[-empyre-] ETC to Rose Goldsen and on and on

[Renate Terese Ferro]

Wecome Kristin,  
It turns out that the ETC video tape wall was just the tip of the iceberg
and as Sherry, Ralph and Tim and a team of amazing people at the Cornell
Library can attest that it has taken months to pack, move, catalog, and in
many cases reformat work.  The documentation that accompanies this work as
well as the equipment that was innovated and built at the center is even
another set of issues to consider.  You can track earlier posts of this
months conversation at
http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2015-September/date.htm
l

 We also have an -empyre FACEBOOK.  Friend us because later today I will
be posting some photos that Sherry and Peer Bode have been circulating.

My own artistic storage shelves of of Super 8 films, Hi-8, video
cassettes, DVD¹s and digital hard drives  I am find at times impossible to
manage. Early in the discussion this month I mentioned that Lynn Hershman
hds shared with me when asked why her archives were so incredibly large
and inclusive, ³If I did not archive my collection who will.²  Sherry and
Patrick Lichty made responsive posts but Sherry in her wisdom grace
reminded artists to ask themselves where they wanted to spend their time
and resources. 

I have decided I want to make more work and not get dragged down by the
details of archiving.  Though I always assimilate notes on production and
archiving that will be for someone else to assimilate or maybe not.

I recently saw a link to Hal Foster¹s new book  Bad New Days: Art,
Criticism, Emergency, out now from Verso
<http://www.versobooks.com/books/1961-bad-new-days>.
http://theartnewspaper.com/comment/reviews/books/159118/
The review I saw recounts Foster¹s description of the recent trend in
museums to re-enact old performance based work in essence making zombie
art. 

My FACEBOOK response was
--All historical work is dead isn't it? It is the place of the museum and
the role of the viewer/receiver of the work to enliven a new connection
and therefore new life. Will have to put this on my to read list.‹
What I did not add which I should have was that ARCHIVES such as the Rose
Goldsen Archive of New Media Art UNLIKE MUSEUMS allow historical work to
breathe, to become interactive with the researchers, artists, and many
others who want direct access to it.  Unlike a museum that exhibits and
makes available a very small portion of their holdings, the essence of the
archive is to open up new networks for historical work.  Here is a short
article Tim and I wrote and presented at the Digital Arts and Culture
Conference a few years ago.

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2565799j


Looking forward to more of your posts.
Renate

Hello empyre,

I just joined the community. Today after reading Renate's post and having
recently visited my storage space, I thought... Wow. I must have produced
equally as many video tapes as ETC has entered into the Rose Goldsen
Archive of New Media Art at Cornell Library. An entire wall of my storage
space is dedicated to 3/4, beta SP, laser disk, VHS, SVHS, Video-8, and
miniDV tapes, plus CDs, DVDs, and hard drives, the majority of which are
full of material I recorded at ETC since my first visit in 1995. Now
imagine how many other artists went to ETC and do the math on how many
boxes of tapes are out there that passed through the playheads of ETC
decks!

Kristin



Renate Ferro
Visiting Associate Professor of Art
Cornell University
Department of Art
Tjaden Hall, Office 306
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email: rferro at cornell.edu
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
          http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
Lab:   http://www.tinkerfactory.net

Managing Moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/










On 9/21/15, 8:22 PM, "kristin lucas" <kristinlucas at gmail.com> wrote:

>----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------