About

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Research interests: film history, film theory, intermediality, comparative arts & media studies, film & art, film & architecture, film & graphic design, museum studies, exhibition studies, film distribution & exhibition, early cinema, cinema & Antiquity, Italian cinema

Research

Presently, my main reseaerch is my involvement as Co-I in the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research project Museum of Dreams: Silent Antiquity Films in the British National Film Archive (October 2023-26), led by Prof. Maria Wyke (University College London), with myself (Arts & Culture, VU) and Bryony Dixon (BFI) as Co-I, and Dr. Aylin Attacan (UCL), and in collaboration with various European film archives. The project will establish a better understanding of both the modern reception of classical antiquity and the transnational history and cultural status of silent cinema. By focusing on the BFI holdings and comparing them with those surviving in other archives such as Eye (Amsterdam), the project will situate the UK firmly within the global network that produced, distributed, exhibited, consumed, and curated the classical antiquity films of the early 20th century, and establish for those films an important educational legacy in the 21st century. For 2024, workshops are planned in London, Bologna and Amsterdam.

My research often deals with intervisual relationships between cinema and other arts. Current research deals with early Italian cinema and its ties with visual arts and popular culture (see e.g. my articles in Sinisi et. al. 2010, Bertellini 2013, Acta 2013 , Askari et.al. 2014, Pordenone 2015, Prettejohn/Trippi 2016), and with Antiquity and cinema (Quaresima et.al. 2001, Gagetti et.al. 2017). This is partly because of my co-curatorship of the exhibition Alma-Tadema: Classic Imagination, which opened Fall 2016 at the Fries Museum (Leeuwarden), before moving on to Belvedere (Vienna, Spring 2017) and Leighton House (London, Summer 2017) (for more info, see below, Exhibitions). Exhibition and book were extremely well received (see Reviews and Interviews). Related to this is also my involvement in the LABEX/ ARTEC research project Le cinéma italien muet à la croisée des arts européens (1896-1930), run by prof. Céline Gailleurd (Paris 8), for which I given papers in Rome, Amsterdam and Paris, and co-organised a workshop in Amsterdam (see Organisation). Thanks to a Fellowship of the National Research Institute NIAS (Sept. 2021-Jan. 2022), I could work on my monograph, released in Autumn 2023: Quo vadis?, Cabiria and the ‘Archaeologists’: Early Italian Cinema’s Appropriation of Art and Archaeology. 

In 2018-2021 I was involved as one of the three co-advisors to the curatorial team of the exhibition Enfin le cinéma! Arts, images et spectacles en France (1833-1907) (Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 28 Sept. 2021 – 16 Jan. 2022). I was particularly involved in the penultimate room on the theme of History (history painting & early historical films) and also wrote a text in the catalogue. For the 2020 Cinefest ‘Kino, Krieg und Tulpen. Deutsch-niederländische Filmbeziehungen’ (13-22 November 2020) I was not only co-curator of the film program, but also co-author of the accompanying catalog (including a general introductory text, and texts on representation of the Netherlands in German film, star visits to the Netherlands, Dutch stars working in Germany, and animation cinema), and co-organizer of the accompanying academic conference, for which I gave the keynote, ‘Panorama, Academy, Archive. German-Dutch Film Relationships’, which has been published in the conference papers volume Grenzüberschreitende Licht-Spiele. Deutsch-Niederländische Filmbeziehungen  (2021). I also contributed to several filmed introductions to the films on show, both during the November 2020 screens and the May 2021 second series of screenings.

Released in March 2018 with Sidestone Press was my major study on Luchino Visconti’s appropriation of visual arts and cinema, the outcome of a long-lasting project, and preceded by various articles (see e.g. The Italianist 2017, Blom 2006, Acta 2010, Bono et. al. 2013) and a symposium (Palazzo Visconti, Milan 2006). My monograph got several very positive reviews in The Burlington Magazine, Positif, Screen, Senses of Cinema, etc., and was downloaded c. 3800 times from my site between Sept. 2019 and Summer 2022.

From 1994 to 2000, I wrote my dissertation at the University of Amsterdam (promotores Thomas Elsaesser and Evert van Uitert, supervisor Karel Dibbets), which was debated in 2000 and published in 2003 as Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade. The research dealt with early film distribution and exhibition in the so-called transitional era of film history and was primarily based on the Desmet Collection of EYE (formerly Netherlands Filmmuseum), now recognized by Unesco as World Heritage. The 2003 book was extensively and positively reviewed (see Reviews and Interviews) and is often referred to. It has been a model to scholars involved in early film distribution, from Brazil to New Zealand, while it was at the heart of the 2004 Domitor conference Networks of Entertainment: Early Film Distribution. Between 2003 and 2005 I toured along a dozen European cities with Desmet’s films, promoting my book.

From 1991, I regularly published in Dutch and foreign journals, volumes and encyclopedias on early cinema (various nationalities, genres, distribution, exhibition).

Publications: https://ivoblom.wordpress.com/publication. Many of my academic publications can be found online at www.academia.edu as well, some also at Researchgate.

Education
Since 1999 I teach at Vrije Universiteit (VU University), Amsterdam. Over two decades I have taught undergraduates 2nd year courses in Film & Media History and Film Analysis & Theory, while I still teach the 3rd year’s course Contesting Images on iconoclasm media, art, design and architecture, and on graduate level the course Crossmedial Exhibitions, which offers valuable theoretical and practical insights into the museum of the 21th century. In the past I have also taught on cinematic cities, film & art, film posters, the professional field of film & graphic design, scriptwriting in film & new media, and cinema exhibition. For a list of tutored theses and internships, look here. From 1991 to 2001, I lectured at the University of Utrecht and the University of Amsterdam on film history and film theory. I have been a guest lecturer at the University of Siena (2006-2008) and guest researcher at the Royal Dutch Institute in Rome (KNIR) (2007), the latter after being awarded the Dr. Blok Stipendium. At KNIR, I organised the Bachelor seminar Film in Rome/ Rome in Film at the Royal Dutch Institute, in 2007, 2010, and 2012. In 2010, I also co-organised the Master course Romanità on the Italian ‘ventennio’, architecture and film, a collaboration between KNIR and my university.

Over the past decade I have been experimenting with innovation in education, in particular, 1) the use of enriched knowledge clips for my 2012 Rome in Film course (better preparation for short-term excursions, thanks to the project REC:all), 2) use of iPads in both the 2012 Rome on film course and my master course The Cinematic City (2012-2014) enabling to view film clips ‘in situ’ and compare with real locations, 3) the use of GIS-related information by means of Geoplaza sites of film locations in Rome and Amsterdam cinemas in Amsterdam, 4) a pilot project with KPN and Surfnet in the use of 4G for the 2014 edition of The Cinematic City (enabling to consult and compare on location film clips and image databases online), and 5) use of concept maps to train students in acquiring historical knowledge for my course Film & Media History (2014-). All projects were done in collaboration with Sylvia Moes, education innovation manager at VU University. For an interview with me on the use of the enriched knowledge clips, the iPads, Geoplaza, and additional experiments in 2012-2013, look here.

Professional (academic) activities
Lectures: I have given over 80 papers at workshops and conferences in Europe and the United States, as well as many guest lectures, in particular in Italy.
Ph.D. committees: I have been a member of Ph.D. juries at the Sorbonne, Paris3 (2009) and the universities of Ghent (2006; 2009), Antwerp (2015) and Utrecht (2016).
Scientific committee: Conference Vers une esthétique spectaculaire. Le cinéma muet italien au croisement des arts plastiques et décoratifs, 1896-1930, Villa Medici, Rome, 2017 (organizer Céline Gailleurd). Exhibition Enfin le cinéma! Arts, images et spectacles en France (1833-1907), Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 2021-22 (see Research).
Advisor: I have been an advisor for NWO (the Dutch National Research Council) and FWO (Flemish Research Council).
Organisation: For the research project Le cinéma italien muet à la croisée des arts européens (1896-1930), I co-organised the international workshop A Dive into the Collections of EYE Film Museum (20-21 December 2018). June 2018 I helped in the organization of the NECS Conference when co-hosted by my university. For the 2017 Tadema conference see Exhibitions. In 2009, I co-organised the exploratory workshop Intermedialities: Theory, History, Practice of the European Science Foundation. I also co-organised the conferences The Artist’s Biography on Film (2004), Diva Dolorosa: la gestualità sofferta (2004) and Visconti & Visual Arts (2006).
Editorial work: Between 2003 and 2013 I have been a member of the editorial board of the peer-reviewed and since 2012 online magazine Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis (Journal on Media History). Here I published on early Dutch cinema and co-edited the special issues Games & History (2004), Cinema in Context (2007), Madness & Media (2013) and one miscellanea issue (2010). Until 2007, I also was on the editorial board of Jong Holland, a journal on Art & Visual Culture, publishing on Jean-Léon Gérôme and the early epic Quo Vadis? (2001) and on Visconti, Hayez, and intermediality (2006).
Exhibitions: In 2004-2005, I was the initiator of the exhibition Blikvangers (Eyecatchers) on 60 years of Dutch film poster design. From 2014 to 2016 I have been involved with Peter Trippi, Elizabeth Prettejohn and others in the co-curating of the exhibition Alma-Tadema: Klassieke Verleiding [Classical Charm] (Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, 30 September 2016-7 February 2017). I also wrote an article for the accompanying book Alma-Tadema: At Home in Antiquity, which appeared in English, German and Dutch, and curated the film programme for art house Slieker Film in Leeuwarden. The exhibition was a huge critical and public success and drew 158.000 visitors. It afterward travelled to Belvedere Museum (Vienna), and Leighton House (London). By September 2017, 2850 Dutch copies, c. 2000 English copies and c. 530 German copies of the book had been sold. Accompanying the Leighton House exhibition, I also initiated what became the conference Alma-Tadema: Antiquity at Home and on Screen (Paul Mellon Foundation/ Birkbeck University, 19-21 October 2017). organised by Maria Wyke, Ian Christie, Elizabeth Prettejohn, myself, and the hosting institutions (see above). Winter 2016-17 I was also film image researcher for the exhibition Mata Hari: Myth and the Maiden (Fries Museum 2017-18). See Scientific Committee for the 2021 exhibition at Musée d’Orsay.

Further activities
Juries: I have been a jury member of the Willy Haas-Preis 2014 for the best book and DVD on German cinema. I have also been an advisor for the Mediafonds.
DVD: I contributed to the Dutch DVD-box Luchino Visconti (Cinemien 2005) and the DVDs Ma l’amor mio non muore/Love Everlasting (Cineteca di Bologna 2013), starring Lyda Borelli, and Sangue bleu (Cineteca di Bologna 2014), starring Francesca Bertini.
Publications in popular scientific journals (Geschiedenis Magazine, Ons Amsterdam): look here.
Programming: for 2020 I programmed with Rommy Albers (EYE) and CineGraph Hamburg the 2020 Cinefest on Dutch-German film exchange all through the 20th and early 21st century. Because of COVID-19 an alternative online film program was organised, with the intention of showing the original program in Spring 2021, which, alas became an online one too.  In 2015 I curated the programme ‘Italian Muscle in Germany’, on Italian strongmen and acrobats starring in German adventure films of the 1920s –  a programme for the Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, Italy (October 2015). I also chaired a Collegium session attached to this, with Elif Rongen (EYE) and Oliver Hanley (Austrian Filmmuseum). The programme was well received in the Italian and foreign press and media. See above for the film programme on Tadema and film in Leeuwarden. This also included a showing of Quo vadis? (Guazzoni 1913), accompanied with live music, at EYE, Amsterdam.

Background
I studied art history in Utrecht (BA) and Leiden (MA) and wrote my master thesis (1986) on Luchino Visconti and painting. I have been extraneus at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, (1986), section direction & scriptwriting. In 1988, I co-organised the Dutch retrospective Il primo cinema italiano 1905-1945 and co-edited the accompanying book Hartstocht en heldendom. From 1989 to 1994, I worked as archivist and restorer at EYE (formerly Netherlands Filmmuseum).