Image by Clara Olshansky
Got some old video you want digitized? The New Museum’s got you covered. XFR STN (pronounced “transfer station”), a new initiative in collaboration with their digital media affiliate Rhizome, offers video artists the opportunity to digitize their original works. Pieces long trapped in VHS tapes or other obsolete formats like U-matic or audio tapes will forever be free! Every digitized work from XFR STN will be made available immediately after transfer for free, public download in multiple formats on archive.org.
Originally started by Alan Moore and Michael Carter, members of the artists group Colab, the Monday/Wednesday/Friday video club first ran from 1986-2000. Now the New Museum is collaborating with Alan Moore (of the original Monday/Wednesday/Friday video club) to realize XFR STN for the first time.
Here’s how it works. Starting today, July 2, you can reserve a spot with an online submission form. The only requirements are that the video be original content and artist generated. If selected, you’ll have all the equipment you need to digitize your video art, and trained technicians will assist in the transfer. The video’s owner is expected to stay for the whole appointment (a little bit longer than the length of the video in question).
The New Museum’s XFR STN web page calls this “circulation as a mode of preservation.” XFR STN will run July 17 – September 9.
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