Wed Oct 5
10.00pm
10.00pm
Moving History – An Archival Screening Night
film
Partnerships between MIPoPS and local heritage organizations have brought hundreds of tapes from moldering, musty shelves back to the big (and small) screen! Video tape is a magnetic medium with a shelf life of less than 30 years. This means that any existing video tape is at critical risk of being lost to degradation – forever. MIPoPS is fighting the good fight against this magnetic media crisis, and they want to share the gems that they’ve discovered in the process!
“In my 35 years as an archivist – and one who is very active in professional circles – this is the most exciting development I’ve been associated with. This kind of “consortium” work can be a huge benefit to the profession and serve as a great model.”
“As one of the organizations selected to work with MIPoPS as part of their last 4Culture grant, we began to make some headway with our backlog by viewing boxes of tapes that had not seen the light of day since the 1970s and 1980s. Through our work with MIPoPS, we have been able to provide online access to a number of unique video segments – for example: local Native American historian David Buerge describing the early relationship with local tribes and the Catholic Church, the Columbia River pastoral project, a major environmental protection effort by 12 local bishops, and the history and renovation of Seattle’s St. James Cathedral, one of the most historically significant structures in Western Washington.”
“I work with the Kubota Garden Foundation to help preserve what’s known about the Garden’s history and development. Much of this lore has been passed down in oral tradition. MIPoPS has been a great in helping us transferring historically important video interviews to digital format. This enables us to use them to interpret the site, and provides backup for the information they contain.”
“MIPoPS has created a unique workshop of equipment and has developed the skills to work with the interface of old and new technology… It was impressive to see the skill and the desire to capture the best possible image during the archival process and I feel I learned a tremendous amount about this and the value of preserving these creative treasures.”
“How lucky we are to have MIPoPS in our community. Their critical services have allowed us to discover so much meaningful historic content on numerous media formats: the artists who exhibit or participate, the Museum personnel and other experts who help us understand art, our important architecture, and other interesting aspects of our institutional history. Without their assistance, we would have no understanding of the rich content we have in our media collection. Importantly, the MIPoPS Team has been extremely easy to work with, helping us clearly understand the process and answering our questions every step of the way.”