Interview with Ramon Coelho (part 1/2)

Since it was founded in 1978, the NIMk, in addition to holding exhibitions, has accumulated a sizeable collection of video and media art to which new works are constantly being added. The institute also produces, distributes and presents works of media art.

From 1992 the NIMk also developed into a centre of expertise on the conservation of media art, in which field it generates models and theories. It also restores and conserves private and other video collections and administers the Netherlands’ video art storage centre. Because of its long history and the extensive experience and know-how it has built up, the NIMk has an important role both in and outside the Netherlands. It is acknowledged worldwide as one of the main experts on the conservation of media art.

As part of BOM-Vl, the NIMk was asked to digitise a varied range of analogue video tapes from collections held by cultural institutions in Flanders.

BOM-Vl is an initiative of the Flemish Ministry of Economy, Enterprise, Science and Innovation, with the support of the Ministry of the Flemish Community. BOM-Vl is intended to provide solutions for the judicious long-term preservation of the audiovisual heritage in Flanders, as well as making it accessible and available for exchange. The project ran from 1 January 2008 to 30 June 2009 and was implemented by a consortium involving partners from both the cultural sector and the audiovisual media sector.³

Since the bulk of the audiovisual heritage in the Flemish cultural sector is still based on analogue media, at the instigation of the Flemish Ministry of Economy, Enterprise, Science and Innovation it was decided to make funds available for the digitisation of a selection of analogue works as part of BOM-Vl. The Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology (IBBT) put out a request for tenders.⁴

After a comparison of both the tenders and the results of several tests, the task of digitising these video works was entrusted to the NIMk. Several cultural institutions were requested to make a selection from their collections: the AMSAB Institute of Social History,⁵ M HKA,⁶ SMAK⁷ and the Antwerp Municipal Archives.⁸⁹

The budget for this digitisation was administered by the IBBT. The process of delivery, digitisation and ingest was followed up by the BAM (Institute for Visual, Audiovisual and Media Art),),¹⁰ with the assistance of PACKED (Platform for the Archiving and Conservation of the Audiovisual Arts) and FARO (Flemish Centre for the Cultural Heritage).¹¹ The ingest of the BOM-Vl Demonstrator itself was supported by the IBBT/ilab.

At the NIMk, the digitisation itself was carried out by Mario Vrugt (from ¾” U-matic, VHS and 1” tapes), Jata Haan (1” tapes) and Ramon Coelho (project management and monitoring).


Digitisation of 3/4" U-matic tapes (Ramon Coelho), Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst, courtesy: NIMk

PACKED: What is your personal background? Did you have any video training?

Yes, I did once take a course in video, but only later.

Actually I was brought up on the practical side of it. My father, René Coelho, founded the Montevideo video gallery in 1978. I was 16 or 17 at the time, and interested in the technical side of video. I was already involved in electronics and made electronic musical instruments myself. But I only turned to the technical aspect of video several years later, in the eighties. That’s when I took a course in video editing, among other things.

So most of my knowledge has been gained through practical experience. It covers the whole range of video: editing, production assistance to video artists, renting audiovisual equipment to artists and so on.


PACKED: And your experience with conservation?

In the nineties it became clear that something had to be done in the Netherlands to safeguard the long-term preservation of older video works. It was my father who rang the alarm bell. Something had to be done urgently, because a number of early tapes of video art could no longer be played.

This resulted in the first round of conservation of videos from Dutch visual art collections. At that time, there was a ‘Deltaplan voor Cultuurbehoud’ in the Netherlands, and our first round of video art conservation was made part of that and thereby received financial support.

Eight collections took part in the first round of conservation. They also made their own financial contribution. A method was then very quickly devised to safeguard the videos in these collections. We developed it on the basis not only of our own work experience, but also on consultation with video technicians (some from television broadcasters) and equipment suppliers.

In December 1992 we started copying the most important tapes that were in danger of decay to the more stable Betacam SP format.¹⁵

Because there was some panic, everything was copied, without any selection. We did not wonder what we should copy and what not. At the time, the video documents were also copied in addition to the works of art themselves.


PACKED: Were you involved in that first conservation work from the beginning?

Yes, I carried out the project with a colleague. It amounted to 1200 to 1300 hours of video. We worked on it two and a half days a week for two years. It was very intensive; you couldn’t keep it up if you were doing it full-time. So I did it part-time with a colleague.


PACKED: So to a great extent the knowledge and skills you needed for conservation work developed out of your experience as a video editor?

Yes, that was the foundation for the basic experience of our first conservation work, as well as my experience setting up exhibitions. I did that a lot. It also involved a lot of troubleshooting with equipment. At that time, players for ¾” U-matic were still important for exhibitions. I had to find a solution not only when projections went wrong in exhibitions, but also for tapes and players when the heads were dirty or the signal connections were wrong.

This experience grew over time and evolved along with the equipment.


PACKED: Can you also tell us something about the second series of conservation work?

The first stage of conservation consisted of copying works on earlier tape formats such as ¾” U-matic and ½” open reel¹⁷ to Betacam SP. In the second stage, these analogue Betacam SP tapes were copied to digital Betacam tapes. We started this digitisation in 2001. I took an active part in that too. To avoid our choices being made purely on the basis of our own findings, we asked for advice from external experts for that second stage too.

The need also arose for an independent platform, and so on the initiative of the institutions involved the project was placed under the wing of the Foundation for the Preservation of Modern Art.¹⁸ This second stage of conservation, which came to an end in February 2003, also included works of video art from several Dutch museums and institutions.¹⁹


PACKED: So in the second stage you did not start out from the original masters, but from the Betacam SP conservation masters that resulted from the first stage of conservation?

That’s right, but we did not opt for that out of laziness or to save money.

In the first stage of conservation we copied the tapes in the best possible way, with the best connections, using cleaning machines for ¾” U-matic and ½” open reel, and so on. This cost a lot of blood, sweat and tears. By the time of the second stage, the tapes were again ten years older, and players had not improved either. On that basis we decided we did not need to repeat the process.


PACKED: So at present you store the conservation masters on digital Betacam. But what format is used to view the tapes?

MPEG-2. The files are on a file server and on DVDs that are stored in a cupboard.


PACKED: In the meantime, it is already six years since the second stage of conservation. Have you since then been preparing for the move to tapeless storage?

Yes. At the end of 2008 our Playout Project²⁰ rounded off the research we had done in preparation for the third stage in the conservation of Dutch video art collections.

The digital Betacam tapes have a factory guarantee of about ten years, and that has now almost been reached. So we have to switch to a new format. The Playout study focused on the conservation of digital video files.


PACKED: How many people are currently at work in the NIMk studio?

Two, Mario Vrugt and myself. For some jobs we bring in freelancers too, such as large-scale tasks, encoding,²¹ spooling tapes and so on. For example, in this project Jata Haan is digitising the 1” tapes.

Mario does most of the actual conservation work. I provide him with support and am responsible for following up the conservation projects. Apart from that, I also do production work and editing for artists.

My colleague Mario’s background is also based on experience. He joined Montevideo as a systems manager. But in the past he had also made his own video programmes for the cable broadcasters. He has also learned a lot from me. He is a musician too, and uses electronics a lot.


Digitisation of 1"C tapes (Mario Vrugt), Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst, courtesy: NIMK

PACKED: Your studio existed before you started conservation work. It always provided support to artists: for editing, setting up exhibitions and so on.

That’s right. We also rented out equipment for a long time. For example, in the eighties there were not yet any Handycams.²² Because video cameras were so expensive, artists hired rather than bought them.

At that time it was important for the NIMk that for video artists, or artists in general, the whole production process received support: from the recording through editing to setting up an exhibition. It seems to me this is the important part of our work as far as they are concerned. We can offer them answers to a huge range of questions.

But it’s not only artists who can ask us questions, there are also art institutions, museums and suchlike. We stopped renting out video equipment a couple of years ago. But we do still have a lab where things such as HD-syncstarters²³ are developed, devices that are not yet available on the market.


PACKED: Was the choice of having your own video studio made right at the start?

No, not right at the start. Montevideo started as a video gallery. The first aim was to show video art. My father had worked for TV broadcasters. The gallery was launched on very limited funds, and the accommodation was small.

But two more video player-recorders were soon added, and an editing device. But we only built a proper editing studio in the mid-eighties when a subsidy was made available for it. Since then the facilities have been maintained and updated.


PACKED: Has the studio’s work changed over the years?

Yes, in recent years the main focus has shifted from providing artists with production support to conservation.

In the eighties and nineties postproduction and renting out equipment were the most important activities. But nowadays more and more artists can manage for themselves. When we do postproduction work for artists now, it is more specialised work such as editing for high-quality HD productions. Artists of the old school who do not want to waste their time getting involved in computer programmes do still come to us for help.

But as well as that, our studio also provides support to the other departments of the NIMk. We are always ready to help the distribution department.²⁴ For the last ten years we have mainly made DVD copies for them. We also provide support for the exhibitions²⁵ held here in the building.


PACKED: So it has never been an option to contract out the copying of videos or even digitisation, as the Flemish institutions²⁶ are now contracting it out to you under the BOM-Vl scheme? Is this connected to the specific requirements of video art, and the fact that the commercial video labs cannot really handle this?

Yes. There is a different work approach in commercial labs. You experience the pressure of commerce, money and time much more there. It’s all expensive there, so it all has to go fast. The same applies to the television broadcasters. The production process follows a sort of cadenza. The director supervises the operators in a series of shouted instructions. This is not at all the sort of atmosphere artists want to do their creative work in.

The working atmosphere is important. It is also important that it should be affordable and thus feasible for artists. Thanks to the subsidies, the prices we charge would be impossible in the commercial world.

Furthermore, over the years we have built up specific expertise for the arts sector which you do not find in commercial copying or editing companies.


PACKED: Do you know of any other places similar to the NIMk studio in Europe?

No, not really. Some of its activities can be found here and there. We cannot see many comparable initiatives on the conservation front either.


PACKED: Do you sometimes have to contract jobs out because you cannot do them yourselves?

Sometimes, but that is mainly a question of renting the equipment we use in exhibitions.

As far as conservation is concerned, we can actually do it all ourselves. It’s just film that we contract out. But then film is not part of our area of work. We do have a couple of films in our collection, but the conservation work they need is done by the Nederlands Filmmuseum.²⁷


PACKED: The conservation projects you mentioned before involved not only your own video collection but also those of other Dutch art institutions. Are those collections also kept in your storage space?

Yes, the conservation masters belonging to the participants in the Video Art Conservation Project are kept here. Though there are two exceptions: the collections of the World Wide Video Festival²⁸ and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.²⁹ They manage their video tapes themselves.

This storage is a service we offer museums because we have a climate-controlled storage space here and when requested can very easily make a DVD copy of the conservation master in our studio. The latter point is a major advantage for the museums.


PACKED: How many collections does the NIMk itself look after?

We ourselves look after four collections, those of De Appel,³⁰ Mickery,³¹ the Lijnbaancentrum³² and NIMk itself. And the NIMk is the result of the merger of two organisations: Montevideo and Time-Based Arts.³³ All these collections can also be consulted at the NIMk.

But in addition we also look after the collections of several organisations that have taken part in our conservation projects.


Storage of videotapes in a climate-controlled storage space, Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst, courtesy: NIMk

PACKED: You are now working on commission to the BOM-Vl project. You often take on such assignments for third parties. Is the communication and working relationship in this case similar to that in other commissioned projects?

Yes, there is little difference. But if we carry out an assignment in the Netherlands it usually involves the conservation of an individual collection (e.g. the Jan van Eyck Academy³⁴ and the Frans Hals Museum | De Hallen Haarlem³⁵). For BOM-Vl we are digitising works from four separate collections at the same time.

Our own conservation projects have of course given us experience of large collective projects in which several collections participate. In the case of BOM-Vl, however, it is not we, but BAM.³⁶ that is coordinating. I don’t see any major difference. Strictly speaking, this sort of large-scale project is bound to be somewhat bureaucratic.


PACKED: Is there a similar relationship between you and the client?

Yes, there is a similar relationship between the museums and the NIMk. There is a certain trust. This means that no members of the museum staff have to be present. They don’t have to sit next to us in the studio all the time we are working on digitisation.

But our work is always open. People can visit us at any time during the working process. We communicate clearly about what is going on in our studio. The fact that hardly anything ever goes wrong increases that trust.


PACKED: Do you already have any idea, as you make a start, of the average condition of the tapes from AMSAB, M HKA, SMAK and the Antwerp Municipal Archives?

Yes, we carried out some random tests on the 1” tapes from AMSAB. The results were very good.

I have looked at the M HKA tapes too. They include some very dusty tapes and some old U-matic tapes of a particular make. My experience enables me to guess the problems that may arise. We shall have to clean these tapes very well, but we have had enough experience of that.

I can also estimate the average processing time on the basis of other conservation projects. We operate at an average ratio of 1 to 2.5, meaning that the digitisation of 1 hour of various types of video material takes about 2.5 hours.


PACKED: How many tapes are you digitising for BOM-Vl?

For AMSAB there are 139 tapes, or 105 hours, for M HKA 42 tapes or 18 hours 22 minutes, from SMAK 13 tapes or 5 hours 30 minutes, and from Antwerp’s municipal archives 41 tapes or 60 hours and 48 minutes. Altogether that’s 235 tapes or almost 190 hours.

The formats we have received are 1” C, ¾” U-matic and VHS.

Among the SMAK tapes, there is also a difference between PAL and NTSC tapes, both U-matic and VHS. This may also be the case with M HKA, because not all the documentation of their works is complete.

As a result of this incomplete documentation, there is still a possibility of more time being necessary too. But in principle we can finish the job in the set period of two months.


PACKED: Is there a difference in content between the tapes from the art institutions, SMAK and M HKA, on the one hand, and the archives, AMSAB and the Antwerp Municipal Archives, on the other?

Yes, the tapes from the SMAK and M HKA mostly contain works of art. The others contain mainly documents: recordings of concerts, events, and so on. They also involve an element of culture. The AMSAB tapes mainly contain television programmes, which probably also involve culture too.

So the tapes from the SMAK and M HKA are the only ones with autonomous art, to which our digitisation method, with its conversion to a 10-bit uncompressed format,³⁷ is geared. This sort of high quality is not usually used for video documents. But we apply the same treatment to all tapes.


PACKED: So in principle you could apply a different method to the video documents, the ones that don’t contain any video art?

Our method is oriented entirely towards autonomous art. Broadcasting companies and archives general use a different method that results in slightly lower quality. It’s a question of cost. A 10-bit uncompressed video file requires more storage capacity than a lossy compressed video file..³⁸ Since broadcasting companies and archives often have to keep a huge amount of material, and since the quality is slightly less critical than in the arts sector, they often opt for another method.

So the method we use is the best one for video art. For video documents you could cut the cost of storage by opting for lower quality, such as the D10-50 format..³⁹ This will not reduce the price of digitisation, only of the subsequent storage. However, I understand that the IBBT⁴⁰ will store the files on LTO tape,,⁴¹ and then storage is not very expensive either.


The 1"C-tapes of AMSAB before digitisation, Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst, courtesy: NIMk

PACKED: If we run through your digitisation process, what are the first steps in your workflow?

The tapes that come in first have to be inventoried and then stored in air-conditioned rooms at a temperature of 19° C and a relative humidity of 40%.

Before we digitise ¾” U-matic, VHS and Betacam tapes, they are cleaned with RIT cleaning/evaluating machines. We do not clean 1” C tapes.


PACKED: What does a cleaning machine do?

In a cleaning machine, the tape is passed under tension over tissue rollers. Loose and sticky particles are thereby removed from the tape. These particles can after all interrupt the contact between the tape and the playback head, which results in white or black lines (drop-outs). The sticky emulsion can also leave residues on the mechanical rollers, so that the tape no longer runs smoothly through the player.


PACKED: Why do you not consider it necessary to clean 1” tapes?

We do not have a cleaning machine for 1” tapes.

But our tests have also shown that it is not essential. We bought our Sony player for 1” C tapes specially for this BOM-Vl digitisation project. When I bought the machine, I did a test with a heavily powdered tape, and the reproduction of the video signal was immaculate. The 1” system uses such a broad video tape and the processing of the video signal is of such high quality that it is not troubled by a bit of dust. For example, I have just done a test with another tape, one of 22 years old, and the reproduction was perfect. Cleaning the tape, even if this were possible, would not make any visual improvement to the ultimate reproduction of the signal.

We shall however have to clean the machine ourselves more often.


PACKED: Do you keep the masters of the works from your own collection at 19°C and 40% relative humidity too? These are after all often recommended as the ideal conditions for copies to be consulted and so on. But for the long-term storage of the masters 10°C is recommended, and 25% relative humidity.⁴²

There is some debate about this. Theoretically, it is possible to keep material longer in cold storage (even by freezing), but the risks also increase.

The problem is that there is no carrier suitable for long-term storage. Not so much because of the storage life of the tape itself, but because of the change in the technological environment. It is mainly the players that die out. So you may be able to keep the tapes in good condition, but if the necessary equipment is no longer available after fifty years, there will have been no point in preserving the tapes well. It’s a risk.

If you keep the tapes in a cooler environment, you also have to have a sort of transition stage so that they can return to room temperature gradually. Otherwise there will be condensation. At low humidity, you also risk various side-effects such as static electricity, which attract dust. These are risks you have to take into account when deciding on the storage conditions.

The most important element of storage conditions is constancy. It is the fluctuations in temperature and humidity that harm the material most.

Click here to read Part 2 of the interview.

[Translation: Gregory Ball]


Footnotes:

¹ - See: http://www.nimk.nl
² - See https://projects.ibbt.be
³ - On the cultural side, a broad range of organisations was involved, including the FARO, BAM, VTi and Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen information and documentation centres. Participants from the media sector include the public, commercial and regional broadcasters. The IBBT and the VRT Medialab help provide the academic framework.
⁴ - See www.ibbt.be
⁵ - See www.amsab.be
⁶ - Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp, see www.muhka.be
⁷ - Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, in Ghent, see www.smak.be
⁸ - See www.felixarchief.be
⁹ - Other cultural institutions including the Royal Belgian Film Archives and the Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen have already digitised films and audio works.
¹⁰ - See www.bamart.be
¹¹ - See www.faronet.be
¹² - In 1993 Montevideo was absorbed into the present Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst together with Time-Based Arts.
¹³ - In 1991 René Coelho wrote the memorandum entitled ‘De hoogste tijd. Notitie over de conservering van videokunst’, in which he brought up the problematic situation of video art and pointed out the need for action. As from 1992-3, the Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst-Montevideo/TBA developed into a centre of expertise on the conservation of media art.
¹⁴ - The Deltaplan was launched in 1990 as a rescue operation intended to make up lost ground in the conservation and management of the cultural heritage and to achieve manageable stocks of work. The second major aim was that institutions should on a structural basis devote more attention to the conservation and management of their collections. The plan lasted for ten years and made at least 135 million euro available. These resources went into, among other things, the state museums (now independent) and the state archives, to the preservation of monuments and to archaeology. For the non-state museums a preservation fund was set up by the Mondriaan Foundation. At the same time, money was put into supporting activities such as research, material development and information provision.
¹⁵ - Betacam SP is an analogue video format that came onto the market in 1986 and consists of a ½ inch magnetic video tape in a cassette. It was generally considered to be a stable format of high quality.
¹⁶ - ¾” U-matic is an analogue video format that was developed at the end of the sixties and consisted of a ¾” video tape in a cassette. It was the forerunner of the analogue Betacam.
¹⁷ - ½” open reel is an analogue video format introduced in 1965. The ½-inch tape is not inside a cassette but on an open spool. The tapes were used in combination with the first portable video recorders and were widely used by artists, lecturers and activists. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of ½” open reel: CV (Consumer Video/Commercial Video) and AV (EIAJ Type 1). Although the tapes look identical, the players are not compatible.
¹⁸ - The Stichting Behoud Moderne Kunst (SBMK) has since 1995 been engaged in projects in the field of conservation and management of contemporary visual art. The aim is to develop good practices to the advantage of all interested parties. See http://www.sbmk.nl.
¹⁹ - The institutions involved were the Van Abbemuseum, De Appel, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Groninger Museum, Instituut Collectie Nederland, Kröller-Möller Museum, Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst, Montevideo/Time-Based Arts, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, plus the Mickery Collection and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
²⁰ - Playout was a study of new techniques for conserving collections of video art in the Netherlands and making them accessible. The aim of the project was to find the best method of storing the works of video art in Dutch museums and making them available online. The results of the project were presented in spring 2009.
²¹ - In this context, encoding means converting a digital tape to a tapeless digital format.
²² - Handycam is a trade mark used by Sony for its range of camcorders (portable combined camera and recorder).
²³ - An HD-syncstarter is a device used for the synchronous display (accurate to the frame) of several High Definition videos on several screens.
²⁴ - In order to enable a broad public to learn about media art, the Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst pursues an active distribution policy. Video tapes and media installations from the collection can be seen at domestic and international festivals, events and exhibitions, in galleries, museums and other art institutions.
²⁵ - In its gallery space, the NIMk holds long-running group and thematic exhibitions such as solo presentations, retrospectives and shows in association with other institutions. These presentations take a museum-like approach. They offer a clear insight into a particular oeuvre or subject. In between the long-running exhibitions there is also time for more experimental presentations such as short exhibitions, symposia, screenings, live performances in sound and image, and test set-ups by artists and students.
²⁶ - i.e. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent, Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, AMSAB-ISG in Ghent and Stadsarchief Antwerpen.
²⁷ - See www.filmmuseum.nl/
²⁸ - The World Wide Video Festival was a media art festival that was held every year from 1982 until 2004. See www.wwvf.nl/
²⁹ - See www.stedelijk.nl/
³⁰ - De Appel is an internationally oriented arts centre in Amsterdam which since 1975 has functioned as a platform for the study and presentation of contemporary visual art by means of exhibitions, publications and discursive ‘events’. The NIMk looks after De Appel’s video collection, which dates from between 1973 and 1983. See http://www.deappel.nl
³¹ - In the 70s and 80s Mickery was well-known as an experimental theatre in Amsterdam. Its founder, Ritsaert Ten Cate, often invited international theatre companies to perform in this small theatre. In 1984, Ten Cate decided to include video in his programme for the next four seasons because he wanted to experiment with what television had to offer him as a theatre producer.
³² - The Lijnbaancentrum was founded in 1970 to provide a low-threshold exhibition space in Rotterdam’s shopping centre and to stimulate the use of video. The NIMk looks after the Lijnbaancentrum’s video collection, which dates from 1970 to 1982.
³³ - Time-Based Arts was set up in 1982 as an independent organisation.
³⁴ - See www.janvaneyck.nl
³⁵ - See www.dehallenhaarlem.nl
³⁶ - BAM is the institution for visual, audiovisual and media art. It is a documentation and information centre for the arts sector in Flanders. See www.bamart.be
³⁷ - This is a format in which no data compression is used. 10-bit refers to the depth of colour, this being the measure used for the number of bits used to encode the colour of a pixel. The higher the depth of colour, the more different colours can be encoded.
³⁸ - Data compression means representing digital data using fewer bits than the original. In lossy compression, the compression is not exactly reversible because part of the data is lost. Because video files are mostly large, they usually use lossy compression.
³⁹ - D10/IM X-50 is a standard based on the MPEG2 compression method used by television broadcasters and also the Stichting voor Beeld en Geluid. It is an attractive format because the files are relatively small while retaining fairly high quality. For the broadcasters’ archives, this choice can be defended for economic reasons. However, at the NIMk we are concerned with video as an autonomous work of art: the video signal is the work of art, or is an important part of a work of art.
⁴⁰ - The IBBT (Interdiciplinair Instituut voor Breedband Technologie) is an independent research institution that has been commissioned by the Flemish government to stimulate ICT innovation. The IBBT team offer businesses and organisations active support in research and development and for this purpose bring together a wide variety of companies, levels of government and non-profit organisations for research projects. See www.ibbt.be/
⁴¹ - Linear Tape-Open (or LTO) is a standard developed in the late nineties for storing data on magnetic tape.
⁴² - For example, in Dietrich Schüller’s TAPE publication Audio and video carriers (see www.tape-online.net/docs/audio_and_video_carriers.pdf) or the section on the video preservation of IMAP in the EAI Online Resource Guide for Exhibiting, Collecting & Preserving Media Art (see resourceguide.eai.org/preservation/singlechannel.html)