Retrospective
{{Short description|Look back at events that took place before}}
{{other uses}}
A retrospective (from Latin {{Lang|la|retrospectare}}, "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, retrospective has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. It is applied as an adjective, synonymous with the term retroactive, to laws, standards, and awards.
Arts and popular culture
Film retrospectives are usually screenings of films grouped around a theme or a particular director. They are mounted as part of many film festivals, including the Retrospective section in the Berlin International Film Festival,{{cite web | title=News & Topics | date=17 December 2024 | url=https://www.berlinale.de/en/2025/news-press-releases/259541.html | access-date=4 January 2025}} Sundance,{{cite web | title=The Sundance Film Festival: A Retrospective | website=ASMALLWORLD | date=2 January 2025 | url=https://www.asmallworld.com/editorials/articles/the-sundance-film-festival-a-retrospective | access-date=4 January 2025}} Locarno Film Festival,{{cite web | title=Film Sections | website=Locarno Film Festival | url=https://www.locarnofestival.ch/festival/film-sections/retrospettiva/retrospettiva77.html | access-date=4 January 2025| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250102145329/https://www.locarnofestival.ch/festival/film-sections/retrospettiva/retrospettiva77.html| archive-date= 2 Jan 2025|url-status=live}} Byron Bay Film Festival{{cite web | title=BBFF2020 Retrospective | website=BBFF | url=https://www.bbff.com.au/bbff2020-retrospective | access-date=4 January 2025}} They are also held by cinemas{{cite web | title=Retroselective | website=Cinema Nova | url=https://www.cinemanova.com.au/events/retroselective | access-date=4 January 2025}}{{cite web | title=Cult Classics | website=Ritz Cinemas | url=https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/events/cult-classics | access-date=4 January 2025}} or various types of organisations.{{cite web | title=Film Screenings: Dir. Kinuyo Tanaka Retrospective | website=The Japan Foundation, Sydney | date=4 May 1937 | url=https://sydney.jpf.go.jp/events/afternote-film-screenings-director-kinuyo-tanaka-retrospective/ | access-date=4 January 2025}}{{cite web | title=Cinema | website=Art Gallery of NSW | url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/cinema/ | access-date=4 January 2025}} The Lincoln Center in New York City has held many film retrospectives in the form of screenings as well as podcasts.{{cite web | title=Retrospective Archives | website=Film at Lincoln Center | date=16 February 2023 | url=https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/category/retrospective/ | access-date=4 January 2025| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20241219093314/https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/category/retrospective/| archive-date=19 Dec 2024| url-status=live}}
A retrospective art exhibition is an art exhibition of visual art that presents works from an extended period of an artist's activity.{{cite web | last=Schwartzman | first=Allan | title=10 Museum Retrospectives That Need To Happen | website=Sothebys.com | date=14 May 2018 | url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/10-museum-retrospectives-that-need-to-happen | access-date=4 January 2025}}{{cite web | title=Charles White: A Retrospective | website=The Museum of Modern Art | date=7 October 2018 | url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3930 | access-date=4 January 2025}}{{cite web | title=REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie | website=NGV | date=11 October 2024 | url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/media_release/rekospective-the-art-of-reko-rennie/ | access-date=4 January 2025}}
A retrospective compilation album is assembled from a recording artist's past material, often their greatest hits.{{cite web | last=Laurent | first=Flo | title=Bryan Ferry announces Retrospective album and shares Bob Dylan cover | website=Hotpress | date=1 August 2024 | url=https://www.hotpress.com/music/bryan-ferry-announces-retrospective-album-and-shares-bob-dylan-cover-23042294 | access-date=4 January 2025}} Often the word is included in the title, such as Retrospective: The Best of Buffalo Springfield, released after the band's breakup in 1969, and ''Retrospective, a 1978 album of songs by Australian singer-songwriter Russell Morris.
A television or newsstand special about an actor, politician, or other celebrity will present a retrospective of the subject's career highlights.{{cn|date=January 2025}} A leading (usually elderly) academic may be honored with a Festschrift, an honorary book of articles or a lecture series relating topically to a retrospective of the honoree's career.{{cn|date=January 2025}} Celebrity roasts good-naturedly mock the career of the guest of honor, often in a retrospective format.{{cn|date=January 2025}}
Awards
A retrospective or retroactive award is one which is created and then awarded to persons who would have received it at a time when the awards were not given, such as the 1945 Retrospective Hugo Awards for science fiction.{{cite web | title=Retrospective Hugo Awards | website=The Hugo Award | date=20 January 2021 | url=https://www.thehugoawards.org/category/retrospective-hugo-awards/ | access-date=4 January 2025}}
Law
The term is used in situations where the law (statutory, civil, or regulatory) is changed or reinterpreted, affecting acts committed before the alteration. When such changes make a previously committed lawful act now unlawful in a retroactive manner, this is known as an ex post facto law or retroactive law. Because such laws punish the accused for acts that were not unlawful when committed, they are rare, and not permissible in most legal systems.{{cite web | title=Retrospective Laws | website=Rule of Law Education Centre | date=1 September 1939 | url=https://www.ruleoflaw.org.au/principles/retrospective-laws/ | access-date=4 January 2025}}{{cite web | title=A common law principle | website=ALRC | date=12 January 2016 | url=https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/traditional-rights-and-freedoms-encroachments-by-commonwealth-laws-alrc-report-129/13-retrospective-laws/a-common-law-principle-12/ | access-date=4 January 2025}}
Conversely, a form of retrospective law commonly called an amnesty law may decriminalize certain acts. A pardon has a similar effect, in a specific case instead of a class of cases. An in mitius change may alleviate possible consequences for unlawful acts (for example, by replacing the death sentence with lifelong imprisonment) retroactively. Finally, when a previous law is repealed or otherwise nullified, it is no longer applicable to situations to which it had been, even if such situations arose before the law was voided; this principle is known as nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali.{{cn|date=January 2025}}
Software development
The term is also used in software engineering, where a retrospective is a meeting held by a project team at the end of a project or process (often after an iteration) to discuss what was successful about the project or time period covered by that retrospective, what could be improved, and how to incorporate the successes and improvements in future iterations or projects. In agile development, retrospectives play a very important role in iterative and incremental development. At the end of every iteration, a retrospective is held to look for ways to improve the process for the next iteration.{{cite web | title=Agile Retrospectives | website=Collaboration software for software, IT and business teams | url=https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/retrospectives | access-date=4 January 2025}}{{cite web | last=Francino | first=Yvette | title=What is an Agile retrospective? Definition from SearchSoftwareQuality | website=Search Software Quality | date=7 October 2021 | url=https://www.techtarget.com/searchsoftwarequality/definition/Agile-retrospective | access-date=4 January 2025}}{{cite web | last=Rojewski | first=Anders | title=Agile Retrospectives: the Why, the What, and the How | website=Neatro | date=28 January 2021 | url=https://www.neatro.io/blog/agile-retrospective/ | access-date=4 January 2025}}
Standards
In the context of scientific and technical standards, retrospectivity applies current norms to material that pre-dates new rules. An example of a retrospective or retroactive standard is the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN Code), a convention which governs the formal scientific naming of animals, of which the 4th edition is effective since 2000. All previous editions of the ICZN Code, or previous other rules and conventions, are disregarded today,{{Cite web |url=http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/code/index.jsp |title=International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, Art. 86.3 |access-date=2010-07-16 |archive-date=2018-08-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820040118/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/code/index.jsp |url-status=dead }} and the scientific names published in former times are to be evaluated only under the present edition of the ICZN Code.{{cn|date=January 2025}}
See also
References
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