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 The events noted
here mark a growing concern for the preservation of analog video AND
an understanding of the complex issues surrounding the process. Not
only conservators, but artists, video art historians, engineers, and
arts administrators contributed dialog and debate, sharing information
from various perspectives and in the process, illuminating a range
of technical and ethical concerns.
Tech Archaeology Reformatted
Hosted by ArtTable Inc., Independent Media Arts Preservation
(IMAP), and The American Institute for Conservation of Historic
and Artistic Works (AIC) in New York City, April 17, 2002, the forum
followed up with findings from TechArcheology:
A Symposium on Installation Art Preservation held in January
2000 in San Francisco. Panelists for TechArcheology Reformatted
attended the original TechArcheology symposium and included Dara
Birnbaum, artist; Christopher Eamon, curator; Mona Jimenez, artist
and media arts consultant; Barbara London, Associate Curator, Video,
MOMA; Paul Messier, Conservator of Photographs & Works on Paper,
Boston Art Conservation (moderator). The event was organized by
Dara Meyers-Kingsley, independent curator and Acting Director of
IMAP. Key questions for discussion included:
- What is at the core of an individual work; what can be
extracted or modified within a media installation without
altering its intent?
- What kind of documentation is necessary to establish a
measure of this intent to insure accurate re-stagings in
the future?
- What role must the artist play in creating an authoritative
schema to guarantee the faithful exhibition of his or her
work in perpetuity?
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Independent Media Arts Preservation Salon
An online salon hosted by NAMAC, facilitated by Jim Hubbard and
Mona Jimenez of IMAP, January 7 through February 7, 2002. Panelists
included Sherry Miller Hocking (Experimental Television Center),
Karan Sheldon (Northeast Historic Film), Toni Treadway (International
Center for 8mm Film), Stepen Vitiello (The Kitchen), Heather Weaver
(Bay Area Video Coalition), and others. The salon featured weekly
topics, including guidelines for establishing an archive; decision-making
issues for reformatting collections; and the collaboration of media
arts organization in preservation initiatives.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Organized by the Experimental Television Center (ETC) in association
with Independent Media Arts Preservation (IMAP), Bay Area Video
Coalition and the Electronic Media Specialty Group of the AIC (American
Institute for the Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works),
with independent consultant Mona Jimenez, the symposium served as
a working session where artists, media arts staff, conservators,
and technical experts focused on the physical preservation of independent
electronic media. Held May 31st and June 1st 2002, at Downtown Community
Television Center in New York in which 45 individuals from throughout
the US and Canada participated. Options for quality remastering
of video recorded on obsolete formats were discussed, as well as
issues concerning preservation of related time-based media and artifacts
- hardware, software and paper ephemera - all of which compose the
heritage of electronic media art. Activities also included demonstration
of the IMAP template. For documentation of the symposium and related
papers visit the Experimental Television Center's Video History
Project web site (www.experimentaltvcenter.org/history).
Video Capsule: An Evening of Social Memory
and Video Art
Hosted by Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) in San Francisco, October
25, 2001, the underlining concern of the event was to raise awareness
of the fragile state of aging video formats and the ongoing preservation
efforts. This was accomplished through screenings, a panel discussion
including presentations from Christina Yang (The Kitchen), Kate
Horsfield (Video Data Bank), Chip Lord (UC Santa Cruz), and Steve
Seid (Pacific Film Archive) at SF State University's Coppola Theater.
The event closed with a reception at BAVC, in which the entire facility
was transformed into video installations featuring collection highlights
from The Smithsonian, Pacific Film Archive, and the Kitchen that
have been preserved at BAVC.
TechArchaeology: A Symposium on Installation
Art Preservation
Conceived by Mona Jimenez and Paul Messier, funded by The Getty
Grant Program, and organized by Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC),
25 curators, conservators and artists gathered at San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), January 5-6, 2000, with the objective
to advance the development of conservation practices for technology-based
installation art. The Journal of the American Institute for Conservation
devoted its Fall/Winter 2001 issue to Techarcheology's dialog and
case studies .
Playback '96: Video Preservation Roundtable
The symposium and subsequent publication (Playback: A Preservation
Primer for Video) addressed the technically and ethically complex
issues of videotape preservation. The event, organized by Bay Area
Video Coalition (BAVC) and hosted by the San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art (SFMOMA) in MArch 1996, instigated productive dialog
and debate among preservation professionals responsible for the
interpretation of and care for the "ephemeral media" of
analog video.
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