I am very grateful to all those who have contributed to this book in various ways. I owe special thanks to Bjarki Valtysson, Frederik Tygstrup, and Peter Duelund, for their supervision and help thinking through this project, its questions, and its forms. I also wish to thank Andrew Prescott, Tobias Olsson, and Rune Gade for making my dissertation defense a memorable and thoroughly enjoyable day of constructive critique and lively discussions. Important parts of the research for this book further took place during three visiting stays at Cornell University, Duke University, and Columbia University. I am very grateful to N. Katherine Hayles, Andreas Huyssen, Timothy Brennan, Lydia Goehr, Rodney Benson, and Fredric Jameson, who generously welcomed me across the Atlantic and provided me with invaluable new perspectives, as well as theoretical insights and challenges. Beyond the aforementioned, three people in particular have been instrumental in terms of reading through drafts and in providing constructive challenges, intellectual critique, moral support, and fun times in equal proportions—thank you so much Kristin Veel, Henriette Steiner, and Daniela Agostinho. Marianne Ping-Huang has further offered invaluable support to this project and her theoretical and practical engagement with digital archives and academic infrastructures continues to be a source of inspiration. I am also immensely grateful to all the people working on or with mass digitization who generously volunteered their time to share with me their visions for, and perspectives on, mass digitization.
This book has further benefited greatly from dialogues taking place within the framework of two larger research projects, which I have been fortunate enough to be involved in: Uncertain Archives and The Past’s Future. I am very grateful to all my colleagues in both these research projects: Kristin Veel, Daniela Agostinho, Annie Ring, Katrine Dirkinck-Holmfeldt, Pepita Hesselberth, Kristoffer Ørum, Ekaterina Kalinina Anders Søgaard as well as Helle Porsdam, Jeppe Eimose, Stina Teilmann, John Naughton, Jeffrey Schnapp, Matthew Battles, and Fiona McMillan. I am further indebted to La Vaughn Belle, George Tyson, Temi Odumosu, Mathias Danbolt, Mette Kia, Lene Asp, Marie Blønd, Mace Ojala, Renee Ridgway, and many others for our conversations on the ethical issues of the mass digitization of colonial material. I have also benefitted from the support and insights offered by other colleagues at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen.
A big part of writing a book is also about keeping sane, and for this you need great colleagues that can pull you out of your own circuit and launch you into other realms of inquiry through collaboration, conversation, or just good times. Thank you Mikkel Flyverbom, Rasmus Helles, Stine Lomborg, Helene Ratner, Anders Koed Madsen, Ulrik Ekman, Solveig Gade, Anna Leander, Mareile Kaufmann, Holger Schulze, Jakob Kreutzfeld, Jens Hauser, Nan Gerdes, Kerry Greaves, Mikkel Thelle, Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Knut Ove Eliassen, Jens-Erik Mai, Rikke Frank Jørgensen, Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Marisa Cohn, Rachel Douglas-Jones, Taina Bucher, and Baki Cakici. To this end you also need good friends—thank you Thomas Lindquist Winther-Schmidt, Mira Jargil, Christian Sønderby Jepsen, Agnete Sylvest, Louise Michaëlis, Jakob Westh, Gyrith Ravn, Søren Porse, Jesper Værn, Jacob Thorsen, Maia Kahlke, Josephine Michau, Lærke Vindahl, Chris Pedersen, Marianne Kiertzner, Rebecca Adler-Nissen, Stig Helveg, Ida Vammen, Alejandro Savio, Lasse Folke Henriksen, Siine Jannsen, Rens van Munster, Stephan Alsman, Sayuri Alsman, Henrik Moltke, Sean Treadway, and many others. I also have to thank Christer and all the people at Alimentari and CUB Coffee who kept my caffeine levels replenished when I tired of the ivory tower.
I am furthermore very grateful for the wonderful guidance and support from MIT Press, including Noah Springer, Marcy Ross, and Susan Clark—and of course for the many inspiring conversations with and feedback from Doug Sery. I also want to thank the anonymous peer reviewers whose insightful and constructive comments helped improve this book immensely. Research for this book was supported by grants from the Danish Research Council and the Velux Foundation.
Last, but not least, I wish to thank my loving partner Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen for his invaluable and critical input, optimistic outlook, and perfect morning cappuccinos; my son Georg and daughter Liv for their general awesomeness; and my extended family—Susanne, Bodil, and Hans—for their support and encouragement.
I dedicate this book to my parents, Karen Lise Bonde Thylstrup and Asger Thylstrup, without whom neither this book nor I would have materialized.