Workshop 4

The workshop “Conservation of Video Art” originally scheduled for 2020 was held virtually in summer 2021 and covered the history of video technology, exhibition, conservation treatment methodologies, and collection care. Building upon established methods and existing resources from publications and peer exchange, participants learned the latest developments in caring for video art and considered the impact that decision-making has on the integrity of these works. The workshop was delivered as a four-week course of self-paced individual study and practice combined with weekly live discussion sessions.

This workshop was the fourth and final workshop of the Mellon Media Conservation Initiative. The first three workshops were “Getting Started: Caring for Time-based Media Artworks in Collections – A Shared Responsibility,” delivered twice due to its popularity, and “Caring for Artists’ Films.” In all these workshops, MoMA learned the importance of dialogue and discussion among practitioners in order to facilitate learning and also help create new networks of care. Because of the importance of these dialogues, even while moving to a virtual learning environment and largely asynchronous format, weekly “live” meetings provided valuable time to interact. Because the participants’ locations spanned time zones, the group was divided in half. Each group met once per week with MoMA staff and guest speakers for three hours. The rest of the week was devoted to independent study, although MoMA staff were available to provide assistance and answer questions. MoMA’s media conservation team prepared pre-recorded lessons for the participants to study, and invited guest speakers to enrich the pedagogy. Guest speakers included staff from Tate, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Electronic Arts Intermix, as well as specialists from private studios working on the conservation of video art.

SCHEDULE

Week 1 - Overview

• Life of a video artwork - Speaker: Peter Oleksik, Associate Media Conservator, MoMA, NY

• The acquisition process (from workshop 2, 2018) - Speakers: Athena Holbrook, formerly Collection Specialist, Department of Media & Performance; Kate Lewis, Agnes Gund Chief Conservator; Erica Papernik-Shimizu, Associate Curator, Department of Media & Performance; Sarah Primm, Assistant Registrar

Week 2 - Basics of Digital Preservation and Condition Assessment of Video

• Basic file anatomy and preservation, Parts I & II - Speaker: Jonathan Farbowitz, Associate Conservator of Time-based Media, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. These presentations were originally developed as part of the workshop “Introduction to Digital Preservation” at the American Institute for Conservation 2020 Annual Meeting.

• Metadata & checksums demonstration and BagIt demonstration - Speaker: Alexandra Nichols, Conservator, Time-based Media, Tate, London. These presentations were originally developed as part of the workshop “Introduction to Digital Preservation” at the American Institute for Conservation 2020 Annual Meeting.

• Basics of video and Characterization of video - Speaker: Peter Oleksik, Associate Media Conservator, MoMA, NY

• Assessment of video and Demonstrations of QCTools, Sonic Visualiser, and DaVinci Resolve - Speaker: Lia Kramer, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Media Conservation, MoMA, NY

Week 3 - History of Exhibiting Video Art and Preparing Material for Exhibition

• Video materiality - Speaker: Agathe Jarczyk, Time-based Media Conservator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY and Partner/Conservator-Restorer FH, Atelier für Videokonservierung / Studio for Video Conservation, Bern, Switzerland

• History of Exhibition Technology - Speaker: Kate Lewis, Agnes Gund Chief Conservator, MoMA, NY. Co-authors: Kate Lewis and Peter Oleksik, Associate Media Conservator, MoMA, NY

• Video art in the HD age - Speaker: Sophie Bunz, Time-based Media Art Conservator, Atelier für Videokonservierung / Studio for Video Conservation, Bern, Switzerland

• Artwork case study: Gretchen Bender’s “Dumping Core” - Speakers: Maurice Schechter, Conservation Engineer, M. Schechter, Inc., NY, in conversation with Peter Oleksik, Associate Media Conservator, MoMA, NY

Week 4 - Practical Considerations for Condition Assessment and Exhibition

• Workflows at EAI: Video Condition Checking and SD File Preparation in an HD World - Speaker: Jon Dieringer, Technical Director, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)

ATTENDEES

Group A - Live Sessions, 8 AM to 11 AM Eastern Time Zone (UTC-04:00)

• Rebecca Barnott-Clement, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia

• Peter Cerovšek, SCCA-Ljubljana, Center for Contemporary Arts, Slovenia

• Jina Chang, National Museum, Norway

• Yuhsien Chen, Save Media Art, Taiwan Digital Art Foundation, Republic of China

• Catherine Collyer, Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Australia

• Kirsten Dunne, National Galleries of Scotland

• Eunjin Kim, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, South Korea

• Hwanju Kim, Daejeon Museum of Art, South Korea

• Marlies Peller, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Germany

• Annika Räim, Art Museum of Estonia

• Alysha Redston, National Gallery of Australia

• Yukiko Watari, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum / HIGURE, Japan

• Aga Wielocha, M+ Museum, Hong Kong SAR of the People’s Republic of China
  

Group B - Live Sessions, 11 AM to 2 PM Eastern Time Zone (UTC-04:00)

• Desiree Alexander, Cornell University, USA

• Elizabeth Brown, Seattle Art Museum, USA

• Scott Homolka, Baltimore Museum of Art, USA

• Cátia Louredo, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio), Brazil

• Astra Price, Bill Viola Studio, USA

• Gonzalo Ramirez, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Chile

• Deidre Simmons, Vtape, Canada

• Tzutzumatzin Soto, Cineteca Nacional de México

• Elena Torok, Dallas Museum of Art, USA

• Kate Weinstein, Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, USA