UNESCO World Day for AudioVisual Heritage
27 October
 UNESCO declared October 27 as the World Day for AV Heritage to raise awareness of the significance of AV documents and to draw attention to the need to safeguard them. Every year, activities are organized by different institutions worldwide around a theme to drum up interest in the event.
See here for a message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO
This page lists events being organised by IASA members to mark the day.
(from Maria Hvid Stenalt)
The State and University Library in Denmark launches a video clip on YouTube and UNESCOs website about Denmark's oldest sound recordings. The Ruben collection presented in the clip consists of over 100 wax cylinders with voices from the past, recorded in 1889 - 1897 by Consul Ruben. The extensive collection holds one of the first recordings of Mozart performed by Peter Schram from the Royal Danish Theatre. Furthermore the collection holds recordings of monologues, singing, instrumental music together with announcements and outburst from artists and audience. One can also hear an old recording of a Russian soldier song that may or may not be sung by tsar Alexander the III of Russia.
The video has been made in order to increase the awareness for the importance of the collection as a part of the Danish cultural heritage and as contribution to the international sound heritage.
The video clip is available from: http://pia.gov.ph/wdavh2009/?m=3&i=denmark&sm=events and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edqr0SlScZc. For further information regarding the Ruben collection and the project please contact Maria Hvid Stenalt (mhs@statsbiblioteket.dk) or visit www.statsbiblioteket.dk.
(from Ilse Assmann)
The SABC Media Libraries (comprising the Radio Archives, Record (CD/LP) Library, Information Library, Music Library (scores and orchestral instruments) and a Sound Restoration Unit) launched an awareness campaign in the SABC through an ‘audio exhibition’ in the foyer of the SABC, and the handing out of little explanatory cards with a ¼” ribbon attached to all SABC staff. The exhibition was enhanced with old news paper clippings and photos of well-known radio personalities. Radio Stations were encouraged to play audio clips from the Media Libraries collections. Radio interviews were scheduled during the course of the day.
The activities of the day can be viewed at http://www.rbf.sabc.co.za/ with a video clip towards the end.
National University of Ireland (from Marcus Ó Conaire)
An AV heritage lecture to mark the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage will be delivered at the National University of Ireland, Galway's Áras Sorcha Ní Ghuairim, Carna campus. The talk, entitled, “Oidhreacht físe agus fuaime--tús go todhchaí” is an overview of Gaeilge recorded cultural heritage and the contemporary/future access-driven archiving challenges it can expect. The event is aimed toward students, but is also open to the public. The lecture will take place at 9pm.
(from Bernd Wichert and Johan Oomen)
Video Active (www.videoactive.eu) provides access to European television heritage through an online, multilingual portal. The project reached its final stage in August after three years of development and now contains over 10.000 videos, photographs and articles. This collection will continue to grow. The renowned media artist and independent filmmaker Péter Forgács has used the material from Video Active to create a short documentary. By using footage from the different archives, Forgács gives a beautiful insight in the rich material available on Video Active. The documentary enables viewers to discover various aspects of European television history in a compelling form. This new work will have its online premiere on October 27th, to celebrate the UNESCO World Day for the Preservation of the Audiovisual Heritage and can be viewed from this day on http://tinyurl.com/videoactive.
(from Anna Zioga)
The Hellenic National Audiovisual Archive www.avarchive.gr, under the auspices of the Hellenic National Commission for UNESCO, launches an informative campaign - TV and radio spot, internet banner, advertisements & press releases - in the Greek media, in order to increase the awareness for the importance of safeguarding the audiovisual heritage. The HeNAA aims through the above mentioned awareness campaign to draw attention of the general public that the audiovisual heritage comprises an integral part of our national identity and is also a reflection of our history and civilization. We invite everyone to explore and travel through our collections, share memories and contribute to gather the audiovisual treasure of our country for the benefit of future generations.
For further information regarding the above project please contact Anna Zioga (azioga@avarchive.gr)
(from Grace Koch and Lyndsay Urquhart)
The AIATSIS website has put up a release on AV Day- see the following: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/ava/avheritage.html
(from Trond Valberg)
The National Library of Norway celebrates the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage by screening the silent movie “The Growth of the Soil”. The film was made in 1921 by the Danish director Gunnar Sommerfeldt and was adapted from the eponymous novel published in 1919 by the Norwegian Nobel-prize winner Knut Hamsun (1859-1952). The novel has been translated into some 25 languages. An eBook version of the English translation can be downloaded here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10984. The Growth of the Soil is a milestone achievement in Norwegian film history. It can be considered the first professional fiction film ever produced in Norway, and is the first Norwegian film with original music scored by the composer Leif Halvorsen. The film was considered lost until a 16 mm copy was found in the USA in 1971. An even better copy was discovered in the Netherlands in 1991. Since then the surviving copies have undergone extended restoration, and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra has recorded the original musical score. Mo i Rana under the Arctic Circle was chosen as location for the production, proving that national heritage could be created in small local communities at that time as well. Hamsun grew up in a nearby region, and you may say that today the circle is closed with the preservation of the original surviving copies of the film at the National Library in Mo i Rana.
A screening of the film with introductions will take place at Frogner Cinema in Oslo, October 27th from 13:00-15:45. The restored film including the original musical score is also available on DVD with intertitles in Norwegian, English, French, Spanish, German and Russian. The DVD can be ordered from the Norwegian Film Institute: http://www.nfi.no/english/aboutnfi/
Scene from The Growth of the Soil with the actor Amund Rydland as Isak.
(from Mike Casey)
Alan Burdette, director of the Archives of Traditional Music, will make a presentation entitled: WPA Federal Radio Project Recordings and the Sound Directions Project. He will play recordings from the WPA Federal Radio Project and discuss their efforts to document disappearing aspects of American culture. Those efforts are mirrored today in the Sound Directions Project to save these now rapidly deteriorating recordings. The presentation will be held on October 27th in the Archives of Traditional Music, Morrison Hall 006: The Hoagy Carmichael Room from 12:00–1:00 p.m. There will be a reception and tours of the Archive afterwards.
(from Kevin O'Neill)
YOUR ARCHIVE DESERVES ADVOCACY ! (YADA!)
In support of UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage (October 27, 2009) and American Archives Month, and in celebration of the work being performed by archivists worldwide, AudioVisual Preservation Solutions (AVPS) requests your participation in a project designed to garner support for audiovisual archive preservation planning and project implementation from influencers, policy makers and funding organizations.
As consultants and advocates working with audiovisual archives, we contribute to and witness preservation success stories on a daily basis. We understand that those successes were built on sustained long term efforts and collaboration with other internal/external stakeholders, and through community information exchange. Our celebration of these successes can lead to the kind of funding support all archives need in reaching their goals. We are asking you for your favorite audiovisual preservation experience at your archive. These stories will provide encouragement to other archivists by showing what can be achieved in similar circumstances.
These stories will be published on our website, and some will be selected for use in our ongoing efforts to inform private and public funding decision makers, both of what is being achieved, and what can be achieved with their support.
Our first inclusion is dedicated in support of the spirit underlying UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and American Archives Month, and will profile the ongoing story of “The Jazz Loft Project”, an excellent example of how a person or organization convinced of the cultural value of previously inaccessible audiovisual content was able to garner the support necessary to both make unique materials accessible, and to preserve them for posterity.
Because all archives deserve advocacy, your story deserves to be told.
Please contact AudioVisual Preservation Solutions at www.avpreserve.com/you , or send us an e-mail at info@avpreserve.com , or call us at 347-241-2920 to leave contact information. We will follow up with guidance on telling your story. Please Support the preservation projects of the archive community overall by getting your story told.
We will provide periodic updates on subsequent phases of this project as it progresses, and a blog will be posted on our website on Wednesday, October 27th, in celebration of UNESCO World day for Audiovisual Heritage.
(from Jacqueline Von Arb)
The Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound heads the organization of the biennal Norwegian Sound Archive Conference 2009, October 27-29th, in Trondheim. Read details about the programme on the Norwegian Sound Archive Conference 2009 website The conference is this time held jointly with the Folk Music Archives' yearly seminar, and is hosted by Rockheim (literally the Home of Rock), a brand new Rock Archive opening its doors this Autumn.
(from Joan Boadas I Raset)
SGDAP’s notice and contribution to UNESCO’s World Audiovisual Day can be seen at http://www.girona.cat/sgdap/cat/noticies.php?valor=79476&codi=crdi and http://www.girona.cat/sgdap/documents/dmpa_televisio_video.pdf
German/Swissgerman Branch of IASA (from Jochen Rupp)
German/Swissgerman Branch has not planned special activities Celebrating 27 October, but there's a link to the German Commission for Unesco on the World Day's entry in our calendar every year at: http://www.iasa-online.de/terminuebersicht.html
(from Kim Andrews)
CCAHA, the United States’ largest nonprofit paper conservation lab, will debut its audiovisual media preservation video series as part of UNESCO’s World Day for Audiovisual Heritage on October 27, 2009 at www.ccaha.org. Once launched, A Race Against Time: Preserving Our Audiovisual Media will be permanently accessible on CCAHA’s website. These videos will provide and ongoing online resource to those responsible for audiovisual collections but unable to attend live conferences.
CCAHA staff and experts traveled to eight cities throughout the United States over the course of four years to present its two-day educational program, A Race Against Time: Preserving Our Audio Visual Media, which was funded by the IMLS and the Mellon Foundation.
CCAHA asked leaders in the field of audiovisual preservation to take part in the video series. Presenters are George Blood, President, Safe Sound Archives, Philadelphia, PA; Alan Lewis, Consultant in Audiovisual Archives, Washington, DC; and Sarah Stauderman, Preservation Manager, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, DC. They present timely and thorough audiovisual media preservation information in the following CCAHA video segments:
- Audiovisual preservation basics
- Film Preservation
- Audio Preservation
- Video Preservation
- Contracting for Reformatting CCAHA's mission is to provide expertise and leadership in the preservation of the world's cultural heritage.
CCAHA specializes in the treatment of works of art, artifacts on paper and photos; housing and framing services for paper-based objects; and imaging services. CCAHA also offers on-site consultation services, educational programs and seminars, internships, and emergency conservation services.
(FIAT/IFTA) (from Brid Dooley)
See FIAT/IFTA’s notice at http://www.fiatifta.org/cont/news_detail.aspx?n=45
(from Margarida Ullate i Estanyol)
The Biblioteca de Catalunya contributes to the World Day of Audiovisual Heritage 2009 by announcing the event on its website, as well as inviting users to listen to one of the unique pre-1900 Catalan language cylinders surviving. The cylinder content is a popular tale read by Pepe Corrons to their children in 1899. The sound is pretty good, although some words are missing. A printed transcription of the tale is also available as an invitation to people to guess the missing words.
http://www.bnc.cat/noticies/noticies.php?id=224 (it appears also at the main page, under “Dia Mundial del Patrimoni Audiovisual”).
(from Richard Ranft, BL)
The British Library is celebrating the WDAVH by using the opportunity to raise the day’s profile at two relevant events planned for the day:
- Acclaimed American counter-tenor Michael Harper will discuss Roland Hayes’ (1887-1976) career, recordings and place in musical history. Hayes was the first African-American man to gain fame as a classical singer throughout the world. The event is part of the BL’s Music at the BL and its Black History Month programme. Classical music curator, Jonathan Summers, will talk about the WDAVH in his introduction. See details of the event at http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event95731.html.
- The British Library is to release unique recordings of famous names performing well-known extracts of some of Shakespeare’s best loved plays. This is the second audio set of live Shakespeare recordings presented by the British Library in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The two discs feature scenes and speeches taken from RSC productions in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, recorded by the British Library and the RSC over a period of almost half a century. As in the first volume, all the recordings are being published for the first time. The roll-call of prestigious portrayals runs from Paul Robeson’s legendary Othello in 1959 to David Tennant’s highly-acclaimed Hamlet in 2008. Other notable actors include Ian Holm, David Suchet, Juliet Stevenson, Ian Richardson, Jonathan Pryce, Simon Russell Beale, Harriet Walter, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. The CDs will be available from the British Library bookshop.
and the (from Christiane Fennesz-Juhasz, Phonogrammarchiv)
These two organisations are jointly hosting the meeting Digital availability of audio-visual archives in the Internet era: For Dietrich Schüller on his 70th birthday. Venue: Austrian Academy of Sciences, Johannessaal, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna The programme can be viewed on their websites as follows:
http://medienarchive.at/cms/
http://www.phonogrammarchiv.at/wwwnew/news_e.htm#H
(from Gisa Jaehnichen, Universiti Putra Malaysia)
An international colloquium will take place at the Cultural Centre of the University of Malaya to discuss audiovisual documents as scientific sources in the humanities. The discussion will hopefully contribute to an increasing awareness of audiovisual archiving, especially preservation and giving access to existing collections.
(from Vesna Aleksandrovic, NLS)
The National Library of Serbia will mark the WDAVH by producing a short movie entitled Fading Sound - Timely Salvation, dealing with Serbian sound heritage and its preservation/presentation in National Library of Serbia. The movie represents our tribute to Serbian oldest sound recordings, artists, composers and performers. Also, it shows how the NLS digitises and preserves these records. It will be placed on the National Library of Serbia's homepage (www.nb.rs) and on our YouTube Channel.
Further details and events of other organisations can be seen on the official 2009 WDAVH events page, kindly hosted by the Philippine Information Agency on behalf UNESCO and CCAAA.
In addition you can link to the UNESCO 2009 website
BACK TO TOP |
