---
# System prepended metadata

title: Slow Scan Archives

---

# Slow Scan Archives

Christen, K., & Anderson, J. (2019). Toward slow archives. Archival Science, 19(2), 87-116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-019-09307-x

Carbajal, I. A., & Caswell, M. (2021). Critical digital archives: a review from archival studies. The American Historical Review, 126(3), 1102-1120. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhab359


- #todo dawn about an extension to August 6
- #todo dawn first draft + plain language version
- #todo emily: thank yous + colophon, links?, personal reflection
- #todo dawn + emily read on "remediating" ?

---

- #done next chat: tools for quick and dirty archiving discussion
- #done draft site visit report from rough notes

## Dawn's thoughts on materials 2024-07-05

### Open Space

**Materials we are interested in**
There are two records that I believe you mentioned are in Open Space's archive:

- The video where Bill demonstrates how Slow Scan works (you mentioned this wasn't a performance but this was digitized for an archival display for Ars Technica)
- Digitized Robot Technical Cassettes

You also showed me PDFs of secondary materials, if it would be at all possible to share these as well we'd greatly appreciate it:

- Parallelogramme article on "The Living Museum"
- "Solid State Post Office" article
- "Distance between us" (2017) article which included an interview with Peggy and Bill

### VIVO

**Materials we are interested in**
From the materials you shared we are interested in creating a local copy of the following:
- Slow Scan Transmission Archive Site http://archive.vivomediaarts.com/open-space-slow-scan/
- Spectrograms from an Archive: Exhibit documentation compilation https://vimeo.com/952464030/ed64f6c8ef?share=copy

- So Much I Want To Say https://vimeo.com/192057348/9b8e44f9fc?share=copy-

### Western Front

**Materials we are interested in**
Hank recommended this one as suited to our theme:

- Ce la video (1983) ~10 minutes



## Check-in 2024-07-02

Format?
- prose of archive visits (as a visitor, learning about some of the constraints or considerations for an analog topic)
- our networks born digital, but also an "archive" in an informal sense. what we think about when we tie things together

both: visitor and publisher (creator / curator) of records

skill?

- publishing video on archive.org (making collections)
- publishing operational notes on code repo (or nextcloud ?)
- tools we use for "archives"
    - github 
    - hackmd
    - nextcloud
    - youtube
    - archive.org
    - google drive
    - clear tote with some papers
        - copy of every program and registration badge design
        - some artefacts p2pita and etc...?
        - lasercut sign


- what do you abandon? Not archive?
    - no social media stuff


example zine from docnow project: https://www.docnow.io/docs/social-control.pdf


Emily:
- two articles emily has read since last call:
    - Community Archives, Community Clouds by Grant Hurley https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13561 -- maybe something interesting here about distinctions between space and place, bringing 'place' concepts back to cloud storage
        - place vs. space (pass thru, movement, governing metaphor for cloud infra)
        - what are "place-based" cloud (community) archives
    - What's In Between by Annaëlle Winand https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13905 -- something here about contrasting found footage films as archives, the fetishization of trash, scraps, excess vs. the minimalist approach required by low-carbon methods
        - + interesting discussion about use and uses on p. 76
        - waste and dump and excess
        - scraps, traces, things thrown away
        - late capitalist? -- but something appealing in that imaginary
        - ephemera have been valorized when a lot hasn't survived -- how does that translate into an era of abundance, what does it look like pre-digital vs. now (or even 90s digital vs. now)

Dawn:
- photos ascii treatment
    - example photo: https://share.mayfirst.org/s/RgQpadc62s7N5wB
    - found a library and installed for dithering
    - dither: https://share.mayfirst.org/s/CTkaG64H9pR9mwd
- reviewed the LCRM book
    - chapters on archives:
        - material carbon intensity of official archives and about travel
        - climate justice Indigenous presence
    - the intro is still maybe interesting to think with

## Check-in 2024-06-18

- #todo dawn -- dither some images, get those images from my phone, etc.
    - images here: https://share.mayfirst.org/s/bnq4smKcZiCyx59
- #todo dawn -- get all those references links from notes
- #todo dawn that LCRM book
- #todo dawn "remediating"
    - Remediation (1996) Configurations Volume 4, Number 3, Fall 1996 Johns Hopkins University Press
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/8107?casa_token=4fVpAuFebp4AAAAA:Kh8t-g5TAcAa2H9XNEQzddS9yYhGrozQGfu4Goo0vi8MhXRfD2MDE91ZidF3hIJ4JigXhlSzeGc 
    - Remediation: Understanding New Media (2000?) Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262522793/remediation/
    - Remedying Remediation? (2019) Mathilde Arrivé https://hal.science/hal-04399948/document
- #todo draft site visit report from rough notes:
    - Dawn from 2024-06-18:
        - not only about talking to people, but they all had a guy they recommended
        - connections ...
        - other threads, make sure to mention
        - map out all the people (incl remediators)
        - map out exhibitions
- https://ashleyblewer.com/
- Access + Narrative
- Illya Kramer WACZ
- https://web.archive.org/web/20080212145031/http://openspace.ca:80/web/outerspace/

saas archives-by-default:
    - github
    - are we in the arctic vault?!
    - are we training data?
- efforts to move stuff off of there
- "does not cloud compute"

## Zine 

- Format
	- 20 pages
	- 1/3 - site visit report
	- 1/3 - what we did (and how) our networks
	- 1/3 - reflection
- Submission
    > This zine will interleave an analysis and reflection of an ongoing archival research project with practical instructions for building amateur digital archives and the tools to do lower-carbon digital archiving of events. The archival project is investigating a series of Slow-scan performances from 1978 (slow-scan is a low bandwidth form of transmitting of pictures using radio frequencies that can take anywhere from a few seconds to minutes) documented in the Satellite Video Exchange Society (SVES), now called VIVO Media Arts Centre, archive. This research is in preparation for a conference in July 2024, Our Networks: Does not (cloud) compute, where we will stage a local area network (LAN) for the duration with archival materials, and prepare an archive after the event.
    > 
    > In the past we have experimented with a range of amateur archiving methods and forms of stewardship of those archival documents. This has ranged from official materials uploaded to Internet Archive, storing a copy of videos on a decentralized protocol, Interplanetary File System (IPFS), and using contemporary platforms like youtube. Last year we explored using only local archives of a website mailed via USB. In each case we balanced aspects of discoverability and forms of exchange with exploring alternative infrastructures and forms of "sustainability." This year we want to again address these dynamics through the lens of lower carbon forms of digital archival that may not preserve high fidelity "copies" or capture forms of transmission that are "lossy" as a way to explore potential future constraints.

# [OUTSIDE COVER]



# [INSIDE COVER]

By
Dawn Walker
dc@dcwalker.ca
dcwalker.ca


Emily Maemura
#todo add things


2024 CC-BY-SA 4.0 #todo


# [INSIDE COVER] #todo

[table of contents?]

- #todo
- Slow-scan...
- ...in the archives
- Amateur Digital Archiving
- #todo
- #todo

# [Page X] zine-nets

This zine attempts to weave together a few different strands:
- amateur digitial archiving 
- a concern for the weight / carbon impact of those practices
- and a reflection on archives and their role in exploring how to try new things that draw from the past

It exists because of two events: [DIY Methods](https://diymethods.net/) (https://diymethods.net/), a remote-participation conference on experimental research methods and research exchange and [Our Networks](https://ournetworks.ca) (https://diymethods.net/), a conference about the past, present, and future of building our own network infrastructures.

In July 2024 one of us co-hosted the sixth edition of Our Networks: Does not (cloud) compute, which focused on transitional technologies and computing that breaks from always-on connectivity by drawing on practices of local-first, solar-powered servers, folk software, and permacomputing. The ethos behind Our Networks has always been to find novel connections and to read familiar concepts in new and sometimes surprising ways. 

As with previous years we sought to learn from historical networks and protocols that existed before an “always-on” and powered present. Vancouver has long been the site of these explorations, going all the way back to Telecommunications Art and Artist Run Centres from the 1970s. 

In the past we have experimented with a range of amateur archiving methods and forms of stewardship of those archival documents. While continuing those practices this year, we also staged a local area network (LAN) with materials from local archives and published on the web. 


# [Page X] Slow-scan... #todo

Slow-scan television (SSTV)   "8 second swipe"

The archival project is investigating a series of Slow-scan performances from 1978 (slow-scan is a low bandwidth form of transmitting of pictures using radio frequencies that can take anywhere from a few seconds to minutes) documented in the Satellite Video Exchange Society (SVES), now called VIVO Media Arts Centre, archive.





Links:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-scan_television
- https://www.scopeofwork.net/how-slow-scan-tv-shaped-the-moon/
- Slow-scan television signal: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SSTV_signal.jpg Mysid



# [Page ?-?] ...in the archives #todo

**Western Front**


Date: Friday May 17, 2024
Who: Anna Tidlund, Archivist

```
Western Front  (Western Front Society) is a non-profit artist-run centre. It was founded in 1973 as a communal space in which to live and work by artists Kate Craig, Glenn Lewis, Eric Metcalfe, Michael Morris, and Vincent Trasov, composer Martin Bartlett, architect Mo van Nostrand, and writer Henry Greenhow.

Where: 303 East 8th Ave, Mt Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver, BC

https://westernfront.ca/pages/about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Front_Society
```

[image: b+w logo]
[image: facade]
[image: telecommunications art book]

# [Page X-X ] Trips to the Archive

**Open Space** Trips to the Archive

Date: Friday May 24, 2024
Who: Doug Jarvis, Executive Director

```
Open Space (Open Space Arts Society) is a non-profit artist-run centre. Founded in 1972, Open Space has been a space for contemporary visual arts, music, writing, media arts and more. It supports experimental artistic practices in all contemporary arts disciplines, acting as a laboratory for engaging art, artists, and audiences.

Where: 510 Fort Street, 2nd floor, Victoria, BC

https://openspacearts.ca/about
https://openspacearts.ca/archives

```

[image: b+w logo]
[image: door]
[image: temporary building]


---

**VIVO Media Arts Centre**

Date: May 31, 2024
Who: Karen Knights, Archive Manager. Crosta Dahl Media Library & Archive 

```
VIVO Media Arts Centre (Satellite Video Exchange Society) is an artist-run centre and video distribution library located in Vancouver, Canada with the mission of "nurtur[ing] past, present and future media arts discourses and communities through equitable and public access to resources for preservation, production and dissemination." 

Crista Dahl Media Library & Archive (CDMLA) houses a significant repository of media by artists, activists, and independent producers: "Spanning over 50 years of production, its 8000 video titles reflect the history of video art in Canada and abroad, and social and political movements. Media genres include art, documentary, experimental documentary, narrative, synaesthetic, animation, event documentation."

Where: 2625 Kaslo Street, Vancouver, BC (from August 2014)

https://www.vivomediaarts.com/about
http://archive.vivomediaarts.com/about-us/
http://archive.vivomediaarts.com/origins-of-the-sves/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIVO_Media_Arts_Centre

```

[image: b+w logo]





# [Page X] Our Networks

In all the ways that this moment feels like one where our insitutions and ways of operating are breaking down in a time of pressing need (the climate crisis, rising facism, and cost of living breakdown), the same feels true in the context of our digital technologies.

<!--It also feels like there are cracks: the current model of high-bandwidth, always-connected big tech experiences on the web and internet but forward by the dominant narrative about what tech looks like and how it can be built. The transformation of global singletons in social media spaces (a [declining Twitter](https://slate.com/technology/2023/10/twitter-users-decline-apptopia-elon-musk-x-rebrand.html), and [zombie Facebook](https://www.404media.co/email/24eb6cea-6fa6-4b98-a2d2-8c4ba33d6c04/)) and rise of no single alternative.-->

We explicitly drew on these tensions for Our Networks 2024, arguing that:

> Last year provided an opening up a decade after platforms foreclosed on a sense of possibility of an earlier web. Turmoil on social media was the backdrop for creative experimentation with protocols and in networked spaces. Yet despite these [new avenues](https://www.robinsloan.com/lab/new-avenues/), the myriad problems of being online haven’t been adequately addressed. The internet is dead, long live the internet. 

And want to find those other models of collaboration by looking to already existing practices elsewhere and what things were like in the not too distant past in order to find opportunities to make something new.

**Links**
- https://www.robinsloan.com/lab/new-avenues/
- https://slate.com/technology/2023/10/twitter-users-decline-apptopia-elon-musk-x-rebrand.html
- https://www.404media.co/email/24eb6cea-6fa6-4b98-a2d2-8c4ba33d6c04/
- https://writing.dwebyvr.org/our-networks-interview/


# [Page X-?] What we did (and how) Our Networks

We have used a range of tools and practices to create and maintain a digital archive.

Ways we've archived intentionally and difficulty:
- Uploading videos to Internet Archive (easy)
- Storing and using contemporary platforms like youtube (easy)
- Creating an archive of the event website (medium)

Unintentionally through the tools we have used: 
- Mailman for our mailing list, made an archive (medium)
- Social medium platforms: Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky (easy)

We have generally thought about what we keep in these ways:

| Thing         | Keep (Public) | Keep (Private) | Do not keep |
|:--------------|:-------------:|:--------------:|:-----------:|
| Event website*      | x    |   |    |
| Session submissions | x    |   |    |
| Recorded talks      | x (with consent)   |    | x (without consent) |
| Digital conference spaces  |   |    | x  |
| Social Media Posts  | x (unintentionally) |   |   |
| Emails              |  | x (unintentionally) |   |
| Planning notes      | x    |   |    |
| Contact and Financial info |   | x  |   |

Over time we have also tried less certain approaches, that often have a lossy component
- Storing a copy of videos on a decentralized protocol, Interplanetary File System (IPFS) that only remain available if another other people using the protocol replicate those files (2018-2020)
- Local archives or wiki website mailed via USB + Zine after the digital space for the event was taken down (2̶0̶2̶2̶ 2047)
- Created an "archives.lan" on a previously owned Raspberry Pi 3B+ with local content and digital surrogates we had permission to share as part of conversations with they organizations, and an ournetworks.lan with our old sites (2024)
 
# [Page X-?] What we did (and how) Our Networks

- 2024
    - local "archives" coordinated with permission from traditional archives or artist-run centre institutions
- 2022
    - wiki site that was hosted for duration and after event, then taken down
    - published zine + USB key with static export of site
- 2020
    - 720p / 1020p videos: internet archive + youtube
- 2019
    - 720p / 1020p videos: internet archive + youtube
    - livestream
- 2018
    - 720p / 1020p videos: internet archive + youtube
    - livestream
- 2017
    - GitHub repo with planning details
        - no recordings

    Spaces:
    - https://ournetworks.ca (all years)
        - archive of last version of site
        - we respond to takedown requests form former attendees
        - so a 'recreation'
    - https://github.com/ournetworks (all years)
        - mix of 'digital records' on planning and running code
    - https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1nZ7GtlC8cmSGPTq1yxj7guthSkyt4n20 (all years)
    - https://share.mayfirst.org (no stable link, all years)

Archives ? 
- https://www.youtube.com/c/OurNetworks
- IPFS
- https://alexandria.tomesh.net/ournetworks/ (this is gone)
- https://archive.org/details/@our_networks


## Some protocols (?) transmissions methods (?) for small-scale digital archive


```
set up mailman to show an archive, configure as announce only
```

- org member at MayFirst: use mailboxes / email forwarders / mailing lists + some Nextcloud storage for financial + (some financial stuff in Google sheet)
- $$$ annual dues (in USD): https://outreach.mayfirst.org/civicrm/public/calculate#/mayfirst/calculate (in 2024 $62.50 would get you this)
- they are a cooperative, membership-driven and democratic space for shared resources

- started as: alternative "autonomous / movement infrastructure" mailing list vs. something like mailchimp. we configured it to allow only organizers to post and have used it since the second Our Networks

- realized: an accidental archive of posts too <-- this would apply for most mailing lists: https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/private/ournetworks/
- we made some opinitated configuration settings (no HTML emails), but it is very configurable 

- drawback: need to find a hosted version
- drawback: less intuitive
- positive: they do have live support, you can talk to actual people and receive help

way to use this alone or in a group to keep a public, restricted to the group timestamped archive of media? (favouring text)

```
wget cli to create a copy of a whole site
```

a really good starting command to try and make a local copy is:

`wget -mpEk https://example.com`

would not go to links with the attribute "nofollow" and also try to download content there

-m  = --mirror = "turns on recursion and time-stamping"
-p  = --page-requisites = "download all the files that are necessary to properly display a given HTML page"
-E  = --adjust-extension = which causes .html to be appended to the local filename, useful for mirroring a site with generated pages (.asp or .cgi)
-k  = --convert-links = convert the links to make them suitable for local viewing


sometimes tho, sites will use HMTL attributes like "rel=nofollow" to define the relationship of a link, or may have a robots.txt file. These could restrict what wget would download, but in some cases you may want to anyway:

`wget -e robots=off -mpEk https://example.com`

-e robots=off = captures all parts of a website, even pages and directories marked as 'not allowed' for access by web crawlers and indexers in the Robots Exclusion Protocol

#todo link about robots.txt ettiquite?  http://www.robotstxt.org/
#todo Emily get source for Archive-it about page explanations


```
Use archive.org
```

- free
- create account
- hosted elsewhere (your offsite backup)
- limited options: all public, deposit and have an embargo or delayed release
- metadata / description: subject terms (keywords), language, usage (license), date of publication, IDs for your collection, add to other collections within IA

- positive: creates auto-generated download options (torrent, metadata file, media-specific formats)


- positive: discovery, searchability: https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php

- positive (or drawback?): respect take-down requests

```
Save a snapshot to Wayback Machine
```
Save Page Now feature: https://web.archive.org/save/


If you sign in, additional features:

- Save outlinks
- Save error pages (HTTP Status=4xx, 5xx) -- also an option when not signed in
- Save screen shot
- Save also in my web archive
- Email me the results
- Email me a WACZ file with the results 

- drawback: no guarantee you'll capture all pages in a website (unless you manually enter each one)
- positive (or drawback?): made available in the general Wayback Machine; not part of a public-facing collection (tbc)
- positive (or drawback?): respect take-down requests

#todo to check the web archive bit?
#todo Jess Ogden Save Page Now ? 

```
Use git (and github or some other remote) to distribute an archive

```

- everyone can have a local copy + a log so they can be out of sync and you can figure out and resolve conflicts about the version history and know the authoritative "current" version
- also have a remote backup, the most popular of which is GitHub, owned by Microsoft, which allows a lot for free (but requires public repos)
    - + GitHub themselves have the arctic code vault as remote remote backup
- lots of other "remotes", that you could use, more than just GitHub for hosting these: gittea, gitlab, sourcehut
- drawback: designed for code, so some file types aren't very easy to compare "diffs" of to see what's changed.


- dawn thinks "docs as code" practice is a little too universalist
- do have a timestamped version of everything
- drawbacks: git is not the easiest tool to understand, lots of concepts that are conceptually poorly structure (pushing/pulling), but is de-facto the most popular for tech/dev community.
- log can be good thing as a researcher: ability to go back and look at file / description / metadata / etc... at a very specific time












## Our Networks Notes for 2024


The broad invitation at the event will be for attendees to disconnect from the wifi, turn off their data, and join **our local network** for the duration of the day.

Our plan is to divide the day into 3 chapters: past, present, future, each opening with a short 20-30 minute talk before moving into longer 60-90 min sessions, some in parallel. Those longer sessions blocks are: workshop/discussions, lightening talks, and time to interact with the network (*or maybe a performance? screening?*). 

We are planning for the network to have both content and activities available for attendees. We also want to intentionally consider the boundary between local<->internet from both sides (what people can access on the network and what people from the outside can access about the event). 

**Content** that we know we will set-up in advance consists of Our Networks and session materials. Another type would be **potentially shared from a partner organization or a project we take on working with a local media arts archive**, and a final group would be **created and updated by attendees** during the day. 

Planned **activities** we would support are uploading and hosting content--tell people the directory to put pages in / and have a template set up they can copy (i.e., ssh into a server and do things); collaborative drawing--using [tldraw](https://github.com/tldraw/tldraw) or [exceladraw](https://excalidraw.com/); and **ONE MORE THING?**.

Content that will be set-up by us in advance and include:
- A landing page with a local version of the site that isn't online
- our nets archive (the ournetworks.ca github repo)
- 2027 site (as a static site, currently in our nextcloud)
- 2024 session materials (e.g. slides, images, whatever else we are provided)

Content that might be set up with a partner:
- yani / [small file media fest](https://smallfile.ca/) => way to "screen" from our network
    - considerations: fees, time to turnaround
- archive materials from vivo / open space / western front
    - considerations: clearance, permission, fees, time to turnaround
    - From Western Front: 
        - think of it either as a screening or exhibition (I think SCREENING)
        - 2.5 months is enough to clear something but it is difficult for slow scan transmissions
        - they offer some support, request must follow CARFAC guidelines 
        - have already digitized stuff, would do a small digitization request for free
        - Examples: Slow Scan transmissions, digital copies of records
    

As far as **the boundary between local<->internet**, we are looking at the following: 
- slow scan reciever - SDR + software to view SSTV transmissions 
- slow scan transciever - to broadcast out our video as SSTV (would need to resolve hardware)
    - rpi camera? other protocols?
- livestream is a simulated slowscan with a still image every X seconds and an accompanying text live transcript


## Dimensions beyond just a license #todo

- Dimensions beyond CC licenses
Our preferred license: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

https://www.docnow.io/social-humans/



# [Page X] Carbon Tradeoffs #todo



# [Page X] Reflections on the archives #todo

- In each case we balanced aspects of discoverability and forms of exchange with exploring alternative infrastructures and forms of "sustainability." This year we want to again address these dynamics through the lens of lower carbon forms of digital archival that may not preserve high fidelity "copies" or capture forms of transmission that are "lossy" as a way to explore potential future constraints.

- Recap of archives visit:
    - going to talk to people
    - next step: re-talking to more people
    - "remediating" from vivo media arts archive
        - #todo this terms geneology?
- Archival concepts and questions:
    - lossy
        - This year we want to again address these dynamics through the lens of lower carbon forms of digital archival that may not preserve high fidelity "copies" or capture forms of transmission that are "lossy" as a way to explore potential future constraints.
    - fidelity
    - **environmental impacts (of best practices)** https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/40741399
    - minimalist archiving
    - talking to people
    - rights and access
    - narrative
- Themes to rengage with:
    - range of archive formalization
    - some materials from all of them
    - our archive?
        - no one has to talk to you?
        - open source, don't even talk to use
        - people want connection
    - not to overblow it
        - the videos are enough
        - the event sites -- fun?
        - people want posters / or a guide



# [Page X] Thank yous and Colophon

Dawn: Many thank yous to Anna Tildlund, Douglas Jarvis, and Karen ???? for offering their time and knowledge. I want to say thank you especially to Garry Ing, but also all the previous Our Networks organizers and a/v team who made the event possible Sarah Friend, Benedict Lau, E.L Guerrero, Mauve, Patrick Connolly, Elon Li, Henry Wilkinson, and Yurko.


- Dither library: ...

Design and layout:
Type:
Images: CC BY-SA 4.0 Dawn Walker unless otherwise noted
Image treatment: 


The research visits and event described in this zine all took place on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and Lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) People, now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.



---

## Site Visit Report - Rough Notes

### Western Front

- Date: Friday May 17, 2024
- Where: ???
- Who: Anna Tilund (sp?)
- People outside working on siding, repainting building, made it appear closed
- Western front has a collection of slow scan performance recordsings from 1979-1990
- Other context:
    - Dead letter campaign
    - IMAGE BANK (Belkin Art Gallery)
    - International image exchange + addresses (requesting images)
    - part of the correspondence art scene
    - Papers in a folder
    - the work is what was sent in to them
    - other parts: films, eternal archive?
- It was a central hub for these works and artists spread out from there
- Hank Bull, in 1973 spearheaded a lot of this work, he still lives in the building
- The types of records they have are: video documentation, picture documentation, system diagrams, the old machines (Robot + manual), boxes, etc...
- For "loaning" they could share digital surrogates (but there are complicated copyright and rights holders issues to work through)
    - digitized video
    - digitized paper records
    - have images of the vidphones
    - digitized processional throughts
- On specific exhibitions:
    - Before the internet
        - No media, just file record (poster / exhibition catalogue)
    - Planetary Networks
    - Art+Telecom
    - Pacific Rim 1979
    - Robot
- On their archive:
    - Reocrds @ Rare books and special collections (but adhoc)
    - Now, they have guidelines, are still digitizing archives
    - Since 2012 all records are born digital
- Rights process:
    - No fees for usage
    - Ask people to follow CARFAC fees, can negotiate if applicable
    - Complicated because of shared ownership
- For Our Networks, most likely options:
    - screening of video of performance
    - page on lan with digitized records

### Open Space

- Date: Friday May 24 2024
- Where: Open Space Arts Society at their offsite temporary offices 750 Fairfield Rd
- Who: ED, Douglas


- Archive at UVic in progress
- Do not have a comprehensive overview of slow scan holdings
- Key figures:
    - Bill (came over from Western Front?)
    - Peggy
    - (each have kind of their own "thing" they did)
- Bill was part of ANPAC, he left, and became a postmaster at CanadaPost
- Now: Bill has written, collected, narrative of this period and who was involved
- He is not in touch with Bill lately, no interested in sharing about this lately either
- BUT, offered to put us in touch with Bill if we wanted
- Want to know what we are interested in to figure out what to send
- The types of records they have are:
    - Pictures (e.g., Archival display for Ars Technica)
    - Bill video
    - Slow Scan video
        - used open access in a way
        - one of bill demonstrating how slow scan works ***
- that 8.5 second swipe ***
- Some key secondary sources:
    - Distance between us 2017 ***
        - Bill and Peggy interviewed
        - cassette tapes from the time
    - Patrick Lictey, Network projects
        - bought old magazines
        - got the old gear working
        - digitized robot technical cassettes ***
    - Carrie Flanegan
        - mage videos on queer feminism
    - Robert Adrian X / KunstRadio
    - Heidi F / Radio Art
    - Paul Wong > performance
    - Documenta //// around the world in 24 hours
    - Ars Electronic talk with Bill (2019) recorded ***
    - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pna-yCGo2Hk
    - Jeremy Turner @ Surrey - Outer Space Project ***
        - Aware of bills work
        - 2003 wave of interest
        - people came out of the woodwork
        - hosted the Refresh conference
        - series of interview of folks in the networks
        - "Telecom History Project: OUTERSPACE" on the wayback machine
    - Norman White UofT? OCAD?
    - Parallelogramme article "the living museum" ***
    - Transcripts of printouts from early emails (it was expensive, paid per charater)
    - there ways pressure from other people
    - Bill a member of EAT, saw slow scan, got one, then...
    - artist use of communication technologies conference
    - similar project to "the portal" (today) that was happening
    - Artist-run centres as one of those ALTERNATIVE NETWORKS
    - Bill left openspace in 1978
    - Bill had the direct media association 1979-1984
    - Bill travelled a lot
    - email -> Sharp IP network terminals
    - ARTBOX
    - What about the geneology of short-wave radio?
        - the feedback loops, sounds and tools, broadcast re-creations
    - Solid State Post Office Article ***
    - Glen Lewis, the Eternal Network ***
    - Question for Doug: Why slow scan?
        - acknowledging what came before (and not just the duges)
            - Peggy Katey
        - acknowledge we came from somewhere
            - lineages
            - media archeology
        - some tools, tech, of the time, humanizing the technologies
            - how is art involved in this?
            - the artists making something else out of it
            - that's a creative practices
        - making things ours, our own
        - Canada unique context for projects like this because of its size
    - Do you see that in other areas?
        - captivation
        - now most things reduced to an aesthetic in an app
        - COST, EFFORT of work like this kind of thankless
    - (satellite timesharing) university / industry / art crossover

### VIVO Media Arts Centre

- Date: Friday May 31 2024
- Where: vivo media arts centre
- Who: Archivist, Kathryn
- Paul Wong video art
- wants more structured interactions (e.g., interview with questions)
- VIVO never had slow scan set up, all in conjunction with Western Front - more their purview
- VIVO more about the democratization of media, one step removed
    - VIDEO
    - Portapak
- but paul was interested in tech, experimented through western front
- Shared:
    - photos documenting events
    - videos
    - documentation of events and workshops
        - ARK conceptual software ***
        - ARC Cultural Software Workshop ***
        - Aniputer + Animaker
            - Cross-canada tour to different artist-run centres
            - JVC collab in japan with Kou Nakajuma, 70s corporate collaboration with artists
        - Paperwork for an install of a VAG show
        - The animaker // video out
        - Elizabeth Vanderzeg "new animation techniques"
        - PHOSPHOROUS DIODE catalogue (?)
    - records, not writing, not exploring, not tech here
- Clearing these have complicated permissions
    - ARK -> byron black
    - SF Ho transmission -> maybe just video inn
    - Spectrogram -> leo stephenson -> 6-8 mins of footages
- Documentationn of an event?
    - SF HO
        - went through a video here, audio piece from that
        - types of transmission over time
    - Hank has interesting ephemera
    - Flickr collections
- Vivo / Video In vs. Metro Media?
    - Al Riskoukous (mail art transmission of data)
    - Was Video Inn insular?
- ... maybe a conversation with them?
    - trying to talk about those networks, not just focused on the technical "network"
    - interested in that re-working of older stuff, the remediation experiments, what people found compelling
- Vivo media arts centre does not require fees where they own the copyright
- Just tell us what you are interested in
