Nevertheless, this ubiquity of editing has not been matched by a comparable understanding of the human–computer assemblage in which it has evolved since the 1980s. Once – albeit somewhat simplistically – grounded in intimate familiarity with physical materials and machines, editing has become a site where “human” agency and “technological” automation are negotiated and mutually transformed.

This workshop, organised by AHM guest researcher Jiří Anger, returns to the early history of computerised video editing (and back again to the present) in order to examine how current tools and software, along with their affordances as well as limits and biases, were established. It asks how these systems have shaped our notions of what counts as “proper” editing (or montage), and which forgotten or marginalised features and suites might be reactivated to develop practices that are more aware of their technological and historical underpinnings – and, as a result, more capable of producing change in playful, reflexive, and collaborative ways.

The workshop is organised around three interrelated points of friction that conditioned early discourses and practices of computerised editing:

1.  Professionalism vs. amateurism.
2.  Agency vs. automation.
3.  Post-production vs. liveness.

Registration address for the workshop: j.anger@qmul.ac.uk .