The Laboratoire CinéMédias has recently released several digital publications on Érudit, a platform offering innovative formats to showcase its research.
Olivier Du Ruisseau
Over the past few years, researchers affiliated with cinEXmedia and The Laboratoire CinéMédias have been involved in major digital publishing initiatives. Two of these projects were recently completed. Rémy Besson, scientific coordinator of the TECHNÈS partnership, oversaw the reediting and dissemination, via Érudit, of around thirty digital books that were originally sections of the Encyclopedia of Film Techniques and Technologies. Meanwhile, Marnie Mariscalchi, head of publications at CinéMédias, has been coordinating other publishing projects at the lab, with several upcoming releases planned.
To provide some context, TECHNÈS is an international research partnership founded in 2013 by André Gaudreault, Laurent Le Forestier, and Gilles Mouëllic, and funded by SSHRC. It brings together about fifty researchers and eighteen institutions, including cinematheques and universities. Now housed within the Laboratoire CinéMédias, its mission is to "rethink the history of cinema and its methods by examining the techniques and technologies that have shaped the medium’s evolution since the 20th century," according to its website.
The Encyclopedia of Film Techniques and Technologies currently includes about thirty thematic “parcours” addressing topics ranging from the evolution of cinematographic equipment to shifts in cinema professions and discourses surrounding film technology. More than eighty contributors have participated in its development.
In addition to offering illuminating perspectives on a wide variety of topics, the Encyclopedia stands out for its innovative editorial approach. Under Rémy Besson’s supervision, nearly all of the thematic sections have been reedited into digital books and made freely available on Érudit. Alex Delagrave, digital collections project manager at CinéMédias, also played a key role in this process.
On April 29th, TECHNÈS celebrated a major milestone by launching these digital books at the Cinémathèque québécoise, during the annual congress of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). The following day, a symposium at Université de Montréal brought together several of the researchers involved in the project. These events marked the culmination of nearly fifteen years of work, with the first initiatives dating back to the early 2010s.
A Work "Designed Specifically for the Digital Age"
Rémy Besson, together with André Gaudreault and Laurent Le Forestier, co-authored an article describing the Encyclopedia and the editorial philosophy behind it in the second-to-last issue of the Journal of Film Preservation (No. 111, October 2024). “From the outset, this large-scale international editorial endeavor was conceived differently from most current encyclopedic projects, such as Wikipedia. Rather than aiming to cover an entire field through short, neutrally written entries on broad topics, it sought to create strongly problematized thematic courses (parcours), each reflecting the personal perspective of an individual researcher or a small research group,” they wrote.
In another article, La place des sources documentaires dans l’écriture de l’histoire à l’ère du numérique (The Place of Documentary Sources in Historical Writing in the Digital Age — in French only, 2023) published in Les Cahiers de Framespa, Rémy Besson discusses the practice of source citation within the project. He argues that “this Encyclopedia was designed as an alternative model that aims to make sources visible within the historical narrative itself, giving them an argumentative function.” Besson therefore critiques the traditional practice in historical writing of relegating sources to footnotes or appendices. In the TECHNÈS Encyclopedia, sources are instead placed at the center of the text and made “directly accessible” to readers, enhancing their understanding of the author’s reasoning.
In an interview, the researcher emphasized that the Encyclopedia was "designed specifically for digital platforms." As a result, it features elements native to the digital environment: interactive navigation, hyperlinks, audiovisual media, and more. Sources are no longer simply illustrative or evidentiary tools; they are deeply integrated into the argumentation and “participate actively in constructing the historical discourse.” In other words, authors draw on these sources to formulate their arguments, and readers can consult them in context to better grasp the reasoning.
Books "Accessible Over the Long Term"
The thematic parcours are now available in the "Books and Proceedings" section of Érudit. “Our goal is to ensure their long-term accessibility,” Besson added. As the TECHNÈS partnership reaches the end of its funding, and although the Encyclopedia’s original website will remain active, the digital books offer a more sustainable means of preservation.
Initially, the books were published on the Université de Montréal’s Papyrus platform, allowing each to be assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which was then indexed on Érudit. In addition, hyperlink thumbnails embedded in the PDF files link to media and metadata stored in an Omeka S database.
“The Encyclopedia has always been an editorial experiment — an opportunity to explore new ways of presenting data while ensuring the stability of our formats,” Besson concluded. “Given that our subject matter concerns the history of technology, it was essential that our publishing approach be aligned with these issues, acknowledging that cinema itself has become a digital medium.”
"Tailor-Made" Collections
Marnie Mariscalchi coordinates other publishing initiatives at the Laboratoire CinéMédias, developing “tailor-made” collections based on existing content that members wish to enhance and circulate. “By acting as a publisher for its members in a self-publishing model, the laboratory is able to promote research, increase visibility, and above all, improve the discoverability of otherwise inaccessible content — in line with open science principles,” she explained.
CinéMédias recently created its first collection, Interviews and Reflections, to facilitate the publication of interviews and conversations conducted during laboratory activities. Two books are already in preparation: Samsara by Lois Patiño: A Meditative-Rhythm Cinematic Experience, edited by Santiago Hidalgo, and Memories of Performing Arts Programmers on Television, edited by Marie-Odile Demay. Both are based on interviews conducted by cinEXmedia-affiliated researchers and are expected to be published soon.
“The existence of this content is what sparked the creation of the collection,” Mariscalchi emphasized.
