Analog Video in Moving Image Archives & Conservation: Infrastructures of Knowledge from Production to Preservation

Abstract

The essay uses a set of theoretical ideas offered by Susan Leigh Star to argue for a shift in contemporary understandings of, and approaches to, video preservation. Instead of focusing on the granular characteristics of tape and their material stability, I argue, the audiovisual archival community should view preservation as a set of linked systems that function within a web of shifting perspectives and context-driven solutions.

Keywords:

• audiovisual archives,
• media conservation,
• analog video,
• infrastructure,
• maintenance