IASA's 55th Annual Conference

This session consists of 3 presentations and a joint Q&A with the presenters. The session contains:

➺ Dave Rice, Bryce Roe, Karl Fleck - DAT's True: Continuing Research into New Methods to Preserve Digital Audio Tapes (Long presentation)

➺ Bárbara Albuquerque, Pedro Plaza Pinto - Unveiling Hidden Treasures: Cataloging and Preserving Curitiba’s Super-8 Collection (Short presentation)

➺ Adele Gorini, Marco Catapano - Dealing with Software: Archiving Challenges in the World of Electronic Music Composition (Short presentation)


**Abstracts:**


➺ DAT's True: Continuing Research into New Methods to Preserve Digital Audio Tapes
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Dave Rice, Bryce Roe, Karl Fleck (Long presentation)
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At the 2022 IASA conference, a panel gathered to discuss their research and advancements in Digital Audio Tape (DAT) preservation methods, including reviewing the history and opportunities of transferring DAT’s using data drives (DDS) rather than unpredictable original DAT machines. In the spring of 2024, the Northeast Document Conservation Center received an NEH Research and Development grant to continue to build upon this research.

We’ll discuss the specific goals of this project by covering new strategies to overcome hardware obsolescence; highlight the accompanying open-source software development, as well as, educational resources; and provide a show-and-tell of the current status of this DAT preservation initiative.

➺ Unveiling Hidden Treasures: Cataloging and Preserving Curitiba’s Super-8 Collection
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Bárbara Albuquerque, Pedro Plaza Pinto (Short presentation)
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Preservation is a fundamental pillar of the audiovisual sector, ensuring the maintenance and diffusion of film heritage. In Brazil, as in other countries, the neglect towards preservation has become increasingly evident. Established in 1975 Curitiba’s Cinemateca is the sole example of an archive established and maintained by public authorities in Brazil and one of the only institutions responsible for audiovisual preservation in the city, holding materials for which there is an interest in preservation. This ongoing research seeks to comprehensively catalog the institution's Super-8 collection, identifying its physical characteristics and deterioration degree. This collection has remained largely inaccessible to the public and researchers since its initial production in the 1970s, coinciding with Brazil’s military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. The research endeavors to continue the fieldwork, using established manuals and film-handling guides to facilitate the cataloging process. The study aims to identify specific conservation needs by analyzing the gathered data, thereby enhancing preservation efforts. Grounded in a descriptive exploratory approach, this research draws from a thorough literature review. Preliminary findings reveal that the collection is made of reversible materials, on acetate support and an optical recording system. Of the 110 documents in the collection, 37 have been cataloged, with a majority assigned a technical grade of 1B. Preservation challenges include the deterioration of seams and the absence of information regarding authorship, production dates, and deposit records. The analyzed sample predominantly consists of fictional works. This study stands as a plea for preserving the cultural legacy born from the Super-8 movement.

➺ Dealing with Software: Archiving Challenges in the World of Electronic Music Composition
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Adele Gorini, Marco Catapano (Short presentation)
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The purpose of this presentation is to investigate the challenges that electronic music composers face in their work with modern music application software, especially from a digital archiving perspective. Through a survey conducted among electronic music composers around the world, it became clear that the preservation of digital objects created by these artists needs wider attention since the early phases of their creation. Indeed, the introduction of music software has influenced not only the approach to composition but also the archival and conservation process of these digital artifacts. The massive use of proprietary music software and the lack of knowledge on the good practices to be adopted in the creation and conservation of audio files risks to compromise the interoperability, accessibility and reusability of these compositions. Highlighting the different practices adopted in the saving procedures, this analysis aims to find the more appropriate ones in order to assure preservation and future accessibility.
In conclusion, this work tries to take a first step in training electronic music composers on the importance of a correct management of the digital sound archives they created, both for themselves and for future generations.