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Film and Media Studies

University of South Carolina

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Full-Text Articles in Library and Information Science

Reeling Backward: The Haptics Of A Medium And The Queerness Of Obsolescence, Travis L. Wagner Jan 2018

Reeling Backward: The Haptics Of A Medium And The Queerness Of Obsolescence, Travis L. Wagner

Student Publications

This article considers the haptics of queer activist footage shot on video, and more specifically footage shot on magnetic media. Despite ideal methods of care, magnetic media faces extreme concern from a preservation standpoint. As a format that is both subject to rampant deterioration (known colloquially as “sticky shed”) and obsolescence (with the ceasing VCR production), the queer activist videotape is an archival artefact irretrievably stuck in a liminal space. To play a tape is to contribute to its destruction, yet to not play the tape is to overlook potentially unique moments in queer history. As such, this article explores …

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Burn After Viewing, Or, Fire In The Vaults: Nitrate Decomposition And Combustibility, Heather M. Heckman Jan 2010

Burn After Viewing, Or, Fire In The Vaults: Nitrate Decomposition And Combustibility, Heather M. Heckman

Faculty and Staff Publications

Although the fire risks associated with nitrate film stock are widely known, understanding of the relationship between nitrate decomposition and combustibility remains weak. This paper surveys the contradictory descriptions of decomposition and combustibility of motion picture film in current archival and safety literature, evaluates their sources, and compares them to descriptions by image stability researchers and chemists. Throughout, the author argues that the dialogue among the archival, safety, and scientific communities is inadequate and that no community has satisfactorily established the evolution of flammability as nitrate decomposes. The author concludes by outlining a plan for nitrate research and advocacy over …

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