ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 2 4 6 /C&RL News Documentation of Conference performance a rt C ircuit By Paula M urphy A report fro m the A rt Libraries Society o f North America T he Art Libraries Society of North America held its 20th Annual Conference at the Chi­ cago Hilton and Towers from February 6 1992. There w ere many interesting programs presented at the conference w hich ranged from tours of art libraries and galleries and dem on­ strations of new com puter projects in art librar­ ies to more formal presentations on coping with budget cuts and on professional writing and publishing for art libraries and visual resources professionals. Tw o program s o f n o te w ere “Space and Time, Parts I and II." “Space and Time, Part I” w as held on the evening of Saturday, February 8 from 8:00 p . m - 9:30 p.m. at the R andolph Street Gallery in Chicago. The evening began w ith a panel dis­ cussion on the problem s of docum enting per­ form ance art. Rose Parisi from the Illinois Arts Council m oderated the panel w hich included Lou Mallozzi, a faculty m em ber at the Art Insti­ tute of Chicago and a performance artist w ho specializes in sound works; Suzie Silver, a video docum enter and artist; and Jeff Abell, a perfor­ m ance artist, educator, and writer. These p an ­ elist discussed how difficult it is to docum ent the visual and sound elements of a performance piece using video or film. They said that even the best video docum entation does not repre­ sent the experience of seeing the performance live, because video cannot capture every ele­ m ent of the performance and that w hat the per­ formance is trying to communicate can be lost in translation to the video language. They noted that this w as the reason some perform ance art­ ists choose not to be videotaped or filmed. The panel further explored the pros and cons of -1 using video docum entation to represent per­ formance art to grant funding agencies or to galleries that may potentially present the work. It w as concluded that presenters o r funders of such w ork must becom e sensitive to how video changes th e actual perform ance art presenta­ tion. They also touched on using video docu­ 3m, entation to study one’s ow n performance. The evening concluded w ith tw o perform ance art pieces that w e videotaped. Part II o f “Space and Time” w as held from 10:00 a.m .-n o o n o n Monday, February 10. The m oderator for this session on video docum en­ tation a n d p resen tatio n w as H ikm et D ogu, reader services librarian at the Thomas J. Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The speakers at this event included Madeleine Nichols, curator o f the Dance Collection of the N ew York Public Library; Suzie Silver; Lou Mallozzi; and Larry Steger the perform ance artist w ho had performed at the Randolph Street Gallery the previous Saturday. The discussion began w ith Silver show ing the result o f her w ork at the Saturday evening performances. She noted that the low light in the video rede­ fined how the perform ance appeared w hen it was on video. She also noted that the sense of size and depth o f space w as lost in the video. She show ed the difference betw een h er low ­ cost w ork and the w ork o f a docum enter w ho had a m uch larger budget. M adeleine Nichols explained that the video w orks at Dance Col­ lection w ere used in conjunction w ith reviews, costume designs, verbal descriptions, ph o to ­ graphs, and other materials and the videotape never represented the only docum entation of the performance. She then asked questions of the other panelists including: 1) H ow do cam ­ era w o rk a n d th e n a tu ra l in stin cts o f the videographer influence the subtle nuances and (Cont. on page 248) Paula Murphy is head o f audiovisual services a t Loyola University o f Chicago 2 4 8 /C&RL News engravings, draw ings, blueprints, an d architec­ tural m odels will require diverse treatm ent and m odes of access. Concern w as ex p ressed for the disposition o f each institution’s internal ar­ chives, w hich exist independently o f the col­ lections, bu t w hich should be included in any m oves since archival docum entation concern­ ing the institutions of art is increasingly im por­ tant in tracing the history o f art. Access and services It w as g enerally a g reed th at the co m p leted project should result in im proved access and services since it will unite several dispersed collections in a single facility that is, in m ost respects, superior to the current ones. Preser­ vation efforts w o u ld certainly b e im proved. H owever, issues concerning levels o f service an d access n e e d to be resolved. The libraries have historically served different clienteles; the new facility will n o w serve th em all, y et m ust avoid the “encyclopédism e” o f being all things to all people. There is special concern o n th e p art o f those libraries w h o se mission has b een primarily pedagogical that th e association of th e arts library w ith a research institute will restrict the access formerly enjoyed by students. Automation Merging the catalogues to provide im proved bibliographic access presents a major challenge. Centuries of independent practices have resulted in neither standardized cataloging nor standard­ ized terminology. The task of “harm onizing” the separate catalogues will b e im m ense, achiev­ able only through a major autom ation effort that in c lu d e s retro co n v ersio n . C o m p u terizatio n , therefore, is essential an d should be at the heart of th e project. G overnm ent financial support has so far focused on physical facilities, although the Louvre library has just b een aw arded a large sum to begin autom ating the catalogue o f the M usées Nationaux. But m ore funding will be n e e d e d to consolidate an d up grade all the cata­ logues that will com prise the n ew infrastruc­ ture. A nticipating future developm ents, one sp eak er also envisioned the establishm ent o f a “distance research” service, utilizing imaging tech­ nology, fax, scanning, etc. to provide materials to researchers located elsewhere. Conclusions T he entire project will involve massive finan­ cial com m itm ents and considerable upheaval for the institutions involved. T hat it will pro­ ceed is a given and, despite criticisms concern­ ing its inception, th e library professionals at this conference seem ed com m itted to a w ork­ able solution. Several speakers em phasized that th e project does provide a m uch-needed and long-overdue chance to reevaluate the various libraries’ collections, services, a n d policies. ■ (Murphy cont. fro m page 246) expressions o f the art w ork as it is captured in the video presentation? 2) W hat d o es the p re ­ senter lose in ticket sales if video cam eras take u p seats that could be sold? 3) W hat are the things th e perform er considers im portant to be p resen ted in each video piece? 4) Is the video being created for study, a grant application, or public relations? an d 5) W here should the video d o c u m e n t be kept? All o f th e p an elists re ­ s p o n d e d to these questions by expanding on som e o f th e issues that they h ad ad d ressed in Part I of the program o n Saturday night. H ow ­ ever, n ew subjects discussed included issues such as: 1) W hat kinds of o ther forms o f do cu ­ m entation of a perform ance such as perform er notes o r m asters of studio recordings an d the like are available from the perform er to su p p le­ m e n t th e v id e o d o c u m e n t? 2) D o e s th e docum enter or th e perform er o r som eone else o w n the copyright on any given w ork after it is produced? 3) Are libraries presenting perfor­ m ance art videotapes instead o f bringing in the actual performer? 4) H ow can funding for bet­ ter docum entation o f perform ance art b e dis­ tributed to docum enters? an d 5) H ow can li­ brary netw orking help to distribute information about performance art to persons w h o are in­ terested in it no matter where they are? The session concluded with a question-and-answer period. T hese tw o sessions w ere interesting because they w ere connected to o n e another an d gave the participant w h o h ad the opportunity to at­ ten d them both a g ood understanding o f the issues from the artist, the docum enter, an d the library point o f view. In listening to each o f the speakers it becam e increasingly ap p aren t that libraries can b e active participants in preserv­ ing an d docum enting perform ance art and that th e artists and the docum enters recognized that libraries could b e a m u ch n e e d e d im partial w id esp read distributor o f their w ork. ■