Backwards adventures through the analogue>digital valve

Interesting post on the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, including this advert for the Asian Film Archive.

“In Asia’s tropical climate and environment, films in both print and digital video formats can disintegrate rapidly when not kept properly. Even films in the digital format are not spared given that the longevity of the digital format is still under scrutiny.”

It is amazing to think about the efforts made by the NWFA to provide precise temperature and humidity controlled environments for their film. That must be even tougher in tropical climates. I think a bigger challenge now will be with the faster changing nature of digital formats – something that requires a dynamic rather that static environment to preserve. The half-life  of the digital medium (and our enthusiastic faith in / support in it)  is something that I would like to explore with the staff at NWFA.

On a slight tangent, but preservation related, I was always inspired by the courage of Frank Hurley, the photographer onboard the Shackleton expedition to the Antarctic, who dived into the icy waters to rescue a number of his plates and films.

Not without irony, I will link here via Youtube, to a section of a documentary about Hurley and Shackleton’s rescue of the films from the sinking Endurance.