Postdoctoral Researcher (f/m/d) in the Archive (saai)

Organizational unit

Institute of Architectural Design, Art, and Theory (EKUT)

Job description

The saai | Archive for Architecture and Civil Engineering is one of the most important architecture collections in Germany, located at a technical university of excellence. In addition to preserving extensive records (including Frei Otto, Egon Eiermann, Günter Behnisch, Günter Wilhelm, Myra Wahrhaftig, Friedrich Weinbrenner, Heinrich Hübsch), research content is made accessible and published as part of exhibition and publication projects. Over the next few years, an international research centre, based at saai, will investigate the question of architectural archives as places that lay the foundations for social processes: because they offer the ideal approach to analysing sustainable knowledge genesis and data practice for the future. At the same time, archives are repositories of complex knowledge systems and material-medial entanglements, in which objects and data that are in danger of eroding require innovative methodological approaches to long-term temporal processes, especially in view of the enormous potential of neural networks to create metadata. This is particularly true for archives of the built environment. As one of the most comprehensive and important archives for architectural and engineering works with estates of regional architects of international importance, the saai is at the same time material, toolkit and field of experimentation with influence. In addition, the KIT as a University of Excellence, as well as the newly established strategic alliance with the Architecture Museum of TUM and the gta Archive at ETH, the membership in the Federation of German-speaking Architectural Archives and the ICAM (International Confederation of Architectural Museums) offers an international and stimulating extended working environment.

• Development of an applied research project through experimental application scenarios in the saai's significant, medially heterogeneous collection with the inclusion of self-learning processes, data genesis, metadata acquisition and medial transformation processes through AI
• Critically analyzing, testing and further developing established national and international standards for architectural archives and multimedia collections and their potential for the saai
• Conception of a digital strategy focussing on the integration of AI into different processes and levels of archiving at saai together with the archive directors, the managing director and the strategy team
• Preparation and collaboration on interdisciplinary research proposals for national and international research funding
• Establishing interdisciplinary collaboration with internal KIT institutions such as KCIST, SCC and within the faculty
• Establishing cooperation and networking at regional, national (ZKM, NFDI4Culture, etc.) and international level (CCA, Nieuwe Instituut, etc.) with regard to digital strategies and best practice projects.

Starting date

zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt / as soon as possible

Personal qualification

• Successfully completed dissertation with a focus on digital humanities, computer science with reference to cultural heritage, archival sciences, architecture, information sciences, museology, art history, media and communication sciences or a related field
• Experience and knowledge in the field of AI and/or archive (sciences) as well as in relevant formats and techniques from the field of digitisation of analogue collections and the preparation of native digital collections
• Open-mindedness and interest in interdisciplinary cooperation (with archivists, architects, historians, media scientists) and a willingness to experiment on a micro and macro level (from archive material to the establishment of a research centre at saai)
• Knowledge and ability to practically apply current scripting languages and manage databases and communicate scientifically sound, technical concepts in the field of digital humanities, digital archives
• Very good language skills and communication skills in German and English (spoken and written)
• Practical experience in project and research data management in the cultural sector is an advantage; work experience in an archive, a scientific collection or a museum

Salary

Salary category 13 TV-L, depending on the fulfillment of professional and personal requirements.