Video Vortex Reader II: moving images beyond YouTube

110 Video Vortex Reader II Moving Images Beyond Youtubecollection case studies111Montevideo catalogue by Gábor Bódy, 1984.promoted the distribution collection via presentations, promotional videotapes and DVDs,and catalogues. Montevideo’s first catalogue, which was of course initially produced in print,was designed by Hungarian director and video artist Gábor Bódy in 1984, 5 and was a workof art in itself: a U-matic videotape box filled with large ‘library cards’ describing artists andworks in the collection. A second, more traditionally designed catalogue in book form waspublished in 1996.Besides print catalogues, the organization also regularly produced (and still produces) previewtapes and DVDs of recent works in the collection, and organizes special events, screeningsand – especially in the 1990s – travelling exhibitions of works from its collection. 6 Regularsubmissions to international film, video and media art festivals are also part of NIMk’spromotional strategy.In the 1990s, as networked media and especially the internet became increasingly important,NIMk expanded its mission to include the digital, online promotion and disseminationof its collection. As a supporting institution for media art, NIMk provides online access toits own collection and to the video art collections of various other Dutch cultural institutions.We use digitization and online access to make media art as visible and accessibleas possible, to emphasize its importance, and to facilitate research and education – whilerespecting the specific characteristics and role of media art itself. The process of digitizationin order to provide online access began in the mid-1990s. A custom-made collectionmanagement system was developed in Delphi, based upon a solid MySQL database.5. Gábor Bódy’s ‘tape catalogues’ are briefly described on Media Art Net, http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/kassettenkatalogen/ and can be seen as an early attempt to reconcilethe use and specifics of a new artistic medium (video at that time) with a book format.6. Imago (1990-1993), mentioned in footnote 4, was the first travelling exhibition organized byMontevideo. The successor to Imago, The Second, Time Based Art from the Netherlands, startedat the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and then travelled to Mexico, Taiwan, Japan, Budapestand Prague from 1997 till 2000. Netherlands Media Art Institute, The Second, Time Based Artfrom the Netherlands, http://catalogue.nimk.nl/site/event.php?id=612.NIMk’s online catalogue, http://catalogue.nimk.nl.At the same time, a public interface to this content management system was built, firstunder the name Cyclope, later Catalogue. This public interface, NIMk’s online catalogue,is now available on http://catalogue.nimk.nl. 7In 2002-2005, as part of the research project Content in Context, 8 NIMk digitized its distributioncollection for viewing and DVD reproduction purposes. For this digitization process,the MPEG2 format was chosen, as it was and is still an acceptable viewing format, and is theright format to be used for DVD reproduction of the works. More recently, in 2007-2009, thePlay Out project 9 has enabled even more works from various Dutch media art collections tobe digitized and made accessible, including highlights from NIMk’s reference collection andarchive, ICN, de Appel, the Kröller-Müller Museum and the Groningen Museum.NIMk’s content management system, currently named WatsNext, and online catalogue provideaccess to the collection via lists of agents (people and organizations), subjects, andevents, with corresponding artworks and documentation. Additionally, the content managementsystem provides information accessible to NIMk staff only, such as the details of carri-7. Some technical and historical background about NIMk’s digitized collection, catalogue andcollection management system can be found in Gaby Wijers, Content in Context, Amsterdam,2005, http://nimk.nl/_files/Files/contentincontext_wijers.pdf.8. Content in Context, http://nimk.nl/eng/content-in-context.9. Play Out, http://nimk.nl/eng/play-out.