Screen Tests - DVD

admin — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:49:33 +0000

Sub-Title

In collaboration with Eileen Simpson and Ben White

End Date

Start Date

12 May 2006

Location

A project that evolved from British Art Show 6

Body

There is conflict blossoming at the heart of culture, a conflict convened around the property rights that subsist in materials stored in public archives. Screen Tests explores this conflict, while enriching rather than depleting the public domain

Commissioned as part of the British Art Show Six, we collaborated with artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White to explore public moving image archives in each city of the exhibition's tour; The Northern Region Film and Television Archive in Newcastle, The North West Film Archive in Manchester, Moving Image Archive for Central England in Nottingham and the South West Film & Television Archive based in Plymouth.

All creative work is born into copyright; every image, text or sound is automatically designated as the property of its apparent author. Copyright is founded on the right of exclusion. And even material deposited in Public Archives is considered a property, access to which is subject to the generosity of archivists and keepers; effectively copyright restricts the creative re-use of public resources.

So, we sourced orphaned, or out-of-copyright material from which to edit four new films - one for each city - while simultaneously searched for copyright expired music in the British Library and Library of Congress sound archives to create appropriate soundtracks.

A film was added to the exhibition, at each of the host cities during the year long tour.

During the exhibition, we also negotiated with each of the archives to release our new films, along with the original source film and audio material, under a Creative Commons license on a DVD entitled Screen Tests. Our intention is to establish a legally protected resource, as these licences act as an extension to copyright granting rights to others, enabling everybody to use and re-use Screen Tests for future screenings and creative exchange, enriching rather than depleting the public domain.

The DVD's production was generously funded by the Arts Council England and therefore we made it available for Free under a Creative Commons: Attribution ShareAlike v2.5 License.

Screen Test was launched at the Anticipating the Past: Artist: Archive: Film: conference on the 12th-13th May, at Tate Modern . It will be availible at all venues of the British Art Show 6 where Screen Tests will be shown. Or, you could try and mail us if you would like one........

Features

Screen Tests 1/4 Screen Tests - 12.36''
The film unfolds as a series of Andy Warhol-like screen tests, slowly revealing the location and the occupation of those before the camera - students and models from the Manchester School of Art.

Screen Tests 2/4 Dragline - 06.57''
Dragline stumbles across an autonomous event, and echoing 1970â€™s structuralist film, returns the default setting of contemporary digital practice -sampling and looping - to its industrial roots.

Screen Tests 3/4 Broadcast Times: The Birth of Westward - 12.29''
As the exhibition train leaves the platform, we are taken on a documentary journey of ' a happy hunting ground for tycoons' the birth of private television broadcasting.

Screen Tests 4-4 00.00''
The Northern Region Film and Television Archive, based in Newcastle did not respond to several attempts at contact, eventually we spoke over the telephone and they declined any involvement.

Special Features

35 min. of original archival source films
36 min. of original source audio

Screen Tests

will be screened as part of Mimétisme curated by Anselm Franke, at Extra City in Antwerp, 25 Jan 2008 - 30 Mar 2008

Screen Test will be screened outdoors daily at 9:00, 12:00, 17:00, 22:35. Part of a BBC and Cornerhouse collaboration On The Screen: Artists in The Archive, the Bigger Picture in Manchester.

and at the annual Varsalongen [Spring Salon] exhibition, curated by Maria Lindt and Leira Vergara in Liljevalch's Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden 26 Jan 2007 - 18 Mar 2007

The Archives

Thanks to director James Patterson, and curator Richard Shenton

Moving Image Archive for Central England
The Institute of Film Studies
School of American and Canadian Studies
University of Nottingham
Nottingham NG7 2RD

Thanks to Director Elayne Hoskin and curator Mike Brewis

South West Film & Television Archive
Melville Building
Royal William Yard
Stonehouse
Plymouth
Devon PL1 3RP

The North West Film Archive
Manchester Metropolitan University
Minshull House
47-49 Chorlton Street
Manchester M1 3EU

The Northern Television Film Archive
declined any involvement in the project

The British Library Sound Archive
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB

The Library of Congress
Recorded Sound Reference Centre

See the related and evolving Enthusiasts: archive

Eileen

Screen Tests - DVD

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