Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image (Media Studies) University of Amsterdam

Overview

Moving images and sound are part of our most cherished cultural heritage. They capture time and place, and shape memory and history. They are also fleeting: they unfold in time, and are affected by time. Environmental factors, material decomposition, but increasingly also technological obsolescence threaten their long-term accessibility. In the Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image (Media Studies) programme of University of Amsterdam, we consider how we can deal with such threats.

Aside from focusing on the question of how to preserve audio-visual materials for future generations, the programme is also concerned with how we present both historical and contemporary moving images as sources of information, works of art, media (historical) phenomena, or as objects of entertainment, to broad audiences and to more specialist ones.

Careers

Given the ever-expanding market in image-based culture, education and entertainment, and the challenges posed by digitisation, the MA programme creates excellent career opportunities for students looking to be employed in the field of AV archiving and presentation. The programme is well-known in the field, and unique in Europe due to its twofold preservation/presentation focus, its broad outlook (the fact that it addresses issues relevant to film, television and media art archivists and programmers) and its combination of academic study and practice-based learning. Its close cooperation with archival and presentation partners entails that participants are given direct access to those working in the field, and the opportunity to develop a professional network while studying in Amsterdam.

Programme alumni are employed as curators, preservationists and programmers in film and television archives, museums and at festivals around the world. In some cases, job opportunities emerged as a direct outcome of a (curricular) internship project.