Caring for Artists’Films

 

These resources were compiled during "Workshop 3: Caring for Artists’ Films" (June 10-14, 2019 at MoMA)

Technical Overview: Artists’ Film Production Overview

Technical Overview: Artists’ Film Production presentation features Bill Brand, Artist, Film Preservationist at B.B. Optics, and Adjunct Faculty of Moving Image and Archiving Program, New York University.

This presentation explains artists’ film production processes with a chronological history of film starting from the 1920s to the present day.. This technical overview breakdowns the elements, terminology, and production practices used by artists.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Artists’ Production History: Case Studies

Case Study 1: Production History: Case Studies features John Klacsmann, archivist from Anthology Film Archives in New York City.

This presentation explores different production workflows used by artists to make  works, illustrated with  case studies. Klacsmann discusses Joseph Cornell (Rose Hobart, c.1936), Maya Deren (A Study in Choreography for Camera, 1945), Harry Smith (Films Nos. 1, 5, 7, 10 “EARLY ABSTRACTIONS”, c. 1946-1957, assembled c. 1964), Jonas Mekas  (Guns of the Trees, 1962), George Maciunas (Fluxfilm No. 8: 1000 Frames, c. 1966), Paul Sharits (Axiomatic Granularity,1973), Joan Jonas (Songdelay, 1973), and Manuel DeLanda Magic Mushroom Mountain Movie (1976-1981).

Case Study 2: Polarity Prints in Double Negative (2015) by Amie Siegel features Flaminia Fortunato, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Media Conservation, The Museum of Modern Art.

This presentation highlights the production workflow of Amie Siegel in Double Negative (2015), an artwork with two synchronized 16mm silent, black and white films, and color video with sound.

Case Study 3: Curatorial Perspective - Production history: Artists’ Practices features Sophie Cavoulacos, Assistant Curator in Film from The Museum of Modern Art.

The presentation in three parts explores how artist's approaches to filmmaking - as distinct from commercial or independent industry methods - provided essential groundwork in formulating strategies for conservation and preservation. Cavoulacos first presents a brief survey of artists’ film production practices (collage and found footage, hand processing, printing, versioning), and notions of exhibition, performance, and authorship (collectivity, home movies, activism, expanded cinema). She takes MoMA’s Fall 2017 exhibition, Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983, organized by MoMA Curator Ron Magliozzzi, guest Ann Magnuson, and herself as a case study, and closes her presentation with a discussion of moving image exhibition in a gallery setting.

Collection Care and Management

Collection Care and Management features Pamela Vizner, consultant from AVP.

This presentation addresses the care and management of films within a collection. Vizner explains the aims, resources, and uses of collection management within an institution, from collection development to exhibition. She provides a thorough  overview of the activities required  to process collections covering policies including basic survey methods, templates, and terminology.

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Film-to-Film Preservation Overview

Film-to-Film Preservation Overview features Bill Brand, Artist, Film Preservationist at B.B. Optics, and Adjunct Faculty of Moving Image and Archiving Program, New York University.

This presentation is an overview of how to preserve an artists’ film focusing on film-to-film workflows. Often the incentive for preserving a film comes from an assessment of the collection. Brand goes through the steps, procedures, and workflows used in a film preservation project with Carolee Schneemann’s 1976 16mm film “Kitch’s Last Meal”.

Analog/Digital Considerations

Analog/Digital Considerations features Simon Lund, Director of Technical Operations at Cineric Inc.

This presentation looks at the comparisons between preserving film via either analog and/or digital means. With the discontinuation of certain film stocks, Lund examines the pros and cons of continuing with film-to-film preservation, and addresses the new opportunities and limitations when incorporating digital intermediates into the preservation workflow. Lund provides a deft perspective as director of technical operations as Cineric, Inc., one of the last remaining film restoration and preservation houses in New York City.

Digital Preservation & Storage Overview

Digital Art Storage presentation features Amy Brost, Assistant Media Conservator, The Museum of Modern Art. 

At many institutions and collections, collection care staff are increasingly tasked with the new responsibility of stewarding and defining the storage conditions for the digital components from film scans. Ensuring proper digital housing for transportation, transmission, and long-term preservation requires collaboration with a whole new set of colleagues, technical consultants, and vendors. Developing effective collaborations with these new colleagues requires new knowledge, skills, and vocabulary. This session will provide workshop attendees with the fundamental concepts and vocabulary needed to approach the housing and storage of digital materials in artists film collections.

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Physical Storage for Artists’ Film Collections

Physical Storage presentation features Katie Trainor, Film Collection Manager, The Museum of Modern Art. 

This presentation covers physical components of an artist’s film, which can include artist’s boxes containing a variety of film elements, as well associated display equipment. In addition to sharing general storage methodology, this talk features practices and unique housing scenarios across film formats at The Museum of Modern Art. A discussion of storage areas, including ideal environmental conditions for film is also discussed in this presentation.

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Acquisitions Process: Round Table

Acquisition Process: Roundtable features Katie Trainor, Film Collection Manager, The Museum of Modern Art, Peter Oleksik, Assistant Media Conservator, The Museum of Modern Art, and Erica Papernik-Shimizu, Associate Curator, Media & Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art.

This presentation was designed to generate discussion about what it means to acquire artists’ films in an institutional context. The speakers provide an overview of the concepts behind the key milestones in the acquisition process, and the collaboration amongst departments within the acquisition process.

Cataloguing Artists’ Films

Cataloguing is a presentation that features Thelma Ross, Film Cataloguer from The Museum of Modern Art.

This presentation introduces the theory and practice of documentation and cataloging of Artists’ films. Core concepts presented include why, when and how to document these artworks. Ross presents the general basics of terminology, templates and workflows being used for film collections.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Loans: Round Table

Loans is a presentation that features Katie Trainor, Film Collection Manager, The Museum of Modern Art, Peter Oleksik, Assistant Media Conservator, The Museum of Modern Art, and Erica Papernik-Shimizu, Associate Curator, Media & Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art.

This presentation describes an institution’s workflow on lending artists’ films. Papernik-Shimizu presents the curatorial perspective on how to initiate such loans. Trainor and Oleksik collaborate on how both their departments assess the film, equipment and artist specified installation instructions in order to prepare it for going out on loan.