RE: [AV Media Matters] tape baking

[RealW@CarnegieMuseums.Org]

Jim Lindner wrote:
"Most often we are concerned about the material that is recorded on the tape
but not about the artifact itself - but that is not always the case. In some
cases there is great value to the original artifact - and baking any
artifact or doing other types of things like this is a major issue in the
conservatorial world.  I had the fortune of working on Andy Warhol's
original videotapes.... if there were nothing on them - they still had
artifact value.  Is it appropriate to bake tapes such as these?  That is an
open question and I would be interested in hearing what people think."

Readers of this list might be interested to know that many conservators
refer to a document, the AIC Code of Ethics, for guidance in making sound
decisions about how to treat the objects entrusted to them. The document can
be found at http://conservation-us.org/pubs/ethics.html

Readers might also be interested to know that conservators often employ
methods that, in untrained hands, could indeed be disastrous, but are not in
themselves necessarily inappropriate conservation techniques. These include,
for example, heating and humidifying paintings, washing works of art on
paper, and cleaning sculptures with lasers.

An overriding principle in the conservation profession is that there are no
individual techniques that are appropriate in every instance. The decision
about what method to use is guided by careful judgement based on the
characteristics of the object to be treated, the goals of the treatment, and
the experience and ability of the conservator.

In the case of baking polyester recording media vs. other treatment methods,
it would be interesting to have some quantifiable information to supplement
the useful empirical and anecdotal information that has so far been shared
on this list. It should be possible, for example, to articulate how baking
alters, if at all, the other materials (besides the signal and the binder)
present in the physical "artifact" that might have some cultural value of
its own.

William Real