preservation audiovisual film motion picture training education masters degree digital copyright conservation
MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVING & PRESERVATION PROGRAM – HANDLING NEW MEDIA, H72.1805
Version 4 – 2/13/08 Spring 2008 – Thursdays, 12:30 pm – 4:30 pm, room 643, 665 Broadway. Please note there are two classes that are held on Fridays: Friday, February 15 and Friday April 25. Instructor: Mona Jimenez mona.jimenez@nyu.edu; 212—992—8458
GOALS:
- This seminar will increase students' knowledge of primary issues and emerging strategies for the preservation of new media and digital works. Students will gain practical skills with identification and risk assessment for works as a whole and their component parts, particularly in the areas of audio and visual media and digital, interactive media projects that are stored on fixed media, presented as installations, and existing in networks.
- Examples of production modes/works to be studied are animations (individual works and motion graphics) web sites, games, interactive multimedia (i.e., educational/artist CDROMs), and technology&nbdash;dependent art installations. Students will test principles and practices of traditional collection management with these works.
EXPECTATIONS:
- Each student will complete two assignments and contribute to two group projects. Attendance at all classes is expected; more than one unexcused absence will affect grading. Grades will be based on a combination of class preparedness and participation (40%) and assignments and projects (60%).
- Please note that all written work must utilize proper citations, including proper web citations. Works that do not include complete citations will be returned for revision and considered late. Please read the Plagiarism Advisory at the end of the syllabus.
- MIAP Digital Archive: In addition to submitted assignments in print form, all course papers/projects will be submitted to me in electronic form. Please follow the naming conventions as outlined in last semester. The materials will be made part of the MIAP digital archive in a private space for faculty use, and on the MIAP web site for the public. You will need to let me know of any reasons why the assignments cannot be published on the web due to confidentiality restrictions or other reasons.
LOGISTICS AND ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:
- This course will have a web presence on "Blackboard"– Please log–on at least once a week.
- Access to Computer Labs: Please see http://www.nyu.edu/its/labs/ for locations and descriptions of NYU's computer labs if needed for your research.
- Cell phones: Turn completely off during class as they may create problems with classroom audio.
Class 1: Thursday, January 24
Topics/activities:
- Syllabus review.
- Presentation and discussion of methodology for risk assessment developed through the EU project Inside Installations (see next week's reading).
- Brainstorming definitions and examples of interface and interactivity as two characteristics will need to be evaluated when preserving multimedia, the web, installation and other complex works.
- Viewing of historical examples of innovations in interface and interactivity.
- Lab work: Analysis of software and directories in several 1990s multimedia works, with goal of increasing skills in identification of production processes, the characteristics of native environments, software dependencies and directory structures, to build an understanding of the "anatomy" of the work. By the end of class, we will have an agreed upon set of specs for optimum viewing of several legacy CDROMs.
Class 2: Thursday, January 31
Due this class:
- Read as follow–up to last class:
- Laurenson, Pip. "Part 1: Risk Assessment" in Inside Installations: Preservation and Presentation of Installation Art. 2007. Instituut Collectie Nederland/Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art: Amsterdam. Accessed 1/23/08 at http://www.inside-installations.org/research/detail.php?r_id=83&ct=preservation\
- Assessments from the MIAP Digital Archive of the two multimedia works we examined last class, and Kara Van Malssen's paper on Storyspace (sites provided through email).
Topics/activities:
- Discussion of the readings, and using a multimedia work from the 1990s, discussion of several ways to analyze the work for its vulnerabilities and changes in look and feel.
- Viewing of historical examples of innovations in vector graphics, 2–D and 3–D animation resulting in developments such as games, effects, motion graphics, and computer animation, and production within and outside of virtual environments.
- Discussion of first assignment to research a file format used in computer animation. See template on Blackboard site.
NO CLASS FEBRUARY 7 &nash; Mona out of town.
Class 3: Thursday, February 14
Due this class:
- Template on file formats using in creating animations.
- Read:
- Henry Lowood, "Playing History with games: Steps towards Historical Archives of Computer Gaming." (Conference Paper, Fall 2004.) Retrieved 1/30/08 at http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/emg/library/pdf/lowood/Lowood-EMG2004.pdf
- Familiarize yourself with:
- How They Got Game, Stanford University – http://htgg2.stanford.edu/
- Library of Congress Preserving Virtual Worlds – http://www.ndiipp.uiuc.edu/pca/
- Video Game Preservation SIC of the International Game Developers Association – http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG
- Game Preservation SIG/Digital Game Canon – http://www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/Game_Preservation_SIG/Digital_Game_Canon/
- Record/Replay – http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/blanchette/RR.html
- Browse:
- Grand Text Auto – http://grandtextauto.org/
- Emulators Unlimitedhttp://www.emuunlim.com/
Topics/activities:
- Discussion of various 3D animation software, directories and players, and resulting files in common use for animation and motion graphics.
- Report on investigation of 3D graphic file formats.
- Discussion of various projects to archive and preserve games. What aspects are they addressing and what are the gaps?
- Visit by Colin Holgate of Funny Garbage, who will be interviewed about the evolution of multimedia production from the early 1990s to the present, covering the development of authoring software and tips to recovery of older multimedia works. (90 min.)
Class 4: Friday, February 15
Due this class:
- Recommended:
- Dinkla, Soke. "The History of the Interface in Interactive Art". Accessed 9/5/05 at http://www.maryflanagan.com/courses/2002/web/HistoryofInterface.html
- Huhtamo, Erkki. "Trouble in the Interface, or the Identity Crisis of Interactive Art". (Conference paper, 2006). Accessed 2/12/0 at http://193.171.60.44/dspace/bitstream/10002/299/1/Huhtamo.pdf
- Morse, Margaret. "The Poetics of Interactivity" in Women, Art and Technology. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2003. p. 17 – 33.
- Topics/activities:
- Visit by artist Leah Gilliam, who will discuss her work in multimedia, installation and games. Included in the discussion will be an interactive multimedia work authored in Macromedia Director.
- General plan for upcoming migration of CDROMs (to begin March 6) and preliminary research needed. Work on relationships, dependencies, and files.
Class 5: Thursday, February 21
Due this class:
- Read:
- Granger, Stewart. "Emulation as a Digital Preservation Strategy". D-Lib Magazine. October 2000. Vol. 6: No. 10. Retrieved 2/5/08 at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october00/granger/10granger.html
- Dutch National Archive. Emulation: Context and Current Status. 2003. Retrieved 2/12/08 at http://www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl/bibliotheek/docs/White_paper_emulation_UK.pdf
- Read the following from the exhibition Seeing Double: Emulation in Theory and Practice:
- Read introductions and artists found here: http://www.variablemedia.net/e/seeingdouble/index.html
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Magic Bullet or Shot in the Dark?" from transcripts of the 2004 symposium Echoes of Art: Emulation as a Preservation Strategy published on the web site of the Guggenheim Museum. 2004. Accessed 8/1/05 at http://www.variablemedia.net/e/echoes/index.html
- Recommended:
- Rothenberg, Jeff. Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital Preservation. Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Services. 1999. Accessed at http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/reports.html
- Dimitrovsky, Issac. Final report, Erl-King project. On web site of the Variable Media Initiative. 2004. Accessed 8/1/05 at http://www.variablemedia.net/e/seeingdouble/report.html
Topics/activities:
- Discussion of various interpretations of emulation from everyday uses to its discussion/development as a preservation strategy by planners of major institutional projects. Hands–on work with downloadable software emulators.
- Introduction to issues in the archiving and preservation of web sites, looking at historical and contemporary sites.
Class 6: Thursday, February 28
Due this class:
- Real, William A. "Toward Guidelines for Practice in the Preservation and Documentation of Technology–Based Installation Art". Journal of the American Institute for Conservation. Fall/Winter 2001. Vol. 40: No. 3.
- Laurenson, Pip. "Authenticity, Change and Loss in the Conservation of Time–Based Media Installations" in Tate Papers. 2006. London: Tate Gallery. Accessed 2/12/08 at http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/06autumn/laurenson.htm
- Laurenson, Pip. "The Management of Display Equipment in Time–Based Media Installations" in Tate Papers. 2005. London: Tate Gallery. Accessed 2/12/08 at http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/05spring/laurenson.htm
- Recommended:
- Messier, Paul. "Dara Birnbaum's Tiananmen Square: Break–In Transmission: A Case Study in the Examination, Documentation, and Preservation of a Video&nadsh;Based Installation." Journal of the American Institute for Conservation. Fall/Winter 2001. Vol. 40: No. 3.
- Laurenson, Pip. "Developing Strategies for the Conservation of Installations Incorporating Time–based Media: Gary Hill's Between Cinema and a Hard Place" in Tate Papers. 2004. London: Tate Gallery. Accessed 2/12/08 at http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/04spring/time_based_media.htm
- See also the Inside Installations web site
Topics/activities:
- Visit to Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, where Jeff Martin is engaged in the first conservation fellowship by a MIAP grad.
Class 7: Thursday, March 6
Due this class:
- Read:
- Jimenez, Mona. "The Artist Instrumentation Database Project" on web site of the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology. 2005. Accessed 8/1/05 at http://www.fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=708.
- Deborah Woodyard, "Farewell My Floppy: A Strategy for Migration of Digital Information," (National Library of Australia, 1997), available online at: http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/valadw.html
- Marill, Jennifer, Andrew Boyko and Michael Ashenfelder. "Web Harvesting Survey Version 1" on the web site of the International Internet Preservation Consortium. 2004. Accessed 2/13/08 at http://netpreserve.org/publications/reports.php?id=001
- Watch the presentation on the Forging the Future Project http://www.docam.ca/en/?p=258
- Review work in the exhibition Montage: Unmonumental Online at http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/7 and come prepared to talk about what you think are the issues of archiving and preservation of the works and the exhibition.
- Familiarize yourself with:
- Artbase, a project of Rhizome. Make sure and read the report on preserving Artbase by Richard Rinehart http://rhizome.org/art/
- Virtual Remote Control, an approach to risk assessment for web-based information. http://prism.library.cornell.edu/VRC/index.html
- Minerva: Web Archiving and Preservation Project of the Library of Congress http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/minerva/html/minerva-home.html
- Library of Congress Web Capture http://www.loc.gov/webcapture/
Topics/activities:
- Strategies for web archiving and preservation from large institutions to small non–profits. Discussion and demo of management tools for web archive management.
- Approaches to documentation of complex media works and preservation actions. What forms of documentation are useful and appropriate for complex media works? Are there aspects of available tools that we can utilized as we examine and migrate interactive multimedia works?
- Development of a strategy for migration of multimedia works initially examined earlier in the semester. Evaluation of the process employed by the National Library of Australia.
Class 8: Thursday, March 13
Due this class:
- Read:
- Guggenheim Museum. Permanence through Change: The Variable Media Approach. Montréal: Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology and New York: Guggenheim. Accessed 9/3/04 at http://www.variablemedia.net/. p. 7 – 45; 108–114.
- Paul, Christiane. "The Myth of Materiality" in MediaArtHistories. Oliver Grau, ed. 2007. Boston: MIT Press. p. 251–274.
Topics/activities:
- Lab work: Examination of multimedia works in native environments. Identification of behaviors and user interface/interactions. Development of "scenarios" to predict how the work will look/feel/behave in other subsequent computer environments. Playback and testing of changes in the work with changes in technical environments. (2 hours)
- Discussion of readings and key concepts of identity and authenticity, variability and others.
- Discussion of group project examining and developing recommendations for a time–based media art work in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. (30 min.)
NO CLASS MARCH 20 – Spring Break
NO CLASS MARCH 27 – Orphans Film Symposium
Class 9: Thursday, April 3
Due this class:
- Come prepared with interview questions for MoMA visit.
- Review the Variable Media Questionnaire (link to be provided on Blackboard site)
- Read:
- _______. Guide to Good Practice: Artist Interviews. 1999. International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art: Amsterdam. Accessed 1/23/08 http://www.incca.org. (see section Methodology>Artists Intent)
- ______. Decision-making Model for the Conservation and Restoration of Modern and Contemporary Art. 1999. Foundation for the Conservation of Modern Art/Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage: Amsterdam. Accessed 1/23/08 http://www.incca.org. (see section Methodology>Ethics)
- Case study on Bruce Nauman's Mapping the Studio II color shift, flip, flop, & flip/flop (Fat Chance John Cage) http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/majorprojects/nauman/home_1.htm
- Guggenheim Museum. Permanence through Change: The Variable Media Approach. Montréal: Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology and New York: Guggenheim. Accessed 9/3/04 at http://www.variablemedia.net/. p. 47 – 69; 70 – 84; 92 – 107.
- Re-familiarize yourself with the forms previously provided from the Media Matters site.
Topics/activities:
- Look at various tools for general documentation, documenting condition, conducting risk assessments and documenting artists' intents.
- Talk about interview questions.
- Group work on the MoMA installation. What information has been gathered? What is needed? Where are the vulnerabilities in the work? What actions should be taken?
Class 10: Thursday, April 10
Please note: We will be meeting at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.Due this class:
- Research on assigned portion of MoMA installation.
Topics/activities:
- Visit to Museum of Modern Art to examine and discuss a time–based media artwork. (4 hours)
Class 11: Thursday, April 17
Due this class:
- Research for multimedia migration project may be required.
Topics/activities:
- Debrief on MoMA visit. What needs to be done to complete report for 5/1?
- Work on migration and documentation of multimedia works.
Class 12: Friday April 25
Due this class:
- Research for multimedia migration project or preparation for a speaker may be required.
Topics/activities:
- Possible visit by preservation expert
- Continue work on migration and documentation
Class 13: Thursday, May 1
Due this class:
- Report on MoMA art work.
- PADI (Preserving Access to Digital Material) Selection Criteria http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/selection.html#app2
- View video of keynote address of artist Vera Frenkel for the DOCAM summit: Rules for Letting Go, and the web sites of for the artworks. http://www.docam.ca/en/?p=95
- Present final report for the MoMA installation to Glenn Wharton and others. Discussion about areas of further investigation.
- Based on the semester's work, where are complex media works found and who should collect them? Can the works be collected by libraries, archives and libraries, or survive in independent and ad hoc archives? What is the role of creators and what collaborations are possible? What are some suggestions for longevity of these works?
Plagiarism Advisory:
Plagiarism and other violations of the University's published policies are serious offenses and will be punished severely. Plagiarism includes presenting or paraphrasing a phrase, sentence, or passage of a published work (including material from the World–Wide Web) in a paper or exam answer without quotation marks and attribution of the source, submitting your own original work toward requirements in more than one class without the prior permission of the instructors, submitting a paper written by someone else, submitting as your own work any portion of a paper or research that you purchased from another person or commercial firm, and presenting in any other way the work, ideas, data, or words of someone else without attribution. These are punishable offenses whether intended or unintended (e.g., occurs through poor citations or confusion about how to reference properly).
You are encouraged to read additional texts and to discuss the issues of this course and your papers with others; but if you use ideas that come from others, you must acknowledge their help. It is always better to err on the side of acknowledging other people than to fail to do so.
Other offenses against academic integrity include: collaborating with others on assignments without the express permission of the instructor, giving your work to another student to submit as his/her own, copying answers from another student or source materials during examinations, secreting or destroying library or reference materials. If you have any questions about how to cite sources, what constitutes appropriate use of a text, or other matters of academic integrity, please discuss them with your course instructor.
Anyone caught plagiarizing will fail the course. In addition, violations of academic integrity, including plagiarism, call for disciplinary action through the University.