1. A Proposal for Low Cost Retrieval of Early Videotapes Produced on Obsolete Equipment and/or Videotape that Will Not Play Back. Or The Resurrection Bus

   Proposal from an author at the TV Center to outfit a vehicle with early videotape playback equipment to retrieve reel-to-reel tapes produced from the late 1960s to about 1975; formats cited include several 1/2", 1/4" and possibly 1" tape, with 2" tape handled by commercial services. The plan calls for traveling to owners, sending a tape-cleaning machine ahead, using equipment including Frame Synchronizers, ProcAmps, Magic, Candles and Prayer Rugs, and transferring material to a current videotape format chosen by the owner; transfers would be one-time and tapemakers are expected to participate. The proposer offers to research costs and scope and requests contact by mail at the TV Center.

2. Acknowledgements

   Video Preservation - The Basics is a general introduction to electronic media preservation for the independent media arts community; it was researched and written by Sherry Miller Hocking of the Experimental Television Center and by artist and independent preservation consultant Mona Jimenez. The project was funded by a Media Action Grant from Media Alliance, Inc and by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts; acknowledgements list Media Alliance (for excerpting the Magnetic Media Sourcebook) and co-editors Liss Platt and Mona Jimenez, Debby Silverfine, Claude Meyer and the Electronic Media and Film Program of NYSCA, David Jones of Dave Jones Design, and Independent Media Arts Preservation; February 2000.

3. Acknowledgements

   Reel to Real: A Case Study of BAVC's Remastering Model: contents Photos were taken by Luke Hones, except where captioned. Special thanks to: The Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts for their support of this manuscript. Charles Bensinger for permission to repro…

4. Acknowledgements

   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.

5. Agenda

   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.

6. Appendices - Block Diagrams of BAVC's Remastering Facility

   Reel to Real: A Case Study of BAVC's Remastering Model: contents

7. Appendices - Dub Sheet

   Reel to Real: A Case Study of BAVC's Remastering Model: contents

8. Appendices - Tape Cleaning Equipment Manufacturers

   Appendix lists tape cleaning equipment manufacturers and contact information; Data Devices International advertises a line of cleaners. The Bow Industries includes a section by Dale Whysong on mechanical removal of particles from magnetic tape and offers tape cleaning services. Recortec provides phone (408-928-1480), fax (408-729-3661) and email [email protected]; RTI Group makes cleaners for formats from VHS to DVCAM and lists phone numbers 847-677-3000, 800-323-7520 and 818-838-0480 and [email protected]. The appendix also includes block-diagram images of BAVC9s remastering facility (audio, video and sync flows) and a dub sheet image.

9. Assessing a Collection for 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.

10. Background and History

    Experimental Television Center produced this guide and organized the Video History Project, documenting early video art and community television in upstate New York (1968–1980) through oral histories, a website and the Video History: Making Connections conference (Syracuse University, October 1998). The text cites Media Alliance and publications such as Deirdre Boyle's Video Preservation and the Magnetic Media Preservation Sourcebook, and notes IMAP's 1999 formation with New York State Council on the Arts and Rockefeller Foundation support. It outlines archivist functions, videotape deterioration modes and chronology of preservation activities through 2002.

11. Background on the BAVC Model

    BAVC identified videotape deterioration and equipment obsolescence in 1992 and proceeded to develop a model remastering center, beginning remastering of skip-field and EIAJ 1/2" open reel formats in 1994; the author served as BAVC Director of Research and Development and Sally Jo Fifer was Executive Director. BAVC secured an NEA Challenge Grant in 1993 and matching support from the Andy Warhol Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, NAMID and the California Arts Council, and acquired decks from Intermedia Arts in exchange for transfers to the Minnesota Historical Society. Staff including Debra Finucane and Grace Lan established documentation and workflow; technicians Jonathan Selsey and Heather Weaver noted a lack of ongoing R&D; technical sources cited include Ampex, 3M, Sony, Charles Bensinger's Video Guide, NASA Publication 1052 and Merlin Engineering's Ken Zhin.

12. Care and Handling of Tape

    Practical guidelines for videotape care to prolong shelf life and prevent sticky shed, mold and drop out; addresses upright storage, temperature and humidity control, contamination and magnetic-field avoidance, proper rewinding, labeling, tape hubs and containers, shipping, and use of high-quality brand-name tapes for copying and preservation. Further reading cites Playback: A Preservation Primer for Video (Bay Area Video Coalition, San Francisco, 1998), Jim Lindner, William T. Murphy (Television and Video Preservation, Library of Congress, 1997), Debbie Hess Norris (AIC), John Van Bogart (CLIR) and Jim Wheeler; suppliers named include Light Works, Conservation Online, Conservation Resources International and G.M. Wylie.

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