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This
year, as the first attempt in the history of FIAF Congresses,
this symposium will be BROADCAST
VIA INTERNET
(the speakers' appearances and voices) with their consent.
Clik hereunder to access live to the Symposium via internet
(Saturday April 7 and Sunday April 8, from 09:00 to 19:00 -
Tokyo time).
›››
http://www.momat.go.jp/FC/fiafwebcasting-en.html
‹‹‹
Renew:03/28/07
Searching the Traces: Archival Study of Short-lived
Film Formats
Opening
Keynote Lecture
Session 1: Film in Variety
Session 2: Made in Japan
Session 3: Artifacts or Facts of Art
Searching the Traces: Archival Study of Short-lived Film Formats
Saturday, April 7 9:00-17:05 and
Sunday, April 8, 9:00-17:35 at Cinema 1, NFC
From the technological point of view, film history can be described as the succession of different formats as each goes through this cycle: Being invented and developed; going into the market, competing with similar products for survival or perishing, becoming obsolete or being improved.
In other words, film history consists of successive events as old formats are replaced by new ones. As Ray Edmondson has written in Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles [UNESCO, 2004], the mission of film archives is not limited to preserving film 'content.' Film archives are also expected to preserve and prolong the life of film as 'carrier,' that is, object which consists of various gauges and materials, as well as the 'context' of film including the systems of projection and sound, based on the notion that all three comprise (a set of) cultural assets.
A number of formats had very short lives: They became out of use after a brief period and disappeared. The history of such short-lived formats can be said to be a compilation of fertile imagination men have had about moving images. Filled with strange inventions which often verge on being funny, it continues to fascinate us.Speaking of short-lived formats, what comes into your mind first? A giant screen or a three-dimensional film?
Or names of famous rare formats such as Grandeur, Cinemiracle, Konicolor, Smell-O-Vision and so on? These will no doubt be central in our discussions, but our interests are not limited to them. We consider, for example, pre-cinema history and invention of film in different countries important subject matters of scholarship on "short-lived formats." We also intend to examine technological history of various amateur/ 'small'/ home movies including paper film and toy film and of special sound system such as Perspecta Sound and Sensurround system.
As Karl Griep has stated in one EC meeting, "in effect, all image formats are short-lived formats" including relatively new media which were recently invented and soon disappeared. (In a sense, film preservation may be defined as transferring the content from a certain short-lived format to another short-lived format that is available at the time.) In addition, we can even consider all items used for promotion of film including lobby cards and glass plates as subjects of scholarship from preservation viewpoint, though they are not film.
There is no doubt that each of the countries that have ever been engaged in development of film and in importing them and using them (sometimes in a modified manner) has unique history in relation to 'short-lived formats.' Now let us quickly discuss it in the context of Japan where the 63rd FIAF Congress will be hosted by NFC.
Historically, Japan has produced many moving image formats in that some meet and some do not meet the world standard. Especially for the past 30 years since the advent of the "age of video" till the "age of the digital" today, Japan has made new products--from "Beta" video to HDTV--at an extremely quick pace and thus swept the market of moving image technologies internationally.
From the archival point of view, however, Japan has not been very active, and has tended to see the fact that many of these formats go quickly obsolete as simply the changes happening in the commercial market and not as things that need to be preserved as cultural assets. This tendency seems to be even more accelerating today.
(The latest issue of Weekly Nikkei Business had a feature story, "The life span of the merchandise is 3 weeks--Win the 'many products, many deaths" competition with the 'short sellers'!")
In this symposium, we would like to address the following questions:
(1) What short-lived formats have existed and do exist in the world and in our history? What would the comprehensive research on film, equipments, and systems inform us?
(2) How have they been, and how are they preserved and restored?
(3) What are the problems and difficulties we have in relation to preservation so as to pass them to the future generations?
Next / Opening >>
Searching the Traces: Archival Study of Short-lived Film Formats
Opening
Keynote Lecture
Session 1: Film in Variety
Session 2: Made in Japan
Session 3: Artifacts or Facts of Art
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