Crashing the Archive: A Research-Creation Intervention into the SAW Video Mediatheque Mélanie Hogan A Thesis In the Department of Communication Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Concordia University Montréal, Québec, Canada April 2012 © Mélanie Hogan, 2012 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Mélanie Hogan Entitled: Crashing the Archive: A Research-Creation Intervention into the SAW Video Mediatheque and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Communication) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Chair Dr. S. Shaw –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– External Examiner Dr. C. Fisher –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– External to Program Dr. H. Wasson –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Examiner Dr. J. Pidduck –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Examiner Dr. K. Sawchuk –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Thesis Supervisor Dr. M. Soar Approved by –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Dr. W. Buxton, Graduate Program Director April 12, 2012 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Dr. B. Lewis, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science ii Abstract Crashing the Archive: A Research-Creation Intervention into the SAW Video Mediatheque Mélanie Hogan, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2012 Video Cache is a research creation intervention emerging from my doctoral research into defunct and crashed online archives, in the context of Canadian video art, which has a rich history of self-preservation and of documenting itself as an art movement. From major art galleries to personal collections; Canada has long privileged video as a tool for creative resistance, expression, and experimentation. Video Cache serves to track the SAW Video Mediatheque (based in Ottawa), from its launch to its crash and back online again, by updating its context and addressing in a practical way what it means to ‘activate’ the online archive. Much of my intervention occurred after the crash and during the two years the site was offline. It involved varied methodological entry points including in depth interviews with SAW Video staff and media archaeology to locate digital traces of the site. Key here is Video Cache’s success in simultaneously documenting the project and intervening to address archival loss: while it was the ‘cache’ that made the Mediatheque’s traces visible and re-visit-able, it was the ‘crash’ that signalled its ongoing archival value. Video Cache was created in collaboration with Penny McCann, Director of SAW Video in Ottawa, Groupe intervention video (GIV) in Montreal, and Nikki Forrest at wayward.ca. iii Acknowledgments This thesis was first and foremost made possible by my collaborators at SAW Video. I am especially indebted to SAW Video Director and Video Cache collaborator, Penny McCann. I also acknowledge the invaluable contributions made by Anatoly Ignatiev, Kevin Morris and Douglas Smalley, as well as the insights of Michael Lechasseur, in collectively remembering and documenting the Mediatheque. Thank you to all the artists who participated in Video Cache and thank you to those who were also able to attend the event. Video Cache was also made possible by Groupe intervention video, who hosted and paid fees for the event. I would like to thank Anne Golden and everyone at GIV for their ongoing support of women in media arts and video. Thank you to Nikki Forrest for embarking on this Wayward project with me, and for driving back and forth to Ottawa to make this happen as smoothly as it did. Thank you to my committee: Dr. Matt Soar, Dr. Kim Sawchuk, Dr. Julianne Pidduck, Dr. Caitlin Fisher and Dr. Haidee Wasson. Special thank you to my supervisor Dr. Soar who provided incredible feedback for this project, and, with Dr. Sawchuk, encouraged me to push the bounds of research-creation. Dr. Soar was crucial not only to the quality of the project, but also for me to be able to recognise the value of why we do what we do. I would also extend my gratitude to the editors of FlowTV for validating my project early on, and to Rachel Somers Miles and Geert Lovink for the support offered at Video Vortex 6 Amsterdam. I also thank Corina MacDonald for the Art Engine interview, which helped put Video Cache on the art map. iv Without the financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and from the Communication Studies department at Concordia University, this project would have been impossible. Thank you to Graduate Studies for the conference funding throughout the years, and for the Accelerator Award that got me here today. Special thank you to Leslie Shade, Charles Acland, Liz Miller, Matt Soar, and Kim Sawchuk who have pushed me creatively, politically, and intellectually throughout my three consecutive graduate diplomas and degrees in Communication Studies at Concordia University. For keeping me sane and for inspiring me on a daily basis, I thank Andrea Zeffiro, Tamara Shepherd, Jacquie Wallace, M.E. Luka, Kenza Oumlil, Antonia Hernández, and the rest of the PhD gang. Thank you to M.E. Luka, Brian Downey, and Andrea Zeffiro for the eagle-eye copy editing. With the promise of being fun again soon, thank you for putting up with me these past five years: M-C MacPhee, Frédérick Belzile, Gisèle Trudel, Paul Juricic, Jeff Traynor, Sophie Bellissent, Robert Vincent, Dayna McLeod, Sébastien Hogan, Mike Hogan, Anne Boivenue, Andria Hickey, and the rest of you... And to those who it would be impossible to ever thank enough: Suzanne St-Pierre, Nancy Tobin and Minou: Thank you. For the effort and commitment put into this project, I dedicate my thesis to Lucienne St-Pierre and Mavis Wall... avec tout l’admiration du monde. v List of Figures ...................................................................................................................ix Introduction: The Crash and the Cache..........................................................................1 Chapter 1: Literature Review.........................................................................................10 The Archive as Subject.................................................................................................. 13 The Archive as Living....................................................................................................23 The Archive as Database................................................................................................30 The Archive as Volatile..................................................................................................35 The Archive as Dumpster...............................................................................................42 The Archive as Time Machine ...................................................................................... 50 Literature Summary....................................................................................................... 57 Chapter 2: Methodology and Intervention....................................................................60 Surveying Online Traces: Canadian Video Art..............................................................60 Web Archaeology...........................................................................................................64 Digs................................................................................................................................69 Google Cache............................................................................................................ 72 The Internet Archive Wayback Machine (IWM)........................................................ 79 Interviews.......................................................................................................................88 Creation as Research......................................................................................................94 Homaging the Crash via a Database-less Content Management System...............104 Video Cache Screening at Groupe Intervention Video.............................................111 Multi-Modal Documentation: Catalogue, Infographics, Screen Grabs, etc...........112 Chapter 3: SAW Video’s Mediatheque.........................................................................114 vi The Mediatheque Trajectory: An Overview.................................................................114 Early Video Experiments for a Living Archive........................................................... 123 Standards and Guidelines for Canadian Culture Online .............................................130 The Business of Canadian Art: a ‘Mixed Approach’...................................................133 Archival Labour...........................................................................................................139 Technical Requirements: Launching Standards for an Online Archive.......................143 Curatorial Channels .................................................................................................... 153 Three-Year Contracts for a ‘Permanent Archive’ ......................................................160 The Crash.....................................................................................................................166 Activating the Archive: Video Cache ..........................................................................175