Reconference 2018
Bridging the gaps between reenactment, academia, and the public.
An international conference
ReConference is a three day international, interdisciplinary conference on the topics of arts, crafts, living history, culture and heritage, a place to share the artistic and performative practices. Our aim is to examine and develop the multidisciplinary scene through key talks, workshops, panel discussion, "rants and praises" and small pop-up exhibitions.
WHO SAYS CONFERENCE’S CAN’T BE HANDS ON?
ReConference 2018 was a three day international, interdisciplinary conference on the topics of re-enactment and living history. Our aim was to examine and develop the re-enactment scene - the many topics of historical re-enactment and living history - through key talks, workshops, panel discussions, «rants and praises» and small pop-up exhibitions. We welcome re-enactors, living history enthusiasts, experimental archaeologists, museum staff, festival organizers, archaeologists, researchers, university staff, journalists, multimedia developers, moviemakers and all others who have an interest in the Re-enactment scene.
BACKGROUND
Historical re-enactment as a hobby and method of dissemination has reached a new level of popularity. In Norway alone, the number of re-enactors has doubled in ten years - leading to a large number of re-enactment events and festivals, co-operations between re-enactors and institutions such as museums, schools and municipalities and re-enactors contributing in big blockbuster movies and popular TV-shows. Re-enactment attracts artisans and audiences from all over the world, initiating fruitful cross-border co-operations in the fields of infotainment and cultural heritage. However, with growth and development comes a range of new potentials, questions and challenges.
RE-CONFERENCE
In February 2017, Reconference vol. I was hosted in Moscow, Russia. The conference had both Russian (Ratobor) and Norwegian speakers (Hands on History), addressing macro level topics such as best practice exchange in festival organization and re-enactment concepts and festival formats, the main takeaway being that “re-enactment events often have the same content and format, making it less interesting for re-enactors to participate and for visitors to attend”. While identifying and addressing these topics, many more topics arose - pressing the need to make the Reconference a broader, annual event.
QUESTIONS
Does Historical Reenactment and Living History have a potential beyond what we experience to day? In what way are the many new agendas and motivations for participations and organization influencing the practice? How should the imminent topic of re-enactment and modern politics be handled? How can museums and re-enactment groups make interesting tradeoffs? Should re-enctos pay to attend events or should they get paied? And how and why should one use the term historical authenticity? The time has come to engage in a “meta talk” about what re-enactors do, how they do it, who is doing it and why.
Goals.
To raise awareness from the inside and out. By strengthening our articulations, defining key terms and finding common denominators we deepen the understanding of our praxis. This way, we avoid re-enactors having to spend their time explaining what they are not doing – instead of explaining what they are doing.
To share experiences and best practices in fields such as: running re-enactment groups, organization, research and reconstruction, cooperations with institutions, finance-management, international projects and handling the media and press.
To further experiment, investigate and develop methods of dissemination fitted for the genres.
To discuss key terms, genres, agendas and motivations for participations and organization to, on a more ethical level, further understand and define the status quo, common challenges and common goals.
To contribute to professionalizing the scene – leading to more fruitful co-operations between institutions and grass root organizations.
To inspire the re-enactment scene to further development
To establish an international network and arena for those interested in re-enactment as a method of dissemination, hobby, sport, way of life and as a livelihood.
Download the publication for free!
We want to make heritage accessible for everyone, therefore we have decided to make our publication freely available for everyone to read through. Feel free to download the document and be inspire by a wide variety of experts and speakers.
ReConference is hosted by Hands on History (NO), Ulfhednir (DK) and Ratobor (RU) in close co-operation with The National Museum in Denmark with financial support from Krogagerfonden.
