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VIDEO ART\e-monitor 19 - THE DANISH VIDEO ART DATA BANK
August 14, 2003
Content:
1. Radical Software back again - on the web
2. 404 Object Not Found Congress papers on the web
3. The V2-Organisation conservation project "Capturing Unstable Media" on
the web
4. ISO 15706:2002: ISAN - International Standard Audiovisual Number
1. Radical Software "back" again ... on the web
"Power is no longer measured in land, labour or capital, but by access to
information and the means to disseminate it"
This statement is not from today but from the very first issue of the
video magazine Radical Software - way back in the spring 1970
. and you can say that it is very much in accordance with this
statement that the historic video magazine Radical Software now has
"resurfaced" on the Internet. The purpose has been to make all the historic
issues of Radical Software freely available to everyone. This purpose is
both exciting and relevant and worthwhile because while you often in works
on video art history find references to Radical Software it has been almost
not possible to review its content because individual copies are rare and
few complete collections exist
But now, thanks to a joint project of the Fondation Daniel Langlois in
Montreal and Davidson Gigliotti and Ira Schneider, one of the founders of
the magazine and the Raindance Collective that published it.
The original team behind Radical Software was Beryl Korot, Phyllis
Gershuny and Ira Schneider. The first issue appeared in the spring 1970 and
eleven issues were published from 1970 to 1974.
Now they are available on the Radical Software Web Site,
<http://www.radicalsoftware.org>www.radicalsoftware.org as PDF files you
can download - and you can not only read the text and view the graphics but
also view the original page layout!
On top of this the web site is supplied with a very good on-site search
engine devised by the Fondation Langlois which allows you - among other
possibilities - to follow keywords through the many reviews, essays and
articles in the eleven issues.
Having been engaged with video since 1967-68 (and tried to edit and
publish a Danish magazine about video, 1978-82/83) it is with a rather
wonderful feeling of recognition that you turn over the pages of this
magazine as an important primary source on the origins of and the rationale
behind many aspects of much early video and video art.
I could go on, but stop and instead appeal to you to go to the web site
and start by reading David Ross' introduction "Radical Software Redux" and
Davidson Gigliotti's "A Brief History of RainDance" before you turn the
pages of Radical Software.
Torben Soeborg
2. 404 Object Not Found Congress papers on the web
In my covering in VIDEO ART\e-monitor no. 17 of the "404 Object Not
Found" - the international congress concerning the production, presentation
and preservation of media arts", organised by the hARTware group in
Dortmund, June 19-22, 2003, I wrote that I would not try to cover the
congress but just give a short account /personal impressions because a
"congress-reader" with all the papers and statements later on would be
published on the Internet.
If you go to <http://www.404project.net>www.404project.net
("congress", "data base", "links") you will now find several texts of the
speakers and several new links. Just now you will find the following papers:
- PPP: From Point to Point or from Production to presentation to
preservation of media art von Hans Dieter Huber, Lecture, pdf document
(English)
- Translation and Transmission. Ongoing. Anna Oppermann's non-electronic
Media Art (as an Example for Certain Problems of Documentation and
Re-Construction.) by Ute Vorkoeper, Lecture, pdf document (English)
- No Ego ? Preserving the exchange between artist and audience by Josephine
Bosma, Preliminary text based on her lecture, pdf document (English)
- Runme.org software art repository by Olga Goriunova, pdf document (English)
- CONSERVIX by Fabian Thommen, pdf document (German)
- Abstracts (from the Congress program), pdf document (German / English)
. and you will also find a review by Wolfgang Neuhaus (Kunst im digitalen
Nirwana, German) at Telepolis, 27.06.2003:
<http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/konf/15071/1.html>http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/konf/15071/1.html
-and a good publication list and an even more extensive and very useful
list of links divided in the following sections: Archives, Texts, Digital
Preservation, Projects and Institutions/Initiatives/Networks.
I am sure that the hARTware people will keep adding more Congress papers
to the website.
3. The V2 "Capturing Unstable Media" Conservation Project on the web
At the "404 Object Not Found" Congress mentioned above the work group
""under construction" presentation of current projects" presented - among
other projects - the research project "Capturing Unstable Media", starting
from March 2003 and initiated by the V2_Organisation in Rotterdam. It's a
very interesting research project supported by the Dutch Mondriaan
Foundation and the Canadian Fondation Daniel Langlois pour l'art, science
et la technologie, Montral.
The project is on the issue of capturing unstable media art and
preserving it in a medium-independent way. The project "focuses on
preservation of the growing cultural heritage of "digitally born" artefacts
of artistic nature". The V-2 Archives "with documentation of 20 years of
media art events and electronic media art . functions as a test bed for
this research project".
The project is based on two case studies, two electronic art projects
developed at the V2_Lab, and the research tasks are divided in the
following sections:
Inventory of relevant collections and initiatives
Capturing and documenting electronic artworks
Metadata
Interoperability
Implementation and
Dissemination
Part of the project will be to research and develop appropriate
preservation metadata models for the description of unstable media art from
existing standards, indexing- and classification-schemes, terminology and
ontologies, in order to create - if possible - an interoperability of
metadata or a "translation" model for the metadata systems of the various
media archives and an exchange tool to translate each institution's
metadata to an agreed exchange format.
The V2-Organisation has already experience in developing an
object-relation database for the preservation, presentation and
dissemination of their own V2-Archive (1) and has published the paper
"Archive of Living Actualities" as a detailed report on their past, present
and future goals and activities around the archive (2)
It is the goal of V2-Organisation to translate the findings from the
research development to actual software implementations and the results
of the project will be published as a book.
You are now able to see more about the project on the Internet (3). Anne
Nigten is project coordinator and Boudewijn Ridder is project manager
I hope to come back to the project because it could be interesting to
compare it with the 235Media project MKA / MedienKunstArchive (4) and also
with IMAP FileMaker Template database structure developed by the American
IMAP / Independent Media Arts
Preservation (5)
This template for a catalogue database is created to allow small
institutions and individuals with unique electronic media collections and
no trained staff to catalogue their archives in a standardized form in
order to establish a compatible information system for independent media
archives across broad geographic regions and a wide range of
organizations/institutions (which I feel is pretty much also the purpose of
the V2_Project) - but also with the "end goal" to enable the creation of "a
union catalog . a database containing the records of a number of
collections" (which I feel is also the goal of the MKA-project).
The IMAP-Template database adheres to the MARC standards. MARC stands for
MAchine Readable Cataloging - a system designed to allow the computerizing
cataloguing of archival materials. It is divided in the following sections:
Complete Record
Basic Record
Unique Identifiers
Title & Intellectual Description
Physical description
Acquisition, Usage & Restrictions
Intellectual Access
Local Information
MARC Record
Any archival cataloguing system agreed upon should also relate to the new
ISAN / International Standard Audiovisual Number system - see the next
section!
Notes:
(1) <http://archive,v2.nl>http://archive,v2.nl (2)
<http://lab.v2.nl/home/_docs/v2_archive.pdf>http://lab.v2.nl/home/_docs/v2_archive.pdf
(3)
<http://www.v2.nl/Projects/capturing/index.html>http://www.v2.nl/Projects/capturing/index.html
(4) You can find information about 235Media on
<http://www.235media.com>http://www.235media.com . The pilot project MKA
/ MedienKunstArchive will later on be available through the Internet.
(5) <http://www.imappreserve.org>http://www.imappreserve.org
4. ISAN - International Standard Audiovisual Number - now approved
In VIDEO ART\e-monitor No. 6 (1) I mentioned that the ISO, the
International Organisation fro Standardisation was in the process of
creating a system for audiovisual works equivalent to the ISBN registration
for printed matters This system: ISAN - International Standard Audiovisual
Number has now been approved by 100% of the ISO members. It is published as
ISO 15706:2002 (1) and is now ready for use - and should be a part of any
data cataloguing system of electronic / unstable media archives.
The ISAN / International Standard Audiovisual Number is a voluntary
numbering system for the identification of audiovisual works. It provides a
unique, internationally recognized and permanent reference number for each
audiovisual work registered in the ISAN system.
An ISAN consists of 16 hexadecimal digits divided into two segments: a
12-digit root segment followed by a 4-digit segment for the identification
of episodes or parts when applicable. It is not a "content descriptor", but
a "dump" number, meaning that it does not include any codes or other
significant elements. Its purpose is to identify the work with a unique
number, not to provide any type of descriptive information about the work.
This is the same as with the ISBN-system for printed matter: The ISAN
identifies works, and remains the same for an audiovisual media work
regardless of the various formats in which the work is distributed (e.g.
any video formats, CD, DVD etc.) or the uses to which it is put.
What is the ISAN used for?
An ISAN uniquely distinguishes one audiovisual media work from all other
audiovisual works. Other methods of identifying audiovisual works, such as
by title, can result in confusion about the specific work being referenced.
For example, one title can be very similar to another. Titles also change
when a work is distributed beyond its country (or countries) of origin and
the title is translated into other languages.
Because each ISAN is a unique number that is permanently assigned to an
audiovisual media work, it can identify that work across national
boundaries and language barriers. As a unique identifier, the ISAN is
useful in a wide range of computerized applications, particularly those
that involve databases or the exchange of information about audiovisual
media works. Some of its possible applications are:
- by collecting societies / archives to assist in the allocation of royalties;
- to track the use of audiovisual works; and,
- for anti-piracy purposes such as verifying title registrations.
Where is the ISAN to be attached?
The ISAN is the unique reference number for an audiovisual media work and
this should be included as a data element in any systems used to manage and
process information about audiovisual works. Collecting societies /
Archives, for example, will use the ISAN when they exchange and process
information about the use of audiovisual media works.
For audiovisual media works in digital form (e.g. DVD, CD, CD-ROM etc.),
the ISAN should be embedded into the appropriate master copies of the work
and transferred to any subsequent copies made from those masters. The MPEG
2 and MPEG 4 standards (for the coded representation of audiovisual and
multimedia objects) provide a space for the ISAN identifier in the MPEG format.
For audiovisual media works in analogue form (e.g. video, film etc.), the
ISAN should be securely affixed to the master and any other archival
copies. For new works, that could involve printing the ISAN on the master
tape/negative. For works already in existence, that would involve securely
linking the work and its ISAN in some form of permanent record, archive or
inventory. It could also involve physically recording the ISAN on the
container of the master version, whenever possible.
The ISAN should also be included in the documentation and packaging for
an audiovisual work.
The ISAN should be seen as an indispensable and valuable supplement to
any archival cataloguing system agreed upon - see above about the V_2
project, the IMAP-Template and the MKA-Project.
Notes:
(1)
<http://www.videoart.suite.dk/e-monitor/newsletter-6/newsletter-6.htm>http://www.videoart.suite.dk/e-monitor/newsletter-6/newsletter-6.htm
(2)
<http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/iso/tc46sc9/isan.htm>http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/iso/tc46sc9/isan.htm
THE DANISH VIDEO ART DATA BANK is a non-profit agency for promoting
Danish video art outside Denmark
The VIDEO ART\e-monitor is an e-mail edition of the former printed
newsletter "monitor". Both were and are published with irrugular intervals
- "monitor" from 1985-86 up to no. 48 in december 2000 and "VIDEO
ART\e-monitor" since February 2001. Editor: Torben Soeborg
(soeborg@inet-uni2.dk ).
You can find the earlier editions of VIDEO ART\e-monitor on
www.videoart.dk/e-monitor . If you want to receive VIDEO ART\e-monitor
(free) send an e-mail to <mailto:soeborg@inet.uni2>soeborg@inet.uni2
THE DANISH VIDEO ART DATA BANK
Themstrupvej 36, Dk-4690 Haslev
Denmark
tel: +45-56.31.21.21
soeborg@inet.uni2.dk
<http://www.videoart.suite.dk>http://www.videoart.suite.dk +
<http://www.mediaart-preservation.dk>www.mediaart-preservation.dk +
<http://www.videoart-archives.dk>www.videoart-archives.dk
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