Aretrospective (fromLatinretrospectare, "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 termretroactive, to laws, standards, and awards.
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 theRetrospective section in theBerlin International Film Festival,[1]Sundance,[2]Locarno Film Festival,[3]Byron Bay Film Festival[4] They are also held by cinemas[5][6] or various types of organisations.[7][8] The Lincoln Center in New York City has held many film retrospectives in the form of screenings as well aspodcasts.[9]
A retrospective art exhibition is anart exhibition ofvisual art that presents works from an extended period of an artist's activity.[10][11][12]
A retrospectivecompilation album is assembled from a recording artist's past material, often theirgreatest hits.[13] Often the word is included in the title, such asRetrospective: The Best of Buffalo Springfield, released after the band's breakup in 1969, andRetrospective, a 1978 album of songs by Australian singer-songwriterRussell Morris.
A television or newsstand special about an actor, politician, or other celebrity will present a retrospective of the subject's career highlights.[citation needed] A leading (usually elderly) academic may be honored with aFestschrift, an honorary book of articles or a lecture series relating topically to a retrospective of the honoree's career.[citation needed] Celebrityroasts good-naturedly mock the career of the guest of honor, often in a retrospective format.[citation needed]
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 RetrospectiveHugo Awards for science fiction.[14]
The term is used in situations where thelaw (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 anex 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.[15][16]
Conversely, a form of retrospective law commonly called anamnesty law may decriminalize certain acts. Apardon has a similar effect, in a specific case instead of a class of cases. Anin 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 isrepealed 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 asnullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali.[citation needed]
The term is also used insoftware engineering, where a retrospective is a meeting held by a project team at the end of a project or process (often after aniteration) 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. Inagile 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.[17][18][19]
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 theInternational Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN Code), aconvention which governs the formalscientific naming ofanimals, 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,[20] and the scientific names published in former times are to be evaluated only under the present edition of the ICZN Code.[citation needed]
The dictionary definition ofretrospective at Wiktionary