from information science, the term database is used very heterogeneously and as
a rather elastic concept. In the broader scholarly discourse, databases mean both
collections of data in general and specific technologies and processes of gathering
and accessing information in particular, as media studies scholar Marcus Burkhardt
observes in his book about the history of databases [d]atabases come in many forms,
relational, object-oriented, and so on. Databases can be described by their
contents, their function, their structure, their appearance, or other
characteristics
the inclusion of certain data (and the attendant exclusion
of others), the mapping of relationships among entities, the often collaborative
nature of dataset creation, and the eventual visualization of information
patterns, all imply a hermeneutics and a set of possible methodologies that are
themselves worthy objects for study and reflection
In order to understand how digital technologies affect the production of knowledge in the context of film history, this article discusses the role of digital databases. In doing so, it focuses on the
unknowabilityof history – while making historical records and research results accessible, discoverable and comprehensible. In this article, it is made the case that due to their openness and variable use, digital databases, such as the
In the field of film and media history, digital databases are often described with respect to the potential opportunities of enhancing research by making sources visible that have been hitherto overlooked. One media studies project which is especially interesting in this context is the online platform
Digital databases which store data at a large scale can enable film and media historians to ask new questions or to ask questions differently. They allow for observing trends in a broader context and perhaps discover new conjunctions between sources. For example, with the help of
Databases can also help us to validate, refute or differentiate hypothesis. The online platform
Digital databases can foster new perspectives and insights. However, while they can
enhance research by making historic developments visible on a meta level, they seem
unsuited for showing ambiguities, contingencies and contradictions inherent to film
history. A subjective, personal approach to the past including speculation and
imagination – methods central to feminist historians who strongly oppose the concept
of objective history – seems to be rather impossible. There is also the risk of
favoring an institutionalized meta history to individual micro stories, as historian
Kathryn M. Hunter stresses in her reflections on evidence and silence with regard to
digitization discursive power of records and archives,
where,
according to Hunter, non-mention was not simply invisibility but
erasure
unknowabilityof history
It is a truism that the more we come to know about a particular subject, the more we
realize how much we do whole
story once enough information will be gathered? How is it possible to
explore unchartered territory when faced with the lack of historical objects?
The discursive formation of knowledge has been a central concern of feminism ever since. In the field of film history, the question of how to reconstruct the past while taking into account the contingent and transformative nature of history has become equally important for scholars (e.g., Gledhill and Knight 2015a) and filmmakers (e.g., Dang and Akkermann 2020). In her book about women in the silent film industries,
can write so knowingly about what they cannot have known(Stein 1993 [1935], quoted in Gaines 2018, p. 1). Being aware of the imaginary and often intimate relationship between the researcher and their subject
Is there any other way tosaywithout claiming to know?
there.Nowadays, film history,
as both practice and product,can hardly be grasped as a grand, coherent and evolutionary narrative but rather as an aggregation of local
micro historiesbased on fragmentary, sometimes contradictory knowledge
dohistory with respect to the
precarious relationsbetween the present moment and the historical past, the very past that we proceed to make
historical conditions ofunknowability
Until only some time ago, it used to be common knowledge in film studies that women
played only a minor part in the early years of filmmaking. Women’s work
was
dismissed as menial labor, if at all accounted for, notwithstanding the skills of
generations of women which have been essential to the film industry
authorship,
agency,
director,
narration,
canon,
national cinema,
evidenceand
factsare thereby critically scrutinized. As books such as
can be transformed, analyzed, and acted upon computationally
datameans in the humanities, see, for example, the reflections of Digital Humanities scholar Christof Schöch on
smart dataand
big data
unknowabilityis gaining particular importance, since digital data adds another methodological and epistemological layer of complexity to the relationship between the researchers and their subject
The
great male pioneers of cinemaby documenting the high influence of women who pursued a variety of professions in the silent film industries. The website serves as a database of women film pioneers worldwide. As of December 2018, it contains 276 career profiles (including images and sometimes film clips) written by scholars, curators, and archivists. The platform facilitates access to Internet sources and aggregates archival and bibliographical information on women workers as well as references for further historical research both online and offline. It features also a couple of overview essays.
Though lots of historical records got irretrievably lost, the project seeks to
foreground that [w]hat we assume never existed is what we
invariably find
facts
do not tell themselves
Media scholar Lev Manovich, whose reflections on the relation between database and
narration has had a high impact in media and cultural studies, suggests to look at a
database from the user’s experience in a more general sense. Unlike in information
science, where a database is largely known as the organization of data and
information, he defines the database as a cultural form of expression that
fundamentally shapes our perception of the world in the computer age
On the basis of these distinctions, Manovich imagines a combat between database and
narrative, whereby each as a form of expression claims an exclusive right to make meaning out of the world
database filmmaker
Regardless of Manovich’s inconsistent and rather metaphorical use of the database and his problematic perception of cinema as a primarily linear medium (as opposed to time-based and spatial), his approach can be fruitfully used for exploring the
As Manovich, in this article, I focus on digital database as a venue of
representation and on the possible engagement of the user. Important as it is, I will
leave aside the question of what lies beneath the interface, hence the technical
aspects of the software which translates the invisible data into perceivable media
constellations
The type of data that is collected and the way in which it is presented, effects the
potential use of it. Data can be objective but not neutral, databases can serve for
research, arguments and interpretation. Organizing data by different categories and
metadata, we interpret by ascribing specific meaning to discrete elements which can
then serve to support an argument. One could also argue that the creation of data is
always already an interpretation because we try to make sense out of the world. And
interpretation invokes narrative to achieve dramatic impact
and significance,
N. Katherine Hayles contends in her article on narrative
and database as natural symbionts
databases are powerful rhetorical instruments that often pass
themselves off as value-neutral observations or records of events, information, or
things in the world
Although digital databases appear to hold complete collections and promise definite
knowledge, they are in constant transformation. Yet, in doing so, they do not only grow, as
Manovich and others have emphasized, but they can also shrink. Entries can be
deleted, accidentally or on purpose, tables be removed, or links be broken. Databases
require coherent data and continuous adjustment. By explaining the meaning of
relational database model for humanities, however, Ramsay emphasizes the intellectual
value also of inadequacies and inconsistencies. While, for example, the terms we use to describe books in a bookstore (authors, works,
publishers) and the relationships among them (published by, created by, published
in) posses an apparent stability for which the relational model is ideally
suited,
the most exciting database work in humanities
computing necessarily launches upon less certain territory.
He thereby
thinks of uncertain relations expressed by a database, such as influenced by,
resembles,
is derived from.
If the database allows one to home in on a fact or a
relationship quickly,
Ramsay notes, it likewise
enables the serendipitous connection to come forth.
In this sense,
databases hold out not merely of an increased ability to store
and retrieve information about a particular domain but of a critical and
methodological self-awareness
The WFPP’s homepage offers numerous but limited ways of accessing information (see
Figure 1). On top, it features four main pathways which lead to the overview essays,
the pioneers’ career profiles, a list of resources, and the about
section. Below, a
box presents a list of links which refer to the women’s various occupations
(producers, directors, co-directors, scenario writers, scenario editors, camera
operators, title writers, editors, costume designers, exhibitors, and actresses). It
stresses that women did not only work as actresses. Furthermore, there is one
selected video embedded (for as of November 2018, a trailer on the recent restoration
of
The occupation
section (accessible at the upper right) references the wide
range of women’s contribution in the silent-era, whereas the subpage pioneers
demonstrates the abundance of women workers (see Figure 2). The collection is ordered
alphabetically by default but can also be sorted by geography or occupation. Each
selection can be viewed both in a tiled format (and thus in a more spacial
arrangement) or as a list. Remarkably, the underlying management system does not
distinguish between more or less popular pioneers. All the women appear
simultaneously at once. Due to their diverse activities in different countries, the
women appear repeatedly in multiple lists. For example, Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981) –
who has, according to the website’s profile, made over sixty
films, of which eleven are considered lost and fifty to have survived
credit report
at the bottom of the entry
describes the context of research for the profile and elaborates on the creation of
the archival filmography.
What is interesting with regard to the relational database management system is how
the website presents other pioneers related to Lotte Reiniger by occupation or
geography. Below the entry follows a couple of lengthy lists of other women who
worked as assistant directors, co-directors, directors etc. and also in Canada,
Germany, Italy, and/or England. All sections (profile, bibliography, filmography, and
relations) can be accessed directly via the sidebar and do not have to be read from
top to bottom. Due to the great amount of data and the way it is presented, the
website enables us to follow our own path of inquiry scanning for items of interest.
The hypertext structure fosters a non-linear reading of the entries which makes it
possible to discover unexpected conjunctures between women, occupations and places.
Thus the database interface facilitates searching for detailed information on women
pioneers as well as making serendipitous discoveries. In this regard, Ramsay is right
in noting that databases are not so much pre-interpretative
mechanisms as para-interpretative formations
In the case of the WFPP, the data is structured on a very basic level, which allows for a large number of potential findings. This complies with the editors’ goal to primarily foreground the high incidence of transnational women workers in early cinema without predetermining how to make sense of these facts. One might even argue that the contingent and transformative nature of history is reflected in the arrangement of data and also in each career profile. Different to encyclopedic entries which appear to provide all basic information needed, the profiles reflect upon the very conditions of historiography. The authors explain which historical sources have probably gotten lost and, above all, highlight the wealth of surviving material which has, however, not been retrieved yet, let alone examined.
The website invites users to undertake further research on each woman film pioneer.
It lists 623 pioneers who have been unhistoricized
to this point, followed by
a number of occupations which were held by women but have remained generally
unacknowledged (such as cashier, interpreter, supervisor)
Like archives, databases do not store complete collections. They are neither
universal nor neutral. Instead, databases reflect personal habits, institutional
conventions, intellectual frameworks and hence discursive power structures. The
meaning and the structure of a database is inherently connected to the results
produced by categorizing and filtering the data contained in it and the nature of its
visualizing interface celebrate the branching, rooting, rhizomic, proliferating quality of
database
we need to also question the choices that have gone into the
making of databases
In contrast to most databases, the WFPP foregrounds the transformative nature of
knowledge production. It highlights gaps and absences while at the same time
stressing the abundance of existing yet unexplored material on women’s contribution
to cinema. Analyzing the WFPP website and its rich collection it becomes clear again
what has been pointed out by a number of feminist film historians, the
marginalization of women is the result of a variety of factors, which are, however,
closely intertwined: the dismissal of women’s work as menial labor, insufficient
documentation, lack of evidence in addition to lack of imagination due to narrative,
aesthetic, and theoretical conventions. Raw data
cannot serve as an argument
but as a valuable starting point for further, context-based analysis. Providing all
possible sources along with each entry, as in the case of the WFPP career profiles,
it is possible for users to get an idea of what data was left out of a particular
narrative – or even in history more general. Ideally, in doing so, users can retrace
how facts
have been produced and perhaps transformed.
In view of these remarks, the WFPP offers the opportunity to counter a meta history and instead foster the acknowledgment of women’s contribution to film history by telling individual stories. At the same time, the website demonstrates the broad and multifaceted field of the pioneers’ transnational activities. As English studies scholar Ed Folsom notes in his article
[d]atabase might initially seem to denigrate detail and demand abstract averaging and universalizing, but in fact the structure of databaseis detail; it is built of particulars
limited by financial and physical constraints as well as by the imagination of their creators and users
While the WFPP provides a large amount of information on women in early cinema, its
ultimate goal is to stimulate further research on women in film history both online
and offline by examining original sources in archival collections. Online databases
might help disseminating information beyond institutions and transform the control
over the circulation of knowledge, as English studies scholar Peter Stallybrass
enthusiastically proclaims
There is no doubt that digital technologies can help facilitate easier access to
historical source material and research output. Provided that access to a computer
and to the Internet is given, knowledge can be disseminated and shared with
relatively little effort and at relatively low costs. Nevertheless, we need to keep
in mind that inclusion always implies exclusion – both in terms of users and content.
Foregrounding certain aspects of the past by selectively digitizing and presenting
some information, we inevitably omit other sources and potential discoveries. As we
know, archiving means not only preservation and memory but also forgetfulness and
amnesia. Deciding on what will be represented means also deciding on what will
On the one hand, one could argue, while shifting our research more and more online,
the risk of letting offline sources be consigned to oblivion is increasing. Because
of the plethora of resources which are immediately available to us on the Internet,
we tend to use what is accessible from our desktops. Due to the growing digitization
of artifacts some scholars fear that funding organizations might cut their financial
support for expensive research trips to archives
Since databases, such as the WFPP, often rely on collaborative contributions, they
challenge the persistent concept of authorship, understood as a genius solitary
achievement. In doing so, they make us reflect on the reputation economy in academia
and the regime of intellectual property finished
as books. As a dynamic and subjective site of representation they strengthen the
argument that there is no such thing as final facts.
The WFPP editors invite contributions from various authors (which will be
peer-reviewed) and allow for a great deal of variation
and creativity in terms of the topics and themes
while at the same time
offering suggestions power of the
records
I thank the two anonymous reviewers for carefully reading the manuscript, and for insightful comments and suggestions.