The Europeana Fashion International Association is organising this year its annual symposium, titled “Fashion Digital Memories” and focused on Fashion Heritage and New Technologies. The symposium is organized in collaboration with Università Iuav di Venezia and The New School – Parsons Paris. It will be held in the fantastic setting of Palazzo Badoer, where the School of Doctorate Studies at Iuav University of Venice is located.

The expression ‘Fashion heritage’ refers to a heterogeneous group of objects, different in nature and meaning. Lately, a general interest towards museum collections and archival materials related especially to fashion has been rising, demanding for access to this incredibly rich field of knowledge. It is the very variety of the ‘traces’ fashion leaves behind – not only clothes, but accessories, textiles, plates and magazines, sketches and photographs – that requires a reflection on what kind of technologies are better suited and how to apply them in order to preserve, disseminate and exploit these materials in all their potential.

The symposium gathers some of the most interesting case studies shaping their own practices in between the more traditional museum or archival practices with the new possibilities allowed by technology. These experiences nuance the relationship between fashion heritage and digital technologies; in presenting them all together, the symposium wants to tackle a variety of issues, concerning innovative techniques developed to update consolidated museum and archival practices, as conservation and traditional studies of material culture; reflections on how to incorporate technology in the conceptual and material development of displays and exhibitions; actions aimed at presenting fashion heritage to a wider – and often unspecialised – audience in appealing ways, exploiting the potential of social media and experimental platforms.

To participate, register here: goo.gl/TNahVY

Image: Excess. Fashion and the Underground in the 80s, exhibition held at Stazione Leopolda, Florence, 8th January – 8th February 2004. Photo by Carlo Fei, courtesy Pitti Immagine, All Rights Reserved