Video History Project
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Preservation manuals

45 records

  1. Acknowledgements Preservation

    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.

  2. Acknowledgements Preservation

    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…

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Appendices - Block Diagrams of BAVC's Remastering Facility Preservation

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

  6. Appendices - Dub Sheet Preservation

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

  7. Appendices - Tape Cleaning Equipment Manufacturers Preservation

    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.

  8. 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.

  9. Background and History Preservation

    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.

  10. Background on the BAVC Model Preservation

    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.

  11. Care and Handling of Tape Preservation

    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.

  12. Care of the Facility Preservation

    Practical maintenance guidance for video facilities, emphasizing cable management and upkeep of 1/2" open reel playback machines; BAVC cites The Video Guide (Charles Bensinger, Video-Info Productions, 1979) as an essential reference. Detailed cleaning procedures are provided for AV-8650 and CV-2100 head drums, specifying lint-free clean-room cloths and denatured alcohol and describing techniques for spinning heads, removing debris from tape-path grooves, inspecting and restoring pinch roller traction, and cleaning slip rings.

  13. Cataloging Preservation

    Describes efforts to establish compatible cataloging for media arts collections; Independent Media Arts Preservation (IMAP) distributes a MARC-compatible FileMaker Pro template developed by Jim Hubbard with involvement from NAMID staff including Henry Mattoon and former director Margaret Byrne. The template has been adopted by the Kitchen, the Experimental TV Center, Visual Studies Workshop, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Paper Tiger Television and Downtown Community Television Center; IMAP conducted a planning and feasibility study for an online tutorial supported by a Technology Planning Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. NAMID at the American Film Institute promotes a MARC-compatible union database and houses over 200,000 records.

  14. Cleaning, Remastering and Restoration Preservation

    Survey of videotape cleaning, re-mastering and restoration practices; early experimenters named include Bob Harris (Anthology Film Archives), Tony Conrad (Media Study/Buffalo), Ralph Hocking (Experimental Television Center), videomaker David Schulman and staff at Electronic Arts Intermix. Methods discussed include scraping, wiping, vacuuming and baking for open-reel tape and RTI machines for cassettes; preservation-format considerations include transfer to uncompressed digital (D-2) or analog (Betacam SP) and creating two preservation masters stored in separate locations. Non-profit and commercial service providers are listed (BAVC, Vtape, VidiPax, Roland House and others); the text advises checking vendor inspection procedures, references and preserving hardware, manuals and engineer contacts.

  15. Components of the Remastering System Preservation

    BAVC catalogs the components and signal flow of its remastering system, listing playback machines (two AV-8650s, CV-2100, BVU-800), a Sony BVT-810 16-line TBC and a DPS full-frame TBC with DPS Vscope, a six-in/one-out video switcher and a one-in/six-out video distribution amplifier, waveform monitor/vectorscope and a color monitor with cross-pulse. Color bars and a 1 kHz tone are recorded for about one minute at the head of transferred tapes as references for color and audio levels; bars set hue, saturation, brightness and black level and tone sets audio VU calibration. The setup uses a Sigma switcher and VDA, a control-room video and audio patchbay, and routing that permits viewing signals pre- and post-TBCs to select the optimal transfer path.

  16. Documentation of Cleaning and Remastering Preservation

    BAVC initially inventoried client tapes, sent them to an off-site cleaning technician, checked returns against the inventory, rubber-banded original 1/2" open-reel tapes to new copies and labeled copies with title, artist, running time, format and client. As remastering demand increased, staff created a Preservation Dub Watch form to record playback deviations and artifacts; clients were often not the original creators and frequently did not know tape contents, with common concerns including no color, no sound, missing titles or credits, seconds of video noise between segments and herringbone patterns. The form aided in diagnosing equipment versus tape problems, supported shift-to-shift technical communication and is still in use; BAVC cites Playback: A Preservation Primer for Video (BAVC, 1998) and Appendix 12.3 for the Dub Watch Sheet.

  17. Economics of Physical Preservation Panel Preservation

    Panel at the Experimental Television Center symposium (Looking Back/Looking Forward: May 31–June 1, 2002) addressed the economics of physical preservation with speakers Kate Horsfield (Video Data Bank), Kim Tomczak and Lisa Steele (V Tape), John Thomson (Electronic Arts Intermix), Kacey Koeberer (BAVC) and Bill Seery (Mercer Media). Presenters reported collection sizes and formats—Video Data Bank ~5,000 tapes with 2,365 needing preservation and 175 archived; V Tape ~4,200 titles by 900 artists—and discussed transfer workflows, equipment, cataloguing, research, estate planning, training and funding constraints including NEA and foundation grants and specific 2001 mastering volumes and costs at BAVC.

  18. Elements of the Remastering Process Preservation

    BAVC operates a remastering center where a tape transfer consists of three processes: preparation, transfer, and documentation. Preparation covers work on the original tape after receipt and before playback and has used a tape cleaning machine with little change over seven years; transfer copies the electronic signals from the original tape to a new tape. Documentation records the preparation and transfer steps and has evolved from an undocumented initial group of transfers as BAVC increased contact with conservators and archivists.

  19. Ethics and Copyright Preservation

    Addresses copyright, fair use and ethical obligations for video collections, emphasizing verification of legal authority for tapes via acquisition history, documentation and releases or clearances and clarifying rights to duplicate or exhibit works. Lists volunteer legal services in Manhattan (New York State Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts) and Philadelphia (Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, founded 1978), notes the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 is available as a downloadable PDF, and cites Library of Congress circulars, Stanford Conservation OnLine and Stanford University Libraries materials, Journal of Electronic Publishing (1997, 1999), and the AIC and SAA Codes of Ethics.

  20. Getting Started Preservation

    Practical guide for initiating videotape preservation covering planning, storage environment assessment, cataloging, consultant use, education and preservation management; emphasizes prioritization, emergency response and short- and long-term goals. Recommends climate control and monitoring, upright shelving, computer inventories and the IMAP FileMaker Pro catalog template; advises commissioning preservation surveys by moving-image archivists or conservators and cites AIC/FAIC guidance and several archive partners (Andy Warhol Museum; Anthology Film Archives; The Jewish Museum Archive of Broadcasting; MoMA; Video DataBank; WGBH; WNET Tape Archive). Bibliographic references include Boyle (1993), Murphy (Library of Congress, 1997), Wheeler (Nov 1994) and Scholtz (CLIR, 1989).

  21. Images from Looking Back/Looking Forward Preservation

    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.

  22. Insurance and Disasters Preservation

    Guidance on insurance and disaster planning for collections of magnetic and optical media; addresses valuation of unique tapes, replacement value versus content value, liabilities of off-site storage, insurance for restoration costs, and steps for damage assessment and prioritization of recovery. A disaster-response framework is described including when to seek professional help. Vendor and organizational resources are listed, including BMS CAT Special Technologies, Heritage Resource Management Associates, Smolian Sound Preservation, Specs Brothers, VidiPax, the American Institute for Conservation, ConservationOnline (CoOL), the National Media Lab/National Technology Alliance, Solinet, and John Van Bogart's presentation at the Library of Congress Symposium on September 21, 1995.

  23. Introduction Preservation

    Sherry Miller Hocking's February 2002 introduction surveys efforts to preserve independent videotape and electronic media from the 1960s to 2002; it documents institutions and initiatives including the NEA and AFI, F/TAAC/AMIA, MoMA's 1991 symposium, Playback 1996, BAVC's remastering facility (1995), IMAP (1999), TechArcheology (2000), Preserving the Immaterial (2001) and the Looking Back/Looking Forward symposium (May 31–June 1, 2002). It identifies technical and organizational problems—videotape deterioration, obsolete equipment, dispersed collections and lack of a union catalog—and lists recommended actions such as compatible cataloging, remastering research and facilities, public and educational programs, and broader funding and coalitions.

  24. 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.

  25. Issues in Capturing Related Histories Panel Preservation

    Panel with Joel Chadabe (Electronic Music Foundation), Alain Depocas (Daniel Langlois Foundation) and Woody Vasulka addressed preservation of media art performances, installations and digital works, focusing on digitization, emulation and documentation. They gave examples: Chadabe cited Luigi Nono and John Cage’s Bird Cage; Vasulka described scanning and OCR of about thirty thousand pages (Czech Republic contract ~$1,900, outputs RTF and TIF/PDF); Depocas summarized the Daniel Langlois documentation centre (open October 2000), its bilingual relational database, recent acquisitions and a Guggenheim partnership on the Variable Media questionnaire and emulation case studies.