UNESCO Memory Research Articles

Just Another Form of Ideology? Ethical and Methodological Principles in Film Restoration

Just Another Form of Ideology? Ethical and Methodological Principles in Film Restoration Andreas Busche [End Page 1] Since the 1980s, a serious debate about the ethics of film restoration has existed among archivists, historians, preservationists, and restorers. Numerous motion pictures have disappeared completely or survive only in a fragmentary or corrupted form. As a result, the urge to restore this lost or distorted history has become a main concern in archives and museums. However, film restoration still struggles to establish a binding professional code, comparable to those already in place in fine art restoration and heritage conservation such as the ICOM Code of Ethics, the AIC Code of Ethics, UNESCO's Memory of the World Guidelines, or the ECCO Professional Guidelines.1 Every profession that aspires to technical vocational recognition sooner or later faces the necessity of developing codified guidelines for professionals working in the field.2 Such an intellectual framework is essential, determining parameters for maneuvering and serving as a reference point for an ethical conduct. A professional code establishes the basis for a professional self-conception and encourages a permanent critical assessment of work produced in the field. Hence, a professional code constitutes a concise framework of the discipline: its raison d'être as a profession (and science), its theoretical and ethical principles, its historical conception within a broader cultural and social context, its service to the public, and, last but not least, the methodology that brings these intellectual considerations effectively into practical application. A profession without such a codification ultimately lacks the basis for conducting its work in a responsible manner. This article's foremost concern is to discuss a theoretical and ethical framework for film restoration and, consequently, propose a methodological approach toward some very specific, well-defined practical problems. The methodological principles derived from this discussion can only focus here on a narrow aspect of film restoration, namely the restoration of a black-and-white silent film from positive prints. Actual film restoration entails far more complex issues than discussed here. My purpose is to demonstrate that certain methodological principles are indeed useful. Ideally, my examination will lay a foundation for more elaborate methodologies. Discussion of an ethical and theoretical framework ultimately constitutes the first crucial stage for developing a consistent methodology. Such a methodology is an integral part of a professional code, since it constantly negotiates between the theoretical and the practical. Hence, a starting point is a careful examination of concepts such as ethics, restoration theory, methodology, and practice and how they interrelate for the establishment of a professional code. Before I continue, however, it is necessary to briefly outline my definition of restoration and distinguish it from preservation, duplication (or reproduction), and reconstruction. This step is particularly important, since a binding terminology has not yet been established. This ambiguity is a prevailing problem in the conservation profession [End Page 2] where, in 1984, indifference toward definitions of restoration and conservation forced the International Council of Museums (ICOM) to coin the rather awkward term conservator-restorer as a compromise.3 The distinction between restoration and preservation in film preservation is slightly easier to determine but nevertheless still causes dispute. We can refer to Paul Read's and Mark Paul Meyer's general statement that the term restoration (in contrast to preservation) is used when "differences are created between the materials you start with and the materials you end with."4 This definition seems to make perfect sense, but, unfortunately, it is not so simple. In relation to film objects (or film artifacts, as I prefer to call them: a print, a negative, a dup positive, or even a sound negative), the lines between restoration, preservation, and duplication are blurred, because every duplication—supposedly a "neutral" process—inevitably introduces qualitative changes in photographic information: a generational loss of quality and changes due to timing. To reach common ground, we have to mind our terminology. According to Read and Meyer, restoration encompasses the "whole spectrum of film duplication...

Preservation of World Records Heritage in Korea and Further Registry

Preservation of World Records Heritage in Korea and Further Registry

Caring for a South African Treasure: Preserving the Bleek and Lloyd Collection at University of Cape Town Libraries

In the papers of Dr Wilhelm Bleek, Lucy Lloyd and Dorothea Bleek we have a unique record of the San peoples, in particular the /Xam people, of whom none now remain. The importance of the collections held at University of Cape Town Libraries (UCT), the National Library of South Africa and the South African Museum is recognised by their listing in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. Increasing use of the records by scholars, as well as the need to preserve this valuable South African heritage demands that we find ways both of making it more easily accessible and of preserving it. The collection includes notebooks (over 12,000 pages of the stories and histories of the /Xam and /Kung informants), artworks, photographs and correspondence. A project has recently been completed at UCT Libraries to digitise an album of photographs taken by Dorothea Bleek on several expeditions between 1910 and the late 1920s. While a selection of the photographs has been made available on the web, a major advantage in having the album accessible in electronic form is that the originals no longer have to be handled. The paper deals with the digital imaging project, as well as other work that has been done or is planned regarding preservation of the collection. ESARBICA Journal Vol.22 2003: 37-42

Memory of Russia

The Memory of Russiaprogram of the Russian State Library is a digital preservation and access project. It is affiliated with a number of regional projects within Russia and with UNESCO's Memory of the Worldand the Russian-American project Meeting of Frontiers.Being digitized are fragile books, maps, manuscripts, posters, popular illustrations (lubki), etc. They are being made accessible via the Internet and on CD-ROM.

Antiphonary of Sedlec, Antiphonarium Sedlecense XIII A 6

(Memoriae Mundi Series Bohemica, 1.) CD-ROM. National Library of the Czech Republic and Albertina icome Praha Ltd., 1995. $595. Requires 386 or higher IBM PC or compatible, 4 MB RAM, Windows 3.1 or higher, CD-ROM drive, mouse, EGA/VGA graphics, and color monitor. When UNESCO's Memory of the World project began in 1992, the National Library of the Czech Republic welcomed the opportunity to discover new solutions to problems of access and preservation for its fragile materials. Within a year, the library had produced a pilot CD-ROM containing sample images and a list of its most valuable historical holdings. The library formed a partnership with Albertina icome Praha Ltd. to establish the digitization project known as Memoriae Mundi Series Bohemica. The first product of their collaboration is this publication of the Antiphonarium Sedlecense, billed as the first CD-ROM of a complete medieval manuscript. The manuscript is given a detailed treatment that will be extended to only the most important items in this digitization project, but in fact the great detail offered here illustrates the capabilities of the CD-ROM format for the access and study of manuscript materials. The manuscript was created in the thirteenth century and is notable for the quality of its decorations, which show the influences of the crusaders' art on Bohemian illumination. It was repaired and bound in the seventeenth century with the addition of new paper pages, some containing new texts and others replacing damaged parchment pages. A number of hands were involved in the manuscript's creation, correction, and revision through the centuries. This product provides access to clear images of each manuscript page, thus giving researchers an opportunity to make comparisons among illuminations, notation, handwriting, and other features. This focus on the visual content of the manuscript, especially concerning the nature and artistic value of the illuminations, influenced the design of the CD-ROM. The CD contains English and Czech versions of a database describing and providing access to each page of the manuscript. The database uses fourteen fields: Pagination/Foliation, Writing Medium, Description of the Written Space, State of Preservation, Scribe, Additions, Type of Illumination, Motif of Illumination, Author of Illumination, Liturgical Section, Liturgical Day, Hora, Function, and Incipit (text). All but the last three fields are indexed and can be used for searching. The fields are described in full in the main Help area under Current Database. This region also contains an introduction to the CD-ROM by project administrators Adolf Knoll and Stanislav Psohlavec (from the National Library and Albertina icome Praha, respectively); an analysis of the manuscript, which includes a bibliographic description of the manuscript and its binding by Zdenka Hledikova, discussion of the illuminations by Hana Hlavackova, and remarks on the notation and a description of the contents by David Eben; a bibliography of related research; and imprint and acknowledgments. The Help area's index provides guidance for the use of the database, and many of the topics are also available as contextual help. WiniFreT software, a product of Albertina icome Praha Ltd., is the user interface that provides access to the full-color images and the database of descriptive information. The program opens to the main Query window, presenting eleven fields in which to input search terms. At this point, the user may opt to click on the search button located on the toolbar (or pull down the Query menu and select F5) to retrieve all 525 database records for the cover and 524 pages of the manuscript. Searches like this one, resulting in more than one hit, return a display showing a spreadsheet arrangement of information, the List of Selected Records window, with field descriptors across the top and data below. For the longer fields, such as Supplement (which is called Additions in the Help area outlined above and describes later corrections and changes to the manuscript), only the first forty or so characters in the field are displayed. …

The Second Meeting of the Interna tional Advisory Committee for the UNESCO "Memory of the World" Programme — Rapporteur's Com ments

The author had the honor of being invited to be the Rapporteur for the second meeting of the International Advisory Committee for the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. The meeting was held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, 3-5 May 1995. In addition to the official report (which is summarized in this issue of IFLA Journal), the author has produced this article, giving another view of the meeting.