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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Preserving Video Art, a Work in Progress: art/tapes/22 Colletion of Asac-La Biennale
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Thematic issue / Section thématique
2006-10-01
2023-10-10
2006-10-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Simone Venturini
2006/10/01
Università degli Studi di Udine
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Preserving Video Art, a Work in Progress: art/tapes/22 Colletion of Asac-La Biennale
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6
      PRESERVING VIDEO ART, A WORK IN PROGRESS
      ART/TAPES/22 COLLECTION OF ASAC-LA BIENNALE:
      Alessandro Bordina, Simone Venturini, Università degli Studi di Udine




  Introduction

    The digital preservation intervention of the art/tapes/22 collection was perfor
  the Università degli studi di Udine, thanks to the experience of La Cancra Ottic
   C.R.EA. laboratories, in the field of film restoration. At the same time, vidco presena
  tion has its history and its complex geography, made of laboratorics, rescarch centres
  and institutions which are partly or entirely dedicated to the preservation of vidco her
  itage. Nowadays, there is a lively international debate among the most important muse
  ums and art institutes (such as the Guggenheims, Tate Gallery. MoMA, Centre
  Pompidou) on the practices and methods of video art preservation; moreover, some sig
  nificant restoration and preservation projects have been realized. Among the most
 important methodological research actions, the Preserving Vidco Art project, claborat
 ed by the Netherlands Media Art Institute and Montevideo/Time Based from 2000 10
 2003, is particularly important. This intervention included the digital preservation and
 the conservation of about 1700 works (created before 1993). mainly by using the Philips
 1500/1700, Betamax, Video8/Hi-8, VHS/S VHS and U-matic lowband/highband/BVU.sp
 supports. The protocols and methods adopted were published and they are available in
 The Sustainability of Video Art work.
      Another important intervention has been undertaken within the context of the
 soycarsvideoart.de project, organized by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (The German
 Federal Cultural Foundation) which led to the digital restoration of thirteen works ol
 German video art with the Diamant software (Hs-Art). This project is noteworthy in
 that it faced for the first time the practical possibilities as well as the ethic questions
 related to the use of digital restoration systems applied to video.
   However, from the methodological and technical point of view, such interventions
 are considered pilot projects still to be discussed, as the related intervention protocols
 and decision models are not yet final.
  We consider the preservation of the art/tapes/22 collection. that will be briefly and con
cisely described herein, as a work in progress. This is not only because the project is still
open in our laboratories, but also because the entire landscape of contemporary art preser
vation, as we mentioned above, is indeed still evolving and needs further definition
  During the critical examination of the tapes. the historical and present technolo
gics, and the texts and documents, we have found that film restoration processes, cat
egories and theoretical principles permit, on the one hand, to resolve many of the
problems of video preservation, on the other hand, they are hindered by some com
crete cases.

170
                                                                CINEMA & Cie, no.
                                                   PRESERVING VIDEO ART. A WORK IN FROGRESS


   To anticipate some conclusions, this is due to the contents, the material and the iden-
tity of video art.
   The aim of our intervention on the art/tapes/22 collection has a strictly preservation
function. This means that its main goal is to propose some conservation indications suit-
able for the archive's materials, to develop some intermediates of conservation that
would document and "replay" the original piece as faithfully as possible (with all the ner
essary reservations and the technical and practical cautions); to develop the access copies.
  Preservation in the cinematic field has been defined as an

  "Active conservation" action geared to guarantee the transmission to posterity of
  the article's content. In its current meaning, preservation indicates a mere inter.
  vention of duplication, done without modifying (e.g. editorial modifications) the
 original material.

 We would like to integrate this definition with another onc:

  The complex of procedures, criteria, techniques and practices that are necessary for
 maintaining the integrity, for restoring the content and for organizing the intellec
  tual experience of a moving image in a permanent way (..J. Duplication, restoration,
 conservation, reconstruction (if necessary), access and cxhibition in the most
 appropriate conditions, these are the basic elements of the moving image preserva
 tion activity.S

   It is well known that the duplication process is not neutral at all. However, the inter-
vention has been done "without modifying (e.g. the editorial modifications) the origi
nal materials, other than in minimal part and only with regard to the access coples."
   Preservation, as it is seen in English speaking countries, seems to be a complex and
multilevel system. However, the revision and control of the original materials, their
manipulation and reversion to digital form necessitates some choices: the principle of
selectivity, that is so close to the restoration theory, is already at work.
   Most probably, each intervention on the original piece aimed at changing the state of
the preserved material - physical examination, tape restoration and despooling, cook-
ing, washing, conversion/duplication - has to be considered as one dimension of the
 restoration.
   We may then consider preservation as a primary articulation of the restoration.
   We consider the Digital Intermediate of Conservation the result of a first level of the
material's restoration, even though it is located within the system and within the com.
 plex actions derived from the previously agreed definition of preservation. Instead, we
consider the production of Access Copies as a second level, a second articulation of the
restoration.
  And so today we are inclined to consider restoration as the result of two distinct
actions: obtaining maximum preservation of materials in context, which is a priority
that must be guaranteed (through the preservation project). This includes calculating
an amount of new quality materials; this will be considered ideally as added value with
in the context of contemporary project culture. Restoration can therefore be redefined
as the sum of two actions: Restoration = preservation of existing materials (overall
value) + planning for new materials (added value).6
                                                                                        191
  ALESSANDRO BORDINA, SIMORE VENTURES



      Briefly, this second level in production of access copies
  the new that implies, even with a minimum level of action, a series of editorial int
  ventions that are defined and evaluated within the order and the substa
  ic, historical and use values which we attribute to the preserved works.?



 The Planning of the New: The Work on Access Copies

      Following the above, we are going to illustrate bricfly where and in what way is
 intervened by modifying the nature of the original document in the access copies.

 1.Segmentation of the works. In the copies held in the art/tapes/22 collection, cach tag
   often contained several works. For this reason it was necessary to define the text lim
   its and the consequent determination of the mark ins and mark outs.
 2. Reconstruction of separated works. When the works copied were "sparated*, divid
   ed and partially present on more tapes, we proceeded by restoring their textual
   integrity. This was done after verifying their belonging and/or their derivation from
   the same occurrence and the same copy.
 3.Initial signs. Whenever their intelligibility had been spoiled by the tape's
   nal decay or by errors in past duplications. In the case of works produced by
  art/tapes/22, that action has been carried out respecting the nature of the document
  realized by a factory which produced and distributed its products and which was
  claiming its productive and distributive patermity. Our intention was to reproduce
  the edition as a whole.
 4.Crop levels for the web edition. The cxamples of video art in this collection, when they
   become accessible in our historic and cultural present era, are and will be perceived
   mainly through rather different display media than those they were invented for. The
   monitor image, a television display; to be precise, cuts, that is, makes invisible one part
  of the picture, by superimposing a second *framing*. Digital displays and, conse
  quently, the DVD and WEB access copies would show things invisible in the past. That
  is why we have chosen to crop the image in order to make it similar to the display for
  mat of the past. In order to understand the ways to recover these works, we have to
  consider first of all that these works were visualized on monitors and small or medium
  sized television sets (considering the possibilitics and the technologies available in the
  past) The works were not made to be video screened, except for a few cases (we mean
  the ones to be included in a performance context and those translated in video lan
  guage even though originally "written" on film, albeit in the 16 mm format).

  Thus access copies show how a "simple" work of preservation is inevitably to be trans
formed into a planning of the new, making these works current and functional, thanks
to their cultural and aesthetic value, and thanks also to the user value we attribute to them



The Video Art Material


 The material we worked on was a magnetic support (1/2 or 3/4 inch wide) subject to
more or less rapid decay. One tape is composed of three main layers: a re
172
                                                                PRESERVING VIDEO ART, A WORK IN PROGRESS


netic surface; a binder that puts together the magnetic paste and the third main ele
ment, the base.
  The tape, according to its origin, preservation and structural composition (format, ye
of production, sensitive layer, brand), contains an audiovisual signal that is destined to
decay in time, more or less rapidly. In a way, the consciousness of the aesthetic, histori-
cal and cultural duration value attributed to the action and artistic process recorded in
the video-registration, can be summed up by the time duration of the videographic mate
rial, which clashes with and penetrates such consciousness.
  We have noticed in our copies that, in addition to the decay of the layer and the sig.
nal, the past duplication work was often superficial, naive and did not adopt the regis-
tration standards. The latter reveals a sort of technical amateurism, that can be found
by analyzing the tapes (master and copies). Such amateurism contrasts with the "pro-
fessionalism" in implementing and editing the tapes in the contemporary broadcast
context. This fact underscores that even if there were some artists who were extremely
conscious of the technological nature of the medium (e.g. Bill Viola) and some techni-
cians used and able to video record (e.g. Andrea Giorgi), the tapes - master or copies -
store information that often lacks the most elementary rules of standard audiovisual
recording.
   Moreover, in many cases the naive duplication has introduced editorial failures, gaps
and errors in the works. In addition, this duplication has copied some visible forms of
signal decay present in the original copy.
   Figure 1 shows a graph that divides our materials according to support (U-matic, 1/2
inch); brand (individuating implicitly their mechanical, physical and chemical charac-
 teristics); and according to the generation, gleaned from the documents' information,
and therefore sometimes misleading.


                                                                                    Brand            Total
                      generation                        fotal      Dupont Crolyn KC10
 Duplicato (Dupe)
                                                                   Full Film BERIDOX        KCA-60

 Matrico (Masiori                                           8      NC U.VCR KC.30
 Matrice da film [Alaster for film)                                MEMOREX CROMEX U6O
 Riversamento Video films (Ginevra 1978) (dunication!             • Memorax UCAGO
 absent indication                                        29       Scotch UC30
 Total                                                     68      Sony KC10

                                                                   Sany KC-10
                                                                   Sony KC-15
                                                                   Sony KC-20
                                                                   Sony KC30
                                                                   Sony KC-30
                                                                   Sony KC 10

                                                                   Sony KC0
                                                                   Som KCA30
                                                                  Sony KCAED
                                                                   Total                                68

 Fig. r

                                                                                                       173
ALESSANDRO SCROINA, SIMONE VIGILALRI


  As can be seen. there is a series of materials that are heterogenous in terms of tr
generation and physical, chemical and mechanical characteristics.
 Most of the trcated and cxamined material is in U-matic format. As far as the cults:
history and the fencration of these copies are concerned, in our collection there ares;
inch originals, which are duplicated in U matic format or, in the case of "the Genera
subsection", they are duplicated in third gencration 314 format.
  The information derived from this subdivision was confronted and cross examin.I
with the contemporary technique owned by the artiapes/22 of Morence.



The U-matic format


  In this bric report, we are going to examine the U matic support. The US matic format
was developed hy Sony in 1969 and it was the forcrunncs of all video formats for d
tic use. The format was designed for professional use and that is sly it contained some
advanced characteristics from the very beginning. which made it fully functional in the
citing phase. There are thrce different versions (1.18, Ill and SI') that differ from cach
other on the basis of the different subcarrier frequencics that were used for the lumi
nance and chrominance recording. 'The tapes we worked on are of the lB type, used in
the 19705.




The Action Protocol


  Ic are going to describe now, using a diagram and synthctic descriptions, the work
ing phases. Namely, we will describe the way we hase processed the tapes in order to
prescrvc and make them accessible. The preservation process phases are as follows:

Phase 1 - Control of the physical state and tape baking:

a. Allocation of the identification number, control of the preservation state of the sup
  port, cataloguing.
b.De-assembling of the U-matic cassette and first tape despooling (U ma
c. First baking of the tape.
iScond despooling.
c. Second baking of the tape.
1. U matic re assembling and open reel rewinding

Chase ? - Signal equalizing and transfer on the conservation support:

a. Loading and sliding test on the player.
b. Analysis and tracking of the audio/video signal.
c Transktion on the "Cinergre® workstation.
d Replacement of the tape into the original holder.
c. Making of a check answer copy for technical and textual analysis.
%. Implementing of the conservation copy (digital intermediator).
                                                   PRESERVING VIDEO ART, A WORK IN PROGRESS


 Phase 3 - Output of access copies:

 a. Results of the technical analysis and the textual analysis.
 b. Location of the in/out points.
 c. Corrective actions.
 d. Exporting of the audio/video file into mega and mega codes.
 c. Authoring DVD.
 f. Stamping

   Each of the points mentioned above contains a series of actions and subprocesses that
 redefine and translate - in terms of consequential actions and cross-checks - the logics
 that we illustrated in the previous slide.
   We are not going to describe each phase of the process; it is more interesting to face
 some crucial points of the action protocol that we elaborated and to illustrate some con-
 crele cxamples that pick up the most common and, last but not least, the most signifi-
 cant problems of video art preservation.
   The first step, obviously, was the review of materials, which - in film restoration -
 corresponds to the first phase of "the critical examination of materials". However, as in
 film restoration, the operator is immediately able to observe the image and to examine
 the quality of its preservation and the levels of decay.
    In our case we have a situation, concerning materials, that puts together videograph-
 ic and audio restoration. In other words, the "review" is no longer literal and total, even
 if the tape's physical and chemical state allows us to make hypotheses with regard to
 the signal's decay and the loss of the information, on the basis of physical and chemical
 features, if any.
    Below are some examples of what we did, through a list of "the inspection criteria"
 proposed by Jim Wheelerg

• Type of container the tape is in (cardboard, cheap plastic, shipper, etc.).
• Check for damage that compromises the structural integrity of the container itself.
• Check the interior of the container and the edges of the tape for patterned black,
   brown, or mustard colored contamination that can suggest the presence of fungus.
• Establishing the tape format.
 • Correspondence of the label on the tape with the label on the container.
• Note the brand of the tape.
• For open reel tapes; is the end-of-tape secured?
• Check the tape edge for white powder or crystalline residue and check the interior of
   the container for black/brown flakes of oxide.
• Check reel condition. A badly, or loosely wound reel must be rewound.

   Because of these aspects and in order to manage all the information a database was
  created.
    In order to verify and manage the possible problems deriving from the sticky-shed
  syndrome, we have preventively done a test of tape baking, then we have proceeded
  with a washing test for the same reason, in order to ensure the absence of dirt and adhe-
  sive deposits.
    The tests done on U-matic tapes revealed the almost total absence of the sticky-shed
                                                                                       975
syndrome and the absence of signal improvement
washing appeared useful in ordse to climinate the dirt that would partial
signal reading.
 Figure a shows a transfer diagram: as can be seen, before the making of the de s
tion copy and access copies there is a parallel controlling process, the analysis:
verification of the technical and textual level by the means of the reference de
aim of the first analytical step of the reference copy is to identify and indisid
ages. if any. More gencrally. it allows to verify the single and particulas sal:a
adopted transfer chain and to modify it, if nccessary. in accordance
problems.




                   (r)        MA?




                                         § MIN GAME:




                                           Acrosscorg




              Fig. a


    The most common visible failures related to signal decay may be summarised in the
  following main four typologies:

 • Dropouts. This means the loss of one or more lines. This kind of error occurs due to
    the lack of the signal not only during the reading phase, but also during recording
    Almost always, dropouts are caused by the presence of dust or other elements which
    obstruct the correct reading of the signal.
 • Impulsive noise. It has the same characteristics as the dropouts, but wi
    mal dimensions. The defect can be seen as a white point with an appendix whick
    looks like the tail of a comet. The treatment of the signal by the TBC (time base c
    rector). if any, would transform the point and its tail into a white or grey line.
 • Picture litter. The picture jitter is an error occurring dur
     horizontal synchronisms, the defect is seen as a waving.
  Unhooking the picture (V Sync). The unhooking of th
    tion, notwould
     TBG we   a player's   defe. Weunhooking
                   have synchronisms would not
                                             and hav
                                                 loss
                                                  PRESERVING VIDEO ART, A WORK IN PROGRESS


  Synchronisms' unhooking (H/V Sync). This means a total loss of the image. There is
  no chance to recover the image in almost all cases.

  By creating a technical report for every tape, we were able to verify the tape's quality
in a simple way. on the basis of the interferences and errors found.
  A cross-examination of such reports with the other collected data, makes it possible
to interpret and define the state of every single tape, in relation to its physical and
chemical conditions, its brand, its generation and it also helps to understand the whole
collection's condition.


Some Case Studies

  Finally, we would like to present some significant examples of the concrete experience
of intervention developed by our laboratory and then a series of cases which illustrate
some persistent problems made evident by certain works. The first one comes from
Actions, by Antonio Muntadas. There are two copies of Actions in the ASAC archive. Figure
3 shows two frames of Transformation (one of the two parts of Actions) coming from the
two copies. As can be noted, both of them show the same error, which is the result of the
previous generation: we may define it a subjunctive error in philological terms.
  The second case comes from Friction (a part of Actions as well). As shown in Figure 4,
there are two different types of video signal corruption in the same frame taken from
the two copies. These corruptions underscore how signal decay makes the elements
unique. These elements are, however, theoretically based on reproducibility and exact
copying principles.




     Figg. 3.4
                                                                                      177
      ALESSANORO BORDINA, SIMONE VENTURINI



    Another example is in Italian Interview by Alexis Smith (an interview with the artist
  Chris Burden). There is a "wave effect that characterises the image. In other words
  there is a loss of information due to the compensation process implemented by the
  TBC, in its attempt to reconstruct and replace the lost data packets. As shown in Figure
  5. the two TBCs (the BVT800P and the Frame Grabber) work in a similar way. The exam
  ined tape belongs to a section of the collection which we previously defined the
   "Genève section" because these tapes come from a duplication process carried out in the
  Videofilms laboratory in Geneva in 1978.




                               fit
                           Prime Image                         BVTSOOP

                  Fig. 5



      Figure 6 reports a duplication tree from 1978 preserved in the art/tapes/22 c
 During the duplication of Italian Interview by Alexis Smith an error occurred. Because
 of the technological system used for reading or while recording the 1 inch tapes, a series
 of information was lost during the recording on the 1 inch (Il) or during the recording
 from 1 inch to 3/4 inch (III). Consequently. this duplication error was "printed" on the
 material we now have (the 1978 U-matic). Moreover, thank to this tree, we are able to
 understand why the majority of our works are in the 314 inch format.


         I 1975 (Original: OR Va, one tape, one art work)




                  197X (Dupe: OR &", reduction speed 50%, one tape, n art work)




         DI                July 1978 (Dupe: CASSY: one tape, n art work, survived material)

        lig. 6

  Given the cultural and material history of these copies, there seem to be two feasible
solutions.

178
                                                  PRESERVING VIDEO ART, A WORK IN PROGRESS


  The first one is to "go back up the tree" to the search for the lost I or 1/2 inch tapes
and, at the same time, to search for the other copies of this work, which means starting
a large review phase. The second one is to apply the algorithms and digital instruments
to the access copies, considering our code as a coder unicum, in order to repair or recon-
struct the lost information.
  As regards the second approach, Figure 7 offers a comparison between the digitally
restored and non-restored versions of Lucio Pozzi's Portrait of Maria Gloria. With the
Revival digital restoration software, we were able to reconstruct and repair some kinds
of signal corruption (e.g. the dropouts).




              Fig. 7


  The examples described above belong to a relatively well-known tradition of preserv.
ing methods and practices. In some cases we have found various problems caused by
the "nature" of the audiovisual contents.
  The first example concerns Gerald Minkoff's Chulk Walk made in 1974 and distrib-
uted by art/tapes/zz. Our copy is a master copy derived from the original tape, a KCio
Sony U-matic cassette. As shown in the frame in Figure 8, we have saturation of the sig-
nal level. Even taking into account possible errors in duplication, the saturation effect
seems intentional. The waveform monitor appearing on the screen shows how the
author is driving the signal level towards saturation. We compared the waveform mon-
itor shown in the video with an identical waveform monitor owned by our laboratory
in order to demonstrate howthe configurations of the signal levels are similar.
 Another example comes from Jean Otth's Limite E. Figure 9 shows a frame from this
work. There are two drop lines which we should consider as signal corruption. Actually,
the drop is only the upper one, the lower line is an intentional white line that consti-
tutes the main meaning of Otth's work.




Fig. 8                          Fig. g                          Fig.10

                                                                                      179
     ALESSANDRO BORDINA, SIMONE VENTURINI



       The last example we consider comes from Theme for a Race of Survival by Marco del
     Re. The interference seen in Figure 10 is actually caused by the intentional use of
     slow motion by the author. The player used was inevitably making such interierence
     We must then consider these interferences as technological limits of the time and tha
     is why we must preserve them.
        These examples and many others show that only the critical examination of the mate
     rials, the textual analysis (and the textual critique) and the collection and interpreta
     tion of data may offer adequate preserving solutions for the matcrial and the identity o
     the tapes.

                                               (Translated from Italian by Maria Stropkovicova)


       The "Introduction", The Projecting of the New: The Work on the Access Copics" and "The
       Video Art Material" paragraphs were written by Alessandro Bordina; paragraphs "The U.
       matic Format", "The Intervention Protocol®, and "Some Case Studies" were written by
       Simone Venturini.
  2 Anon., "The Sustainability of Video Art: Preservation of Dutch Video Art Collections.
       Netherlands Media Art Institute Montevidco Time Based Arts (2003), http://www.montcv
       ideo.nl/en/index. html (May 2, 2006).
  3 The first part of the project was finished in lune 2005; for further informatio
       http://www.goyearsvideoart.de and the book by R. Frieling, I. Herzongerath, 4oyearsideo
       Art. Digital Heritage: Video Art in Germany front 1963 to the Present (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz,
       2006).
 4 N. Mazzanti, "Note a pié di pagina. Per un glossario del restauro cinematografico." in L
    Comencini, M. Pavesi (eds.), Restauro, conservazione e distruzione dei film (Milano: Il
      Castoro, 2001), p. 21. Cfr. G.L. Farinelli, N. Mazzanti, 'Il restauro: metodo e tecnica," in G.P.
      Brunetta (ed.). Storia del cinema mondiale, vol. V. Teorie, strumenti, memorie (Torino:
      Einaudi, 2001), p. 1121: "Active preservation action aimed at ensuring the transmission in
       time of the preserved object's contents. In practice, the movie is copied on a new support. In
      its current meaning, preservation indicates simply the copying, without any alterations(e.g.
      editorial alterations) to the original material."
 5 P. Cherchi Usai, "La cineteca di Babele," in G.P. Brunetta (ed.), op. cit., P. 1037.
 6    Report by M. Dezzi Berardeschi, in B. P. Torsello (ed.). Che cos'è il restauro (Venezia: Marsilio,
      2005), p. 39.
 7 For the theory of values, see A. Riegl, "Il culto moderno dei monumenti, Il
      inizi," in S. Scarrocchia (ed.), Alois Riegl: teoria e prassi della conservazione de
      (Bologna: Gedit, 2003 (Bologna: CLJEB, 1995D. pp. 171-236 of the first edition; see also M.
      Dvorák, "Culto dei moderni e sviluppo artistico." in S. Scarricchia (ed.), op. cit., pp. 359-373.
8 I. Wheeler, "Videotape Preservation Handbook," AMIA (2002). http://www.amianet.org/pub
     lication/resources/guidelines/videofacts/about.html(Mayz,2006).




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