Excerpts:
MANIFESTO
1. Why add to the population of orphaned artworks?
2. Don't presume that new work improves on old
3. Honor our ancestors by recycling their wisdom
4. The ideology of originality is arrogant and wasteful
5. Dregs are the sweetest drink
6. And leftovers were spared for a reason
7. Actors don't get a fair shake the first time around, let's give them another
8. The pleasure of recognition warms us on cold nights and cools us in hot summers
9. We reach the future only by roundabout means
10. As we wish to address the future, so the past desires to address us
11. Access to what's already happened is cheaper than access to what's happening now
12. Archives are justified by use
13. Make a quilt not an advertisement
FOUR STAGES OF AN ARCHIVISTS' CAREER
1. Each film is precious and unconditionally loved. Its discovery is a thrill; its existence a blessing.
2. Style surfaces. I hear the tone of a stentorian narrator, revel in saturated Kodachrome and the roundness of old cars, float on waves of elevator music. Looking across time I focus on appearance, enunciation, style and the illusion of simplicity.
3. Move beyond style to historicity. Films become pointers to historical contradictions, provocations and insights. Who made them? Who paid for them? For what purpose, and in what context? The documents speak to the events and practices that surrounded them and become aliases to a meta-archive.
4. Revert to essentials. An egg is just an egg. "When you said gum, I knew it was gum." Sandblast the bricks, grind off the accreted patina. Reuse historical images for their analogical content. Pretend this isn't the Spam factory in 1965; these men are just processing meat from pigs and people will eat it. Let the superstructure slough off, at least long enough to make a movie.
This is fascinating...The discussion surrounding "access" and "collection" reminds me much of last week's readings, and embodying the idea of a collection/collector (the discovery of lost objects, clips, memories).
ReplyDelete