Video History Project

Preservation

Images from Looking Back/Looking Forward

Publication type
Web Article

Looking Back/Looking Forward: A Symposium on Electronic Media Preservation: contents

Looking Back/Looking Forward
A Symposium on Electronic Media Preservation
May 31 and June 1, 2002

Tony Bannon
Barbara London
Joel Chadabe, Steina & Woody Vasulka
Dan Summer (mic), Elizabeth Weatherford
Pip Laurenson, Luke Hones


Bill Etra


Gerald O?Grady and Jean Gagnon


Karen Helmerson


Kate Horsfield and Debby Silverfine

Carole Lazio, Rachael Melman, Jim Hubbard and Kenneth Schlesinger


Gerald O?Grady and Steina Vasulka

Mercer Media
Bill Seery, Elizabeth Weatherford (back to camera), Robin Schanzenbach
Arthur Tsuchiya


Bill Seery

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Images from Looking Back/Looking Forward.

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Summary

Looking Back/Looking Forward is a photographic record of a symposium on electronic media preservation held May 31 and June 1, 2002; the page presents images and captions from the event. Participants and subjects identified include Tony Bannon; Barbara London; Joel Chadabe; Steina and Woody Vasulka; Dan Summer; Elizabeth Weatherford; Pip Laurenson; Luke Hones; Bill Etra; Gerald O?Grady; Jean Gagnon; Karen Helmerson; Kate Horsfield; Debby Silverfine; Carole Lazio; Rachael Melman; Jim Hubbard; Kenneth Schlesinger; Mercer Media; Bill Seery; Robin Schanzenbach; and Arthur Tsuchiya.

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Last modified 15 September 2026

Related records

  • Looking Back/Looking Forward Chronology

    Looking Back/Looking Forward was a symposium held May 31–June 1, 2002, as a working session for artists, media arts staff, conservators, and technical experts to address physical preservation of independent electronic media; it was 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. The event was hosted by Downtown Community Television Center and made possible with public funds from the Electronic Media and Film Program of the NYS Council on the Arts, with assistance from IMAP and Dave Jones Design; it was organized by Sherry Miller Hocking and independent consultant Mona Jimenez.

  • Agenda Preservation

    Looking Back/Looking Forward: A Symposium on Electronic Media Preservation convened May 31–June 1, 2002 at Downtown Community Television Center with a reception at MercerMedia. Organized by the Experimental Television Center with IMAP and Bay Area Video Coalition and funded by the NYS Council on the Arts Electronic Media and Film Program, the program covered physical preservation and remastering (including 1/2” open reel workflows), economics, media formats, collection assessment and documentation of artists’ instruments and ephemera, with presentations by Luke Hones, Heather Weaver, Kacey Koeberer, Mona Jimenez and Sarah Stauderman.

  • Looking Back/Looking Forward: A Symposium on Electronic Media Preservation Preservation

    Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Agenda Issues in Physical Preservation Panel Economics of Physical Preservation Panel Media Formats Update Panel Assessing a Collection for Preservation Issues in Capturing Related Histories Panel What's Next? An Open Discussion Reports to the Field Im…

  • Introduction Preservation

    Looking Back/Looking Forward is a symposium on electronic media preservation organized by the Experimental Television Center; it invited 58 artists, conservators, media arts staff and technical experts and is an activity of the Center’s Video History Project (begun 1994). The Video History Website (launched 2000) hosts nine interrelated databases with about 3,500 records and a Bibliography of over 1,000 entries. The Preservation area includes the commissioned papers Video Preservation and Reel to Real; Bay Area Video Coalition, with NEA funding, will produce a DVD due end of 2002.

  • Assessing a Collection for Preservation Preservation

    Sarah Stauderman of the Smithsonian Institution presented an adapted Society of American Archivists matrix for prioritizing videotape collections at the Looking Back/Looking Forward symposium (May 31–June 1, 2002). She outlined a survey form with parts for identification, value assessment and risk assessment, illustrated by 1972 half-inch reel-to-reel panda research tapes; scoring combined institution value, access, legal custody, physical condition and obsolescence to produce reformatting priorities. Participants discussed formats (reel, U-matic, VHS, BetaCam, digital), cataloguing, shared custodial responsibilities and projects such as IMAP and the AMIA Moving Image Gateway.

  • Acknowledgements Preservation

    The Experimental Television Center (ETC) organized the symposium Looking Back/Looking Forward in association with Independent Media Arts Preservation (IMAP), Bay Area Video Coalition and the Electronic Media Specialty Group of the AIC; Downtown Community Television Center hosted the event. Funding came from the Electronic Media and Film Program of the NYS Council on the Arts, with assistance from IMAP, BAVC, MercerMedia and Dave Jones Design. The symposium organization was led by Sherry Miller Hocking and consultant Mona Jimenez; DB Rohlfs produced transcripts that were edited by Carolyn Tennant and Sherry Miller Hocking.