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Video as art: collecting artists’ moving image in academic art libraries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Gustavo Grandal Montero
Gustavo Grandal Montero*
Affiliation:
Chelsea College of Art and Design/, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, Chelsea College of Art and Design Library, 16 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4JU, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Video collections have been part of library holdings for several decades, but developing and managing these collections presents a number of challenges. This is the case particularly for artists’ film and video, and this article attempts to identify the issues involved and to offer some practical guidance, drawing on the experience of collection development and management at Chelsea College of Art and Design Library, and across the libraries of University of the Arts London and elsewhere.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , 2009 , pp. 5 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2009

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References

1. In Four American composers, directed by Greenaway, Peter (Channel Four Television, 1983).Google Scholar
Cited in Rees, A. L., A history of experimental film and video (London: BFI, 1999), vii.Google Scholar
2. The British Film Institute (BFI) is the agency responsible for the moving image heritage in the UK, through the BFI National Archive. In 2005 the BFI and Arts Council England appointed Curator of Artists’ Moving Image William Fowler to develop this area of the collection. The BFI makes 275,000 films available for rental in 16mm and 35mm copies (see the BFI avant-garde catalogue (London: BFI, 1994) for some of the material available in these formats) and offers an on-site Research Viewing Service. It also publishes the British artists’ films series in partnership with Illuminations and Arts Council England, as well as the History of the avant-garde series and individual tides on DVD format.Google Scholar
3. Professional video technology had been in use in the broadcasting industry for 20 years. The Ampex Corporation Quadruplex videotape (launched in 1956) was first used in the USA to record television programmes so that they could be broadcast across multiple time zones.Google Scholar
4. A general historical overview of the development of this form of practice is available in A history of experimental film and video by Rees, A. L. (London: BFI, 1999).Google ScholarGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
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6. Galleries and bookshops that specialise in artists’ books and multiples are often very good sources for artists’ videos, particularly self-published videos (e.g. Printed Matter, Boekie Woekie, Florence Loewy).Google Scholar
7. Professional formats are high quality formats used in broadcasting like Betacam or Digital Betacam, as opposed to lower quality consumer formats like VHS or DVD. One of the advantages of acquiring high quality formats is the possibility of producing in-house copies in lower quality formats without additional loss of image quality.Google Scholar
8. A specialist collection that accepts copies of original work is the British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, see David Curtis and Steven Ball’s article about the Collection on p.16–20.Google Scholar
9. Aspen, the first of the multimedia magazines ‘in a box’, included a reel of 8mm film with four short films in issue no. 5 + 6 (1967). These were Hans Richter Rhythm 21 (1921), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy Lightplay: black-white-grey (1932), Robert Morris and Stan VanDerBeek Site (1964), and Robert Rauschenberg Linoleum (1967).Google Scholar
10. The ERA Licence permits staff at British educational establishments to record, for noncommercial educational purposes, scheduled free-to-air broadcasts on BBC television and radio, ITV Network services, Channel Four, E4, More 4 and Film 4, and Five Television. Strict terms and conditions regulate use, labelling, retention, making of copies, etc. More information is available at http://www.era.org.uk/.Google Scholar
11. See Wyver, John, Vision on: film, television and the arts in Britain (London: Wallpaper Press, 2007).Google Scholar
12. British Universities Film & Video Council, http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/.Google Scholar
13. The Video Standards Council, the UK’s video industry professional body, has produced a very clear guide to the Video Recordings Act and subsidiary legislation, which is available at http://www.videostandards.org.uk.Google Scholar
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15. The National Preservation Office has published practical guidelines for libraries, Caring for CDs and DVDs (2008), http://www.bl.uk/npo/pdf/cd.pdf. The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) has developed similar guidelines for videotapes, Videotape preservation fact sheet, http://www.amianet.org/resources/guides/fact_sheets.pdf.Google Scholar
16. Different colour encoding - PAL, NTSC, SECAM - for VHS and regional encoding - 1 to 8 - for DVD require compatible equipment. Current and future compatibility issues should be considered when acquiring new material.Google Scholar
17. Schüller, Dietrich, Audio and video carriers (TAPE, 2008), http://www.tape-online.net/docs/audio_and_video_carriers.pdf, 12.Google Scholar
18. ‘The conservation and documentation of video art,’ in Modern art: who cares? ed. Hummelen, IJsbrand M.C. and Siilé, Dionne (Amsterdam: Foundation for Conservation of Modern Art, 1999), 263–271.Google Scholar