Workshop: TechFocus II

"TechFocus II: Caring for Film and Slide Art,"
Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Washington DC
April 27-28, 2012

Save the date. The Foundation of the American Institute for
Conservation (FAIC), the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden, and the Electronic Media Group of the American
Institute for Conservation advise you to save the date for an
important new two-day workshop: "TechFocus II: Caring for Film and
Slide Art" taking place April 27-28, 2012.

Projected motion picture film and slides are in a state of crisis.
Far more quickly than anyone could have anticipated, these
technologies will soon reach obsolescence. Options for duplication
and preservation are narrowing rapidly. Our collective familiarity
and technical understanding of this material is fading. Yet artists
continue to create vital works using film and slides, and earlier
works by important artists are being shown in museums with
increasing frequency.

TechFocus II is designed to educate conservators, curators and other
art professionals about the technology of film and slide-based
artworks, and to recommend best practices for acquisition,
preservation and display. As part of this instruction, the workshop
includes a unique "School of Seeing": actual films and slides are
projected as examples of different production processes, so that
participants can gain an accurate understanding of the principles
being discussed.

Moreover, this workshop will provide a forum for international
professionals to gather and debate strategies for collective action
in the face of disappearing film stocks, obsolete equipment, and
declining expertise.

The TechFocus workshop series is being organized by the AIC
Electronic Media Group to provide detailed technical education in
the preservation of media art. Launched on the 10th anniversary of
the groundbreaking TechArcheology symposium that was held at the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2000, TechFocus offers in-depth
instruction in a broad range of media. Each workshop, hosted by a
different institution, is dedicated to one specific media-art
technology. A systematic lecture program, delivered by international
experts, introduces workshop participants to the technology behind
these artworks, and offers real-world guidelines for their
preservation.

The workshop is being made possible by the generous support of the
Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
FAIC, and the Smithsonian Institution Archives. TechFocus II
Planning Committee: Jeff Martin, Christine Frohnert, Joanna
Phillips, Eric Pourchot with Susan Lake, Sarah Stauderman, and
Gwynne Ryan

Full program, fee details and registration will be made available on
the AIC website soon:

    <URL:http://www.conservation-us.org/courses>

Abigail Choudhury
Development and Education Associate
Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic
    and Artistic Works
1156 15th St, Suite 320
Washington, DC 20005
202-661-8070
Fax: 202-452-9328


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:35
                Distributed: Saturday, January 28, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-25-35-018
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