Dwoskin Project makes finals of Digital Preservation Awards

An interdisciplinary research project preserving the legacy of the late experimental filmmaker Stephen Dwoskin has been selected as a finalist in the Digital Preservation Awards 2022.

Nominated for The National Records of Scotland Award for Safeguarding in the Digital Legacy, the University of Reading project, “Legacies of Stephen Dwoskin’s Personal Cinema: the digital and archival legacy”, preserves and promotes materials relating to Dwoskin and his work. The Dwoskin archive includes images, text, video and audio, spanning digital and analogue, personal and professional. The “born-digital” part of the archive has been preserved, catalogued, explored and made available to researchers in ways that will enable future research and access.

The project has built upon understandings of Dwoskin’s work; one of the aspects of the project with long term value has been in building up a digital archive capacity locally. A significant long-term impact of the project is enabling the University to acquire, manage and preserve born-digital records alongside more traditional archive formats. It has also had an impact on the sector to create a new interdisciplinary forum around digital archives.

Organised by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) every two years, the Digital Preservation Awards are the most prominent celebration of achievement for those people and organisations who have made significant contributions towards a sustainable future for digital assets.

Dr Rachel Garfield, Professor of Art at the University of Reading, said: "It is an honour to be selected as a finalist for such a prestigious award. I am delighted that our work is being recognised as impactful, and I hope this will only help us to further our research in future.

“I would like to thank my colleague Guy Baxter and his team at the Museum of English Rural Life, as well as my colleagues at the University of Glasgow, Dr Yunhyong Kim and Dr Zoe Bartliff, and at the University of Sheffield, Dr Frank Hopfgartner and Dr Maninder Pal. Without them this would not have been possible.”

Find out more about the nomination.

Find out more about the Dwoskin Project.