Scart - a website on audiovisual heritage by packed

PrestoCentre publiceert TechWatch rapport nr. 4

emanuel — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 10:55:54 +0000

Author: Emanuel Lorrain (PACKED vzw)

In november jongstleden publiceerde PrestoCentre zijn TechWatch rapport nr. 4. Dit laatste nummer behandelt nieuwe technologieën en diensten die in september werden voorgesteld op de International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. Het rapport richt zich op filmscanners, ingestsystemen voor video, open source micro services en dataopslag.

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Het biedt eerst een verslag van de recente ontwikkelingen in het snel veranderende landschap van filmscanners, met inbegrip van de overname van Cintel door Blackmagic en die van Steenbeck door Vintage Cloud. We vernemen ook dat Lasergraphics zijn eerste 10K-scanner presenteerde, die zich met zijn tandwielloos systeem specifiek richt op archieven en eigenaars van fragiele film. De Cintel-scanner is de eerste onderneming op het vlak van film voor Blackmagic Design, een bedrijf dat gekend is voor zijn camera’s en convertors. De scanner is zeer klein in vergelijking met producten met gelijkaardige eigenschappen van andere fabrikanten, zowel qua afmeting als prijs. De scanner belooft een gemakkelijke installatie en dito gebruik op een computer met OSX-besturing. Hij kan zowel 35mm als 16mm film scannen en wordt geleverd met de DaVinci Resolve software voor kleuraanpassing. Ook Vintage Cloud presenteerde zijn scanner voor 35mm en 16mm film, en voegt aan zijn product zeer moderne kenmerken toe zoals gezichts- en spraakherkenning, en het genereren van transcripties m.b.v. API’s. Die maken de aanmaak van zeer rijke metadata mogelijk die toekomstige toegang en hergebruik van de gedigitaliseerde films vergemakkelijkt. Golden Eye, de scanner van Digital Vision, kan bijna alle filmformaten tot 70 mm scannen. De scanner gebruikt een tandwielloos pad, wat ideaal is voor oude en beschadigde films en geschikt is voor zowel optische als magnetisch klankbanden. Hij kan scannen tot een 4K-resolutie aan 24 beelden per seconde, en tot een 8K-resolutie aan 11 beelden per seconde. De Golden Eye scanner wordt geleverd met een softwaresuite die de hele digitaliseringsworkflow dekt, van kleuraanpassing tot restauratie en van de creatie van productie- tot projectiefomaten zoals ProRes en DCP.

Meer informatie over de eigenschappen, specificaties en prijzen van de verschillende scanners vind je op de websites van de vier bedrijven:

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com
http://www.vintagecloud.com
http://www.digitalvision.tv
http://lasergraphics.com

Het tweede deel van het rapport is een bespreking van twee hoogwaardige multistreamdigitaliseringssystemen van twee bekende fabrikanten uit de audiovisuele wereld: Cube-Tech en NOA. Quadriga Video is een product dat reeds enkele jaren geleden is ontwikkeld door het Duitse bedrijf Cube-Tec. Het biedt een oplossing voor multistreamdigitalisering naar MXF/JPEG2000 en andere formaten. De versie Quadriga Video RF gebruikt RF Direct Transfer™, een unieke technologie die werd ontwikkeld door Cube-Tec in samenwerking met het Fraunhofer-instituut om het analoge signaal van videotapes om te zetten naar digitale bestanden zonder daarbij de meerdere conversies van analoog naar digitaal en van digitaal naar analoog van de videospeler te gebruiken. Daarbij kan immers een verslechtering van het signaal optreden. In tegenstelling tot de originele circuits van de videospelers, behandelt het Quadriga Video werkstation het signaal volledig met software. Het gebruik van de RF Direct transfer™ technologie vereist een aanpassing door Cube-Tec in de videospeler van de klant. De andere digitaliseringsoplossing die het rapport voorstelt is FrameLector Pico van NOA, een Oostenrijks bedrijf dat reeds gekend is voor zijn ingesttools voor audio voor archieven. Met FrameLector Pico stelt NOA een op zichzelf staande oplossing voor de digitalisering van analoge videotapes voor die hardware en software combineert. De standaardcodecs die ondersteund worden zijn FFV1 (lossless) en V210 (ongecomprimeerd). Ook kunnen verschillende productie- en raadplegingsformaten voor de aanmaak van afgeleide kopieën worden gebruikt. FrameLector Pico kan, om het kwaliteitscontroleproces te versterken door het gebruik van RF-readouts, ook werken met een RF-meetinstrument dat FrameLogger noemt. Zoals voor RF Direct Transfer™ in Quadriga Video, moet de RF Logger sensor die gebruikt wordt door NOA rechtstreeks in de videospeler worden gesoldeerd.

Meer informatie over Cube-Tec and NOA, vind je op:
https://www.cube-tec.com
http://www.noa-archive.com

Het derde deel van het rapport richt zich op audiovisuele open source micro services die ontwikkeld werden door MediaArea. PrestoCentre ontmoette Jérôme Martinez, de eigenaar van het bedrijf MediaArea dat MediaInfo ontwikkelde. Mediainfo is een bekende en veelgebruikte tool voor het extraheren en genereren van metadata. Het is een gratis en open source tool die ook geïntegreerd is in zowel verschillende andere open source projecten als producten van bedrijven zoals Tektronix. Als onderdeel van PREFORMA, een project van vier jaar dat gefinancierd wordt door de Europese Unie en waarin PACKED vzw partner is, ontwikkelt MediaArea een tool die de conformantie controleert van FFV1/MKV/LPCM-bestanden. Die tool noemt MediaConch en is bedoeld om in een audiovisuele collecties bestanden te detecteren die niet beantwoorden aan de formaatspecificaties, en de specifieke vereisten en het beleid van het archief. De huidige versie van MediaConch kan gebruikt worden met een grafische gebruikersinterface, een webinterface en command-line, en is al geïntegreerd in Archivematica, een open source product van Artefactual Systems.

Meer informatie over MediaConch en het project PREFORMA, vind je op:
https://mediaarea.net/MediaConch/
http://preforma-project.eu/

Het laatste deel van het rapport is een bespreking van verschillende opslagtechnologieën en –diensten die voorgesteld werden op IBC. Fujifilm’s DTernity, wat staat voor ‘Data for Eternity’, biedt opslag voor zeer grote hoeveelheden data op LTO-tapes en maakt daarbij gebruik van een open formaat dat gebaseerd is op TAR. Bij een contract met een looptijd van minimum 3 jaar zal Fujifilm je data opslaan in twee verschillende kopieën, waarvan er één wordt opgeslagen in een bunkerachtig gebouw zonder enige netwerk- of internetverbinding. Het rapport stelt dat Fujifilm als potentiële klanten o.a. grote audiovisuele archieven verwacht die zeer grote bestanden moeten bewaren. Storage DNA, een ander bedrijf dat ook LTO-opslag voorstelt, richt zich vooral op de mogelijkheid voor gebruikers om belangrijke datastreams snel te lezen en te schrijven rechtstreeks op en van LTO-tapes. Andere belangrijke informatie die het rapport geeft is het nieuws dat het LTO-consortium binnenkort LTO-8 zal lanceren, dat de hoeveelheid data die per LTO-tape kan worden opgeslagen zal verhogen tot 12TB.

Meer informatie over DTernity en Storage DNA vind je op de volgende websites:
http://www.dternity.net/
http://www.storagedna.com/

CAC.5. Digital Art: Archiving and Questioning Immateriality. October 26 - 28th 2016, Paris

emanuel — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 11:44:00 +0000

Computer Art Congress

The 5th Computer Art Congress 2016 [ CAC.5 ] will be held in Paris between the 26 and 28 of October. Please visit the links on the left menu.

The Computer Art Congress is an international gathering around art, science, technology, and design. Its first edition was celebrated in Paris (2002), then the CAC traveled to Mexico City (2008), then came back to Paris (2012), and recently was hosted in Rio de Janeiro (2014). In fourteen years, a community of artists, curators, researchers, scholars, scientists, designers, students, and professionals has contributed to the domain with artworks, papers, round tables, workshops and exhibitions, exploring questions such as “emerging forms of computer art”, “post-digital art”, and “computer art for all”.

In 2016, the 5th edition of the Computer Art Congress will take place in Paris, organized by the Citu-Paragraphe research team at University Paris 8 in partnership with the University of Michigan, the University of Hong Kong, the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and the RAN (Réseaux d’Art Numérique). The selected topic for this edition is “archiving and questioning immateriality”.

For more information about registration , the list of accepted papers and artworks and the programme, visit the event's website: http://www.computer-art-congress.org

CAC.5 Poster

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iPRES 13th International Conference on Digital Preservation: October 3-6, 2016, Bern

emanuel — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 11:36:56 +0000

The Swiss National Library is delighted to announce that the 13th International Conference on Digital Preservation ( iPRES) will take place in Bern from October 3 – 6, 2016. iPRES is the longest standing digital preservation conference in the world. This important event brings together key theorists, researchers and practitioners to explore the latest trends, innovations, policies and practices in digital preservation. iPRES 2016 will attract participants from leading institutions, projects and initiatives from all around the world.

The conference features keynotes, conference sessions, panels, workshops, tutorials, poster sessions and a series of social activities. The core conference dates are:

Monday, October 3, 2016
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Workshops and tutorials will be held on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. The Swiss National Library is proud to be hosting this annual conference for the first time and is looking forward to welcoming you to Bern!

For more informations see here: www.ipres2016.ch

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Matters in Media Art - brand new content, brand new website is launched!

emanuel — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 14:05:04 +0000

Matters in Media Art is delighted to announce the launch of substantial new content on a brand new website designed as an online resource for collectors, artists, and institutions, of all sizes, caring for works of art that have moving image, electronic or digital elements (http://mattersinmediaart.org).

Matters in Media Art, the product of a cross-disciplinary consortium of experts at MoMA, SFMOMA and Tate, is a multi-year initiative with support from the New Art Trust. The newest content addresses current preservation challenges for digital artworks, namely file-based delivery and storage for media arts. It affirms the project’s enduring commitment to media art and artists through the development of shared practices for the care and preservation of our collections. The redesigned website delivers Matters in Media Art content open source via a GitHub repository in order to realize the consortium’s ambition of offering an online resource that can be improved and refined by a broader community of artists, collectors and practitioners. "Because artworks are reflections of who we are, caring for the diverse and fast-changing forms of media and digital art produced today is among our most urgent imperatives," said Lauren Shadford, Executive Director of Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA). "The Matters in Media Art consortium has been delivering on this promise for over ten years and the open source platform of the new website signals a new day. Matters in Media Art can now productively expand the network of expert contributors serving these vital needs of artists and collectors alike." The Matters in Media Art team strives to ensure the new site and content is of maximum use and value to you and our different communities and we welcome your feedback and thoughts on how to improve the site; contribution guidelines are available at http://mattersinmediaart.org/about.html.

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The FIAF Moving Image Cataloguing Manual

emanuel — Tue, 10 May 2016 11:06:07 +0000

The FIAF Moving Image Cataloguing Manual (2016), published by the FIAF Cataloguing and Documentation Commission (CDC), may now be accessed for free in PDF format here.

The FIAF Moving Image Cataloguing Manual is the result of many years of labor and collaboration with numerous professionals in the moving image field. It is more than a simple revision of The FIAF Cataloguing Rules for Film Archives (1991), as it needed to address the changes in information technology that we’ve seen over the past two decades, and align with existing and emerging metadata standards. Although it is specialized in focus, and draws from modern concepts and standards such as FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records), EN 15907, and RDA (Resource Description and Access), it is designed to be compatible with a variety of data structures. It provides charts, decision trees, examples, and other tools to help experts and non-experts alike in performing real-world cataloguing of moving image collections.

For more info visit: http://www.fiafnet.org/pages/E-Resources/Cataloguing-Manual.html

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Electronic Media Group at the Joint AIC / CAC Conference, May 13-17 2016, Montreal, Canada

emanuel — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 10:20:21 +0000

Fifty years after the Arno River breached its banks, the theme for the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and the Canadian Association for Conservation (Association Canadienne pour la Conservation et la Restauration) (CAC-ACCR)'s Joint 44th Annual Meeting and 42nd Annual Conference is...

Emergency! Preparing for Disasters and Confronting the Unexpected in Conservation

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The meeting will be held from Friday, May 13 through Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal, Canada. For more information, see the meeting calendar below.

Registration Brochure

Over 1200 people are registered for the meeting! Don't miss out on all this meeting has to offer.

Explore the programming with our registration brochure, which is available for download and viewing here!

Meeting Theme

Colleagues will address in a broad-based way the impact of past, present, and future disasters on the protection of cultural property. In addition papers that address confronting the unexpected in conservation whether it occurs during the treatment of an artifact or during a natural disaster are requested.

The scope of the theme will include immediate reactions, such as the application of crowd-mapping technology to aid response efforts, as well as longer term developments stemming from disasters, such as the adoption of simple strategies: Fail to Plan – Plan to Fail, effective risk assessment methodologies, the rapid transformation of damaged artifacts into objects of veneration, the repercussions of instantaneous visibility of destruction.

Preparing for Disasters

...can include, in addition to situations caused by natural disasters, accidents, terrorist activities, and climate change, even well-intended, but misguided interventions that elicit global amusement and/or outrage.

and

Confronting the Unexpected

...can involve surprises encountered along the way in any treatment and can be expanded to include all stakeholders, even future ones, who are affected by a disaster. Communities affected can cross geographic boundaries, social and economic populations, cultural and historical perspectives, and inter-disciplinary expertise.

Members & Attendees

Meeting Schedule

The Annual Meeting will take place from Friday, May 13th, 2016, to Tuesday, May 17th, 2016. You can view the meeting schedule here! Please expect the schedule to be updated as we confirm events and continue to build the Annual Meeting!

Electronic Media Group

See the schedule of the Electronic Media speciality group: http://aics44thannualmeeting2016.sched.org/company/Electronic+Media

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The digitisation of collections at culture-producing institutions

emanuel — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:59:26 +0000

Culture-producing institutions generate a lot of production-related material. Unlike cultural heritage institutions, however, the structured archiving and digitisation of the collections are not among their priorities. Digitisation has been prioritised in the policy of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs and Science (OCW), as evidenced inter alia by the organisation Digital Heritage Network (Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed, NDE). Heritage institutions are already actively digitising their collections to facilitate their management and to make them usable and accessible. Ideally, culture-producing institutions in the performing arts, presentation institutes, design and e-culture are also archiving and digitising their production-related materials. The functions of culture-producing institutions, however, are not in the sphere of maintaining and managing collections (preservation), but in creating and displaying works, which often can only be heard or seen for one season.

In 2015, the Dutch Council for Culture (Raad voor Cultuur) drew attention to the state of archives in culture-producing institutions, because their production-related material is important in the context of heritage preservation. The first step is to create an overview of the current state of archiving and digitisation by cultural institutions. Commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Council for Culture, this inventory has been made. LIMA served on the supervisory committee.

The report ‘Inventarisatie digitalisering cultuurproducerende instellingen’ (‘Inventorising digitisation at culture-producing institutions’) was published on 17 March 2016.

https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2016/03/17/inventarisatie-digitalisering-cultuurproducerende-instellingen

The report contains no policy recommendations. The Council will consider it when deciding on the Basic Infrastructure for culture (Basisinfrastructuur, BIS).

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Nederlands

Archiving CD-ROM-based works of art - June 13 2016

emanuel — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:55:04 +0000

In 2015 and 2016 LIMA researched the archiving of works of art on CD-ROM on behalf of the Network Digital Heritage (NDE) programme ‘Houdbaar’ (‘Perishable’). In this way LIMA participates in the development of a coherent and sector-specific infrastructure for born-digital heritage.

After previous inquiries about emulation procedures for our collection, LIMA investigated the potential of implementing bwFLA’s Emulation-as-a-Service for online access to the CD-ROM collection. This emulation tool, developed by the University of Freiburg, simplifies access to preserved digital assets and allows end-users to interact with the original environments running on a variety of emulators. Emulation-as-a-Service has a lot of potential but is currently still under development. Therefore, LIMA developed its own CD-ROM emulation procedure, allowing for the consultation of emulated CD-ROM artworks at LIMA, distributing them in ready-to-use packages to other institutions, and producing online documentation that can be consulted by the general public, researchers and curators. This documentation, including a video documenting a work’s interactive behaviour, is an accurate representation of the work and will be distributed online. Similar to the video art collection that is available for preview in the online catalogue, LIMA now offers full access to the CD-ROMs. Kindly contact us to make an appointment to do this. The works have been embedded in preconfigured emulators that allow for direct user access. The research was conducted by Nina van Doren and Alexandre Michaan and will be presented during the NDE expert meeting on software sustainability on 13 June this year.

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Nederlands

Webinar ‘The shelf life of born digital art’ - 18 May 2016

emanuel — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:47:54 +0000

In collaboration with the British Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), the Dutch National Coalition Digital Preservation (Nationale Coalitie Digitale Duurzaamheid, NCDD) has organised a monthly webinar in 2016, with alternately British and Dutch speakers.

On 18 May, LIMA’s director Gaby Wijers will host the webinar. She will outline the state of born digital art in the Netherlands on the basis of examples from the Cultural Coalition for Digital Durability (Culturele Coalitie Digitale Duurzaamheid, CCDD) research project ‘Born digital cultureel erfgoed is bedreigd erfgoed’ (‘Born digital cultural heritage is threatened heritage’), and the ‘Transformatie Digitale Kunst’ (‘Transforming Digital Art’) project by LIMA and the Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (Stichting Behoud Moderne Kunst, SBMK). Central to her presentation are to what degree this art, which is digital in origin, can be preserved for the future, and what this preservation will require.

Date & Time
18 May 2016
15:00 - 16:00

Programme and registration
The webinar will take place on 18 May from 15:00 to 16:00. The official language is English. You can register for free by sending an e-mail to info@ncdd.nl. You will receive an e-mail via the DPC with a link to participate. Please note that the time indicated in this e-mail is British time. The webinar will start at 15:00 hours Dutch time. Not a good time for you? Then you can watch the webinar online later. Keep an eye on this website for announcements about this:

http://www.ncdd.nl/events/webinar-houdbaarheid-born-digital-art/

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Nederlands

Transformation Digital Art - International symposium on the preservation of born-digital art, LIMA 18/02/2016 & 19/02/2016

emanuel — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 10:34:34 +0000

Preservation of born-digital/software based art

Digital artworks form a separate group in museum collections. Museums and visitors do not have much experience in dealing with these artworks. Management, preservation and presentation of it is largely unknown territory, while museums and artists need knowledge about this vulnerable digital part of modern heritage. How can they keep digital born artworks accessible in the future?

The need for new infrastructures

Digital art and culture is default, pervasive and under continuous development. The innovative users of these new technologies are media artists, visual artists, contemporary composers, photographers, architects and designers. Emerging technology gives artists ever new artistic platforms and possibilities and challenges for audience interaction. Inextricably linked is the fact that today's ever-evolving innovative technology is the heritage of the future. A future that very quickly becomes obsolete. The accelerated highly technical nature of born digital art is in need for new infrastructures and innovation specific to its digital nature, such as acquisition, documentation, preservation, presentation policies, practise and protocols.

Symposium

In the final presentation of the project Transformation Digital Art, SBMK and LIMA organise an international symposium to address software based art preservation. This project was based on research and case studies from various collections, focussing on works by the Dutch artist/digital pioneer Peter Struycken, with an exemplary function for other born-digital artworks. Practical protocols, sustainable storage and awareness of the wider public are realised in this joint research project. We want to share our practice, experience, views and results with professionals working in the fields of conservation and access to digital art and culture. During these two days, international state-of-the-art methodologies and technologies will be presented and discussed. The programme consists of keynotes, workshops, panel discussions and a short film. We invite you to share your own research or case studies with us in the Pecha Kucha.

Programme

Thursday 18 february, 1 - 9.30 p.m.
Friday 19 february, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
>> download the detailed programme

Costs

The symposium is free, except for the workshops. The workshops are € 12,50 per person.

Sign up

If you want to attend the symposium, please mail your name, function, organisation, which workshop you want to attend (workshop 1, workshop 2, workshop 3 or workshop 4) and how you want to pay to aanmelden@sbmk.nl.

We kindly ask you to sign up, also when you have sent us an email before.

If you want to share a case study in the Pecha Kucha, send an e-mail to info@sbmk.nl.

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