Mapping the Traces of the Media Arts Center Movement

Abstract

Mapping the Traces of the Media Arts Center Movement Lindsay Kistler Mattock (bio) Allen and Gomery's seminal text Film History: Theory and Practice encouraged film scholars to move beyond the filmic object and consider the archives as an object of inquiry. The archives contain not only moving images encoded on film and video but also the traces of the activities of the makers, distributors, exhibitors, and audiences that are part of the ecology of media production and viewership.1 The methodologies of new cinema history encourage the exploration of the archives, deemphasizing the focus on the film-as-text and opening new lines of historical inquiry. The distant reading practices of digital humanities open additional opportunities to explore the archival record and provide a deeper understanding of film and video production and consumption. Building from the archives of the Film Section of Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art, Mapping the Independent Media Community (MIMC)—an ongoing digital humanities project—builds from these practices to historicize the Media Arts Center Movement of the 1970s and its impact on independent film and video production, distribution, exhibition, and preservation throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Histories of independent media production center on the efforts of artists, exploring each work of film or video as the personal product of an individual.2 In reality, the growth of independent media production throughout the mid-to late twentieth century was supported by a network of organizations, including museums, archives, artist collectives and cooperatives, and equipment access centers designated as Media Arts Centers. MIMC uses the Film and Video Makers Travel Sheet, a monthly publication produced by the Film Section of the Carnegie Museum of Art from 1973 to 1987, as the starting point for the project. The Travel Sheet aimed to "encourage and facilitate wider use of exhibition and lecture tours by film and video makers" by advertising the scheduled screenings and tentative travel plans of film and video makers and publishing the contact information for organizations that were willing to host makers and screen independent media. The Film and Video Makers Directory, published as a supplement to the Travel Sheet in 1978 and 1979, provides additional data points, listing the organizations and makers highlighted in the subsequent issues of the Travel Sheet as well as other subscribers to the publication. MIMC uses the Travel Sheet and Directory to analyze the network of organizations and individuals supporting the production, distribution, exhibition, preservation, and study of independent film and video during the formative years of the Media Arts Center Movement. Currently the first stage of development is entry of data from the Travel Sheet and Directory into a database application. Over the next year, the MIMC project team anticipates launching a web application that will allow researchers to query the MIMC database and generate visualizations of the data using network diagrams and mapping tools. This article outlines the development of the project over the last three years and its future direction as it aims to become a research tool for scholars and archivists concerned with independent media production in the United States and abroad. MEDIA ARTS CENTERS AND THE TRAVEL SHEET MIMC grew out of an interrogation of the history of the Media Arts Center Movement and an exploration of the role of Media Arts Centers in moving image preservation.3 In 1973, Pacific Film Archive curator Sheldon Renan articulated a plan for the development of regional film centers pushing against the perceived faults of the American Film Institute's centralized structure. At that time, he argued, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the Library of Congress, and George Eastman House were the three main centers with exhibition and archives programs, leaving key regions in the United States without representation. Renan points to a "grassroots" movement originating in these underserved regions—the Pacific Northwest, the central states, New England, and the Bay Area—arguing for the establishment of a "network" of "full service film resource centers" with a central facility in each region that would [End Page 119] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Organizations (squares) and individuals (teardrops) from the 1979 Film and Video Makers Directory. Map generated by...