Why then did BAVC move forward with researching and developing a video remastering program, a seemingly impossible task? There were four important reasons for BAVC.
 

• First, the need in the media arts and independent video community was tangible. Steve Gong from Pacific Film Archives raised the idea of remastering to BAVC at the 1992 meeting of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) in Portland, Oregon. This was shortly after a 1991 symposium on video preservation held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, organized by Media Alliance in partnership with the Electronic Media and Film Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

The need for action was clear from our conversations with Steve, and reinforced by Deirdre Boyle's article on the symposium Video Preservation: Insuring the Future of the Past" (The Independent, 1991). You can read the article in the Resources>Written Word>Bibliography section of the Video History site. It was clear that significant artworks and documents concerning art history were on 1/2" open reel and were largely unavailable. In 1993, the symposium and its findings were later documented by Deirdre in the monograph Video Preservation: Securing the Future of the Past published by Media Alliance.

There were a number of other articles from within the media arts community, some of which I was unaware at the time. Historically significant articles related to video preservation are published on the Video History Project web site, a project of the Experimental Television Center. See the sections Tools - Texts and People - Texts

• Second, traditional moving image preservation professionals seemed to consider videotape a lower priority than film. In the early 1990s film preservation, was concentrated on Hollywood classics. The positive marketing of film preservation had also succeeded in increasing general public awareness of the need for saving films and of the organizations doing this work. The publicity and awareness of need had begun to trickle down to avant-garde or experimental film.

Independent media and video art were largely ignored, as were commercial and public television programming. . With the exception of the Pacific Film Archives, preservation organizations expressed little interest in restoring video; the video that interested BAVC and the media arts community was even more marginalized.

Despite the culturally significant role of electronic media in the last quarter of the 20th Century, video and sound recordings are often considered "throw-away" documents. Even in news gathering organizations, tapes are often recycled, with new news recorded over old news. We know that history is constructed by what historians can piece together from the documentation that survives. Through remastering services, BAVC and other media arts groups will keep a window open on the people, actions and discussions from particular places and times in the previous century.

• Third, it wasn't clear whether any other media organization aside from BAVC intended to offer a remastering program. There were valid debates in the archival and media arts communities about cleaning techniques and preservation formats, and these debates were taking center stage. Because of the expense involved in any serious effort at remastering, it was a risky endeavor to begin a program without a resolution of these issues. However, at BAVC we thought we had the advantage of being outsiders to the debate. The organization also had technical proficiency, and a tendency to take risks when needed.

• Fourth, it was felt that the remastering program would enhance BAVC's image as a technology leader. We felt that if BAVC could develop a remastering program that could be run efficiently and meet the highest standards, we could provide a needed service for the media arts community, provide BAVC with another income stream, and market our efforts to funders.

At the time, BAVC had been in the process of developing a strong facility for several years. BAVC had long term relationships with some of the best maintenance engineers in the Bay Area, and BAVC's equipment was professionally installed and well documented. The facility had a reputation for being a good first stop for technicians interested in working in the high-end video/computer graphics industry.

For foundations and individual donors, BAVC wanted to display the ability to think outside the box. BAVC's idea for the remastering program came at the same time that many arts organizations were exploring program expansion into new technologies such as multimedia and CD-ROM production. BAVC advocated a thoughtful and measured approach to the "technology of the moment", and wanted to emphasize our role as a leader in the field, with a solid understanding of the subtleties of technology development.

BAVC was also approaching new technology manufacturers for support, and defined ourselves as a center that could present their products in the best possible light. We argued that BAVC was a good site for their products not only because of its position as a nonprofit technology center, but also because BAVC had professional staff that was capable of providing leadership on such thorny technology issues as video preservation. We hoped that preservation would be a cornerstone on which we could build a new technology facility.

However, before BAVC began transferring its first tape, we had to address the politics of remastering videotape.