FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2026

As concern mounts regarding the global climate crisis, the environmental impact of audio-visual archiving has been widely recognised as an urgent concern. Thus, it has become vital that archival institutions critically reflect on their praxis, their responsibility to the environment and to memory, and their narration of archival loss. In dissecting this, a pervasive tension is revealed between the professional aspiration for permanence and the stark reality of precarity. Unfortunately, this dialogic gap remains underexamined, particularly in the public-facing contexts where archives construct their identities. In response, the project at the heart of this presentation investigates how permanence, visibility and ephemerality are narrativised and communicated publicly by six FIAT/IFTA member institutions. Through a systematised audit of accessible catalogues, official communications, mission statements, websites, and social media presences, our goal is to better understand how these archives represent their purpose, negotiate discourses of loss, and make themselves visible (or invisible) in the digital landscape. 
This year marks the 5th and 10th anniversaries of two devastating fires at the Cinemateca Brasileira facility (2016 and 2021). With the FIAT/IFTA conference being held at an institution so familiar with archival loss, we feel it is both poignant and necessary for a discussion of permanence, visibility and ephemerality to hold a powerful presence in this space. Further contextualised by an increasingly critical climate reality and a plethora of rising geopolitical tensions, we also believe that in 2026, the notions of loss, legacy and mortality are more palpable than ever. In turn, the recent emergence of high-concept ultra-long-term media storage technologies, such as DNA-based data solutions, provides a stark contrast. As mass-digitisation projects and novel experimental technologies tease the potential of more permanent futures for cultural memory, we propose to initiate a dialogue between the institutions at the very heart of these debates.