Reportage from the 2004 AMIA Conference - Part 2

Hi all:

Just some more comments and observations from the conference here in the Twin Cities! Today, I started the day off by going to "A Document is a Document is a Document: Digital Documentation of the Moving Image" where there were certainly a spectrum of perspectives and mechanisms on best practices for digital assets managment systems and workflow. While I personally might have gotten more out of the other panel, " Moving Image Archives in the Age of Human Rights," I deliberately went to this one to gain some variety and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed. Good to know the current work being done on InterPares 2 in James Turner's talk and especially fascinating to me, was Ted Ryan's presentation on Coca-Cola, Inc.'s vast and highly systematic infrastructure in their digital assets mgmt. He stipulated a truism of sorts when he pointed to digital derivatives as cash in the bank if you take care from the get go to properly track and re-use. Next up, I dashed over to the "Open Forum on Moving Image Archival Education" panel. I went to the equivalent panel last conference and was not surprised to see many new and familiar faces discussing the merits of the various archival training programs out there. Lunch was held in the Vendor Exhibit Hall. Following this, I dropped in on the "Locating the Imaginary Ideal: Issues of Censorship in the Academic-Archival Moving Image Communities" where there was a lively and compelling discussion on different forms of censorship in both academic and archival contexts. This was probably one of my favorite panels thus far as there was some substantial, theoretical and practical questions posed regarding the topic in an arena of knowledge I'm most familiar with. Anyways, it was certainly fun to watch what had been contextualized as "pornographic" in our culture in a given sociohistorical timeframe. I was saddened to have missed two concurrent panels, " The Ethics of Authenticating and Interpreting Actualities" and "Archiving in a Digital World." Oh well. I was feeling ambitious so I went to the AMIA Annual Given Meeting and Open Forum, presided by current AMIA pres, Milt Shelter and the Board of Directors. Some heated debate about AMIA 's future in a time of cutbacks within the arts and cultural heritage funding was equally greeted with some celebratory remarks regarding AMIA's accomplishment in its mere 13 years of existence. The great treat of the day was getting into a bus and attending the restoration screening of THE KING AND I at the wonderful and beautiful Riverview Theatre in S. Minneapolis.

More later from the scene....

Best to all,

Lindy