SAVE THE DATE:TechFocus II: Caring for Film and Slide Art, April 27-28, 2012

SAVE THE DATE: April 27–28, 2012

TechFocus II: Caring for Film and Slide Art

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
The Electronic Media Group of the American Institute for Conservation, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation (FAIC) are pleased to announce an important new two-day workshop: TechFocus II: Caring for Film and Slide Art.

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 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: www.conservation-us.org/courses