This symposium explores the various technologies for still-image projection and how
they entangled with other media in postwar-Europe. While the use of digital projectors and software such as PowerPoint or Keynote have become standard for audiovisual presentations in both educational and business contexts today, still image projection has a long and diverse history, featuring media technologies such as filmstrips and slides.

25 scholars and archivists from 11 European countries

Gathering 25 scholars and archivists from 11 European countries, the symposium investigates how projected still-image technologies have been used, produced, distributed and preserved in post-war Europe and thereby providing a broader contextualisation of today’s digital media culture.

Program 

Full symposium schedule with speakers and presentation titles 

Wednesday 19 November 
Arrival of international participants  

Thursday 20 November  
08:30–09:00 Symposium check-in with coffee. (Foyer, Filmhuset) 

09:00–10:30 Introduction (Bio Mauritz) 
Welcome: Presentation of the symposium and the project by Erik Florin Persson, Lars Diurlin and Ole Johnny Fossås (15 min) 

Keynote 1: Tom Rice (University of St Andrews, UK): “Still, Unseen: The Filmstrip in 
Media History”. (50 min)  

Film screening: Filmundervisning (“Teaching with film”, AMF, 1949) (25 min) 

10:50–12:00 Panel 1: Archives, Projectors and Preservation (F-salen) 
Chair: Sophia Gräfe (Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany)

Frank Kessler (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) and Sabine Lenk (Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany): “The Lost Archives of Educational Projections”. 

Erik Florin Persson (Linnaeus University, Sweden): “Hasselblad at the Crossroads: The Production and Circulation of Still Image Projectors within the Hasselblad Companies”. 

Bodil Gyllensvärd (Armé- Marin- och Flygfilm, Sweden): “Unexplored Collections – Still Films in a Military Historical Archive”. 

12:00–13:00 Lunch Break (Crème Filmhuset Bar & Bistro) 
 
13:00–14:10 Panel 2: Personal Use, Private Collections and The Slide Auteur (F-salen) 
Chair: Lars Diurlin (Linnaeus University, Sweden)

Anushrut Ramakrishnan Agrwaal (University of St Andrews, U.K.): “An Individual Among Corporations: The Filmstrips of Marian Ray in Post-war Britain”. 
 
Liri Chapelan (National University of Theater and Film in Bucharest, Romania): “Behind the Scenes of a Slide Projection: The Insights Offered by the Boulbain Collection”. 
 
Annika Wickman (The Swedish Pharmaceutical Society, Sweden): “Projecting Art History: 
Slide Use and Pedagogical Practice, 1970–1995”. 

14:10–14:40 Coffee Break (Seminar room 1) 

14:40–15:50 Panel 3: Entertainment, Play and Popular Culture (F-salen) 
Chair: Ole Johnny Fossås (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)

Sylvain Lesage (University of Lille, France): “Projected Comics. Slides and the Remediations of Comics in the 1960s”. 

Simone Dotto & Martina Zanco (Università Degli Studi di Udine, Italy): “Projecting Cinephemera in Everyday Life. The Significant Transiency of Slides, Filmstrips and Cinematic Toys in Work, Play and Education”. 

15:50–17:00 Panel 4: Re-mediation and Media Entanglements (F-salen) 
Chair: Erik Florin Persson (Linnaeus University, Sweden)

Baptiste Husi (University of Lausanne, Switzerland): “Watchmaking, Lighting, Graphic 
Design and ‘Automation’: The Development of Audiovisual Media in French-speaking Switzerland”. 
 
Per Vesterlund, (Lund University, Sweden): “Projected Still-images in Moving Shape: 
Slides and Film strips in Swedish Fiction Film and Television Drama”. 

Kerrin v. Engelhardt (Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany): “Cybernetics of Education: 
‘Teaching Aid Complexes’ in Socialist Classrooms”. 

Friday 21 November  
09:00–09:50: Keynote 2 (F-salen) 
Chair: Ole Johnny Fossås (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)

Anke Napp (Bildarchive des Kunstgeschichtlichen Seminars, Hamburg, Germany): “The Naked Image? Filmstrips and Their Contextualization Through Time”. 
 
10:00–11:30 Panel 5: Still-images as Education, Instruction, and Propaganda (F-salen) 
Chair: Lars Diurlin (Linnaeus University, Sweden)

Tone Føreland (National Library of Norway): “Films, Slide Series and Film Strips for 
Agricultural Education and Information by Landbrukets Film- og Billedkontor 1942–1985”. 

Rudmer Canjels (Independent Scholar, The Netherlands): “Looping Film Strips and 8Tracks: The Automated Audiovisual Slide Show Cartridges of La Belle Industries”. 
 
Alexandra Ilina (University of Bucharest, Romania): “’What do these Images mean?’ Reshaping the Past Through Filmstrips – Diafilms and Historical Figures in Communist Romania (1950-1989)”. 

Solveig Jülich (Uppsala University, Sweden): “The Sliding Doors of Lennart Nilsson: From Fetal Photography to Audiovisual Media”. 

11:30–12:30 Lunch Break (Crème Filmhuset Bar & Bistro) 

12:30–14:00 Panel 6: Transnational Entanglements (F-salen) 
Chair: Nadi Tofighian (Linnaeus University, Sweden)

Joachim Schätz (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History, Vienna, Austria): “Türkilux: On the Vienna-Ankara Route Towards a Transnational History of Educational Image Projection”. 

Ariadna Lorenzo Sunyer (University of Lausanne, Switzerland): “Shaping European 
Identity through Filmstrips: International Visual Aids Center (IVAC) and European Institutions in Collaboration (1957–1962)”.  
 
Lars Diurlin (Linnaeus University, Sweden): “Film Strips, Travelogues and Global South Soundscapes: The Forgotten Medium of Swedish Domestic Foreign Aid Information”. 
 
 Ole Johnny Fossås (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway): 
“Recommended for Norway: American industrial filmstrips and the Norwegian Productivity Institute”

14:00–14.45 Closing Remarks and Joint Discussions (F-salen) 
With Sophia Gräfe (Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany) and the organizers of the symposium.