Reports to the Field - Summary - Mona Jimenez
 

Dear Friends,

 

In June 2002, the Experimental Television Center held the symposium ?Looking Back/Looking Forward? to investigate how we can expand the options for physical preservation and the preservation of related devices and ephemera. Representatives were invited from media arts centers, universities, museums, archives and post-production facilities, along with technicians, artists, funders, and preservation consultants. We invite you continue the dialogue with us.

The symposium was a combination of information sharing, brainstorming and strategizing. The symposium was videotaped, and the tapes are being transcribed and will be available at the end of the year at ETC?s Video History web site (http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/history). 

In the closing session, the question was posed: ?Where do we go from here?? The following is a summary of the actions suggested, and observations voiced by participants. Please jump in: email your reactions and comment, update us on related activities, volunteer to take on a task, suggest or initiate a collaboration. The proposed actions are in no particular order; so we also encourage your comments on how they should be prioritized.

Mona Jimenez

 

Proposed actions:

 
1. Conduct a study of independent media preservation efforts internationally for distribution internationally  - particular mention was made of efforts in the Netherlands.

2. Conduct a survey to collect descriptions and contacts for preservation initiatives, such as BAVC?s project to create a DVD on video preservation, the Variable Media Initiative, and research by the Image Permanence Institute. Do at least a portion of this information-gathering through web-based data collection (Artist Television Access may help with this.)

3. Establish best practices on specific areas of preservation, use a tiered approach with small working groups who test theories, make recommendations, and bring to a larger body for discussion.

4. Connect to, involve and dialogue with the next generation of preservation activists by offering internships in collections for students enrolled in Moving Image Preservation Programs (such as UCLA, NYU, George Eastman House).

5. Investigate the feasibility of a direct tape-tape duplication system, where the tape doesn?t have to pass through a tape path on a deck. (Luke Hones and Bill Etra may help with this.)

6. Prepare detailed guides about technical issues with older videotapes: how to spot problems with the physical object and how to spot playback problems. For example, it is particularly important to distinguish between the look of productions made with of 1/2? open reel equipment (editing glitches, softness of image, etc.) and the results of subsequent tape defects or equipment problems.  

7. Create a study collection of older equipment, including artist instruments/devices, with technical documentation such as manuals, and videotapes of how to use the equipment.

8. Locate older equipment through a survey of media arts organizations and related groups. (NAMAC could be asked to do this, and Artist Television Access may help with an online survey form and database.)

9.  Carry out an oral history project with artists and designers who created artist instruments and devices, and who have developed one-of-a-kind devices that are part of installation works.

10.  Continue and expand the mechanisms (such as the ETC web site, Woody Vasulka?s site and the Kinetic History site of Electronic Arts Intermix) to collect multiple histories of early video ? creating a fuller picture of such areas as artistic practices, aesthetics, politics, and organizational infrastructure.

11.  Create consensus on ethical standards for media preservation. Look at the standards of practice used in conservation and archival communities as models to begin the discussion.

12.  Continue to explore the complex preservation issues with technology-based installation work raised by the 2000 symposium TechArcheology: Installation Art Preservation.

13.  Raise awareness of the need for preservation through exhibition programs combing historical and contemporary productions; i.e., showing activist tapes from from the 1970?s with current activist video.

14.  Ask NAMAC to take on a specific task (such as equipment survey above) to advance preservation work.

15.  Connect to other efforts at the forefront for NAMAC (such as media literacy) to go beyond a segregated discussion about preservation.

16.  Raise awareness with funders and supporters of the need for preservation.

 

Observations:

 

* We are making progress! There has been significant increase in the amount of information available on media preservation and media history, and in the networking between different groups working on or concerned about preservation.

* Media preservation is an international problem; we need to learn more about efforts in other countries and find ways to collaborate and share information to prevent ?re-inventing the wheel?.

* We need to focus on what we want to see happen ? a ?wish list?, and less on projecting how it will happen ? we may not be able to imagine all  possible solutions.

* We need to come to consensus around preservation practices and dissemination the knowledge.

*  We need to pass along our knowledge and passion, including our technical expertise and understanding of the aesthetics and production of early media works, to a new generation of preservation activists.

* Trends toward editioning of media works, and increased collection by individuals and private galleries raises questions about availability of the works to the public (through public institutions and non-profit distributors), and how they are being preserved.

* The contextualization and preservation of media works will come from contributions to video history sites and repositories, with ?the data creating the history.?