Re: [AV Media Matters] tape baking

[smolians@erols.com]

Heck.  We still have no way of identifying what tape has sticky shed
problems until it is played- or did I miss something.

Steve Smolian

-----Original Message-----
From: RealW@CarnegieMuseums.Org <RealW@CarnegieMuseums.Org>
To: AV-Media-Matters@topica.com <AV-Media-Matters@topica.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 22, 1999 2:04 PM
Subject: RE: [AV Media Matters] tape baking

>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