Project Details
Projekt
Media-Images (Seventeenth to Twentieth Century): Digitizing the Collection Werner Nekes.
Applicants
Dr. Michael Fürst; Christine Kopf; Professor Dr. Peter W. Marx
Subject Area
Theatre and Media Studies
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 549623377
The project aims to digitize parts of the Werner Nekes Collection. With over 25,000 objects, the filmmaker Werner Nekes (1944-2017) amassed one of the largest collections of visual culture since the early modern period. In addition to a library and over 2,4000 devices and objects, the graphic art collection is of particular importance. In 2020, the Werner Nekes Collection was acquired by a consortium consisting of the Theatre Studies Collection of the University of Cologne, the DFF - German Film Institute & Film Museum and the Potsdam Film Museum of the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. This has not only preserved the collection's inner context, but also ensured its accessibility to the public. The partial digitization applied for here not only serves to publish the important holdings of this unique collection but is also an important step in the transformation of a formally privately managed collection into a public institution with various locations.The aim of the project is to digitize and present media images created between 1700 and 1910. In this context, the term "media images" emphasizes that it is not simply a matter of pictures and their reference, but that the images were made to be shown and viewed with the aid of various media devices. These include peep boxes, Laternæ Magicæ or mirror effects (e.g. in anamorphoses). (In this step, all objects whose effect is based on movement or time-related effects were excluded, as these could only be inadequately represented by photographic documentation). In this way, a group of 6,361 media images was defined. As the media effect is a constitutive component of these objects, they will not only be depicted in documentary form, but also presented in their specific effect (such as transmitted light or mirror). This results in a total number of 17,414 digitized images.Central to the project is the development of a digital platform that can be used jointly by all participating institutions for the indexing and management of objects, digitized material and metadata. This will be developed on the basis of the Omeka S content management system, whose profile meets these requirements. In addition to digitization, for which various profiles have been defined, indexing is a further focus. Here, a structured and detailed description of the metadata is to be carried out on the basis of existing standards, while at the same time the information collected by Werner Nekes is to be secured and linked to the metadata. The digitized material and metadata will then be published on various platforms.
DFG Programme
Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
