JSCA 1 (1) pp.

7981 Intellect Limited 2010

Journal of Scandinavian Cinema Volume 1 Number 1

2010 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jsca.1.1.79_1

short subject EIVIND RSSAAK National Library of Norway

Analysing archives in motion

ABSTRACT
Presentation of the National Library of Norways research project The Archive in Motion. This project investigates new media from a conservation perspective. edited volume entitled The Archive in Motion (2010).

KEYWORDS
archive National Library of Norway new media remediation algorithmic technologies

BACKGROUND
Patterns of communication and information are changing. We are, as Wolfgang Ernst has recently argued, moving away from an old European tradition which has emphasized preservation, and into a modern media culture based on a perpetual transfer of information. We are, in fact, entering into a new culture of flow, characterized by an increasing number of digital media. This forces archival institutions based on ideas of preservation through stasis and arrest to envision the option of preservation in a new way through motion and transfer. Four key areas of this new digital culture are important. (1) Older material is remediated, for example by digitizing books, which

Funded by the National Library of Norway, a new research project entitled The Archive in Motion (AiM) is investigating new media from a conservation perspective. Embedded within an international network of associates such as Trond Lundemo (Stockholm University), Wolfgang Ernst (Humboldt University Berlin), Alexander Galloway (New York University) and Ina Blom (University of Oslo), the project aims at exploring the archive in a new digital world. A first conference was held in March 2009 at the National Library of Norway, resulting in an

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allows them to be read and searched using new media platforms. (2) An ever-increasing share of the material deposited today at the National Library is received in new media formats, such as digital files. (3) The National Library is currently exploring opportunities to store material published on the Internet. (4) The National Library is also developing new, multimedia dissemination strategies as a crucial part of its efforts to make material accessible to researchers and the public alike. Yet this new culture of flow poses a number of problems. To what degree can a national library participate in it? Which aspects are open to participation? And, not least, where and how can a national library influence development? All these questions must be further developed and researched before they can be answered. The Archive in Motion project is an essential part of this.

different media. The photograph, for example, is a new medium in relation to the realistic novel, the motion picture represents a new medium in relation to the photograph, television represents a new medium in relation to the motion picture, and the computer represents a new medium in relation to television. Transitions to new media also entail new practices of communication, distribution and conservation, and the new media are thus instrumental in establishing new realities or new cultures. Consequently, a new medium is not simply a new tool supporting an existing practice; it has the potential to change an entire practice.

PASSING MOMENTS
How can researchers study the role of new media from a conservation perspective, while they still resist this perspective in their basic structure? The goal is to identify trends in the development of a culture of flow. In the twentieth century, we saw the emergence of three basic media technologies that contributed to this development: (1) recording technologies, such as cinematographic and phonographic technologies; (2) broadcasting technologies, such as television and radio; and (3) algorithmic technologies (in this context limited to coding and applicationbased technologies). An entirely novel aspect to these media technologies is that they record, transmit and process time, or the flow thereof. Temporality and movement become central aspects to the way they act. It is important to remember that in comparison with previous technologies, such as writing, the passage of time was established on a symbolic level, rather than on the level of real-time flow. These new technologies thus represent a radical change. How can the unique characteristics of these technologies be pinpointed

THE MEDIA CONCEPT

The AiM project has a technological media studies perspective, given that the changes leading to this new culture of flow to a large extent can be traced back to developments in media technology. For the National Library, the development marks a significant transition from older media to newer media, and in order to properly understand this development, it is essential to establish a definition of the term medium that is flexible enough to encompass both shifts and continuities throughout history. In their influential study, Remediation: Understanding New Media (1999), Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin introduced a so-called rivalrybased definition of media, which can be traced back to Marshall McLuhan: a new medium is defined as a medium that does everything an old medium does, but in a better way. This approach emphasizes the rivalry and complex relationships between

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more clearly? Many different questions arise. Do cinematography and phonography represent technologies that first and foremost mechanically reproduce audio-visual information on and in time? Is the novelty of radio and television primarily their ability to transmit live? Are algorithmic technologies primarily convergence technologies? The three media technology trends of the twentieth century thus pose very different problems and challenges. However, they also relate to each other, pre-empt each other and, increasingly, interact with each other. Researchers will have to clarify how this is significant.

also continuously generate new, and often generation-specific, patterns of communication, information and behaviour. In other words, in the future we will face not one, but several new algorithmic cultures.

REFERENCES
Bolter, Jay and Grusin, Richard (1999), Remediation: Understanding New Media, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Rssaak, Eivind (ed.) (2010), The Archive in Motion: New Conceptions of the Archive in Contemporary Thought and New Media Practices, Nota bene: Studies from the National Library of Norway, Oslo: Novus.

SEVERAL CULTURES
Particular emphasis is likely to be placed on algorithmic technologies, as these primarily exist outside the traditional realm of archives and libraries. Included under the heading of algorithmic technologies are all types of software and applications; these are the tools at the heart of the Internet, websites, social media (YouTube, Facebook, blogs), computer games, an endless variety of mobile-phone applications and so on. The algorithmic technologies are unparalleled in terms of distribution, linking, duplication and changes. Even though we press the save button every day, these technologies have proven hard to store in the traditional sense of the word. Is it even possible to archive them, or are we now forced to reconsider our practices of filing and retrieval? Practices associated with the new algorithmic technologies

SUGGESTED CITATION
Rssaak, E. (2010), Analysing archives in motion, Journal of Scandinavian Cinema 1: 1, pp. 7981, doi: 10.1386/ jsca.1.1.79_1

CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Eivind Rssaak Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Department of Scholarship and Collections, National Library of Norway. He has written several books and articles and most recently, has edited the books The Archive in Motion (2010) and Between Stillness and Motion (forthcoming). His revised and expanded PhDdissertation will be published as Cinema and the Arts (forthcoming). Contact: Eivind.Rossaak@nb.no

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