Digital preservation keeps materials alive so that they remain usable as technological advances render original media, hardware and software obsolete. Historical knowledge, collective and cultural rememberings, traces of beings, objects, and actions are accumulated, organized and stored to be recovered with increasing regularity as technology more readily allows for a sort of virtual hoarding and searchability, previously limited by the restraints space, time and technology. Collections are created as much by governments, institutions, and organizations as they are by individuals, and shape the nature of the knowledge that can be produced. Archived materials are materials that can be studied. In this way “archivization produces as much as it records the event” (Derrida). This panel will address questions of collection, transmission, technological obsolescence and developments in media archiving practices. We will explore the function of archives within access and artist-run centers, and examine the various strategies employed by those stewards who manage ever-growing collections of media materials.

MAKING & MAINTAINING MEDIA ARCHIVES PANELISTS:
Carolyn Tennant (moderator)
Sherry Miller Hocking
Maria Venuto

This multi-media conference celebrates Squeaky Wheel’s former and current programs, artists, scholars, and community members. The public is invited to participate in a series of free events at Burchfield Penney Art Center exploring media art and its makers in Western New York.