Nostalgia and preservation

I saw this invitation to attend a presentation by the preservation librarian of the University of Illnois, my alma mater.

"While there is a growing nostalgia for our old mix tapes on compact cassettes, our legacy LP collections, and old family films, we are faced with growing challenges to actually be able to play many of these legacy audiovisual formats. But the preservation challenges of our personal legacy AV collections pale in comparison to the challenges we will soon face with the preservation of our growing digital photos and files, even though there is not yet a fond nostalgia for 3.5 inch floppy disks or thumb drives. Jennifer will present an overview of the typical AV and digital formats that many consider valuable to us and will present basic steps that people can take towards better preservation strategies to ensure that you will be able to continue access to these materials for years to come."

Yes, how to you play these formats if you've trashed the equipment?  I still have a reel to reel tape of our wedding, but the tape player is long gone. We've got old vhs tapes, and no player.  Soon the DVDs will probably be unusable. 

And yet, to ruin a career, someone with evil intent will do a deep dive into twitter or Facebook, and dredge up something sent out when he or she was 17, or hit the like button.

A visit to the Pizzuti Collection inaugural show

Today our Conestoga group (Friends of the Ohio Historical Society) had a mid-winter, kill the blahs tour of the new Pizzuti Collection, lunch at the new Hilton, and then a tour of the Hilton’s wonderful art collection of Ohio artists. What a day!  Just fabulous. And the sun came out and it is in the mid-40s heading for 50 degrees. This inaugural exhibit is the private collection of Ron and Ann Pizutti of contemporary art which they have been collecting since the mid-70s.  The collection is now a 501-c-3 and it includes a lovely renovated building, formerly the United Commercial Travelers insurance building, with 18,000 sq. ft., at 632 North Park Street, 43215, in the Short North neighborhood of Columbus.

Exhibition press release:

The opening exhibitions feature the Pizzuti Collection through two lenses. The Inaugural Exhibition on the first and third floors presents the collection in a narrative form, using works from the collection to connect the threads of experiences, artists, and galleries that guided its formation for more than 30 years. The Inaugural Exhibition will include works by John Chamberlain, Dave Cole, Jean Dubuffet, Carroll Dunham, Leandro Erlich, Darío Escobar, Ori Gersht, David Hammons, Guillermo Kuitca, Josiah McElheny, Louise Nevelson, and Ai Weiwei.

Additionally, the grand opening of the collection can be viewed through a thematic lens. Cuban Forever highlights compelling contemporary art, primarily by native Cuban artists. Much of the artwork in the collection was acquired via trips to artist studios in Cuba to meet and learn more about the art being produced in the country. This exhibition presents the best survey of the Cuban contemporary art scene today. The artists presented include Yoan Capote, Raúl Cordero, Enrique Raúl Martínez, Enrique Martínez Celaya, and Douglas Peréz. In addition to works by native Cubans, the exhibition includes work by Americans Michael Eastman and Teresita Fernández. Eastman’s stunning photographs of Havana and Fernández’s evocative sculptures transcend the artists’ nationalities and underscore the global environment in which Cuban artists work. The name of the exhibition, Cuban Forever, was chosen to emphasize the global nature of the artists included, reinforcing that the Cuban identity is not bounded by geography.

The Pizzuti Collection also includes programs for school children, educational programs, a library, talks by artists (because it features contemporary art many of the artists are alive), lectures, rotating exhibitions with a variety of memberships ranging from$3600 to $75.

From the windows of this building we could see the construction of a new complex which will include a new office building, parking garage and Le Méridien Columbus, The Joseph a 135-room, art-themed boutique hotel on High Street in the Short North arts and entertainment district.

The three Rs of Preservation

Reuse. Reinvest. Retrofit. Unfortunately, I'm afraid we'll have the battle of the "greenies" on this one. I almost turn pea green reading my husband's newsletters and magazines.

The Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles was built in the mid-’60s and designed by Minoru Yamasaki, the architect of the World Trade Center. "How is the demolition of a 40-year-old, fully functioning building environmentally responsible?" asks Richard Moe of The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP). "In a state known for its environmental stewardship and strong focus on sustainable development, it boggles the imagination to think a developer could propose tearing down a newly renovated, thriving hotel—-a landmark of Modern architecture—-and replace it with new construction. Because historic preservation inherently involves the conservation of energy and natural resources, it has always been the greenest form of development." AIArchitect, May 29

In Ohio, we tear them down even sooner than 40 years. Our mayor wants to dump the City Center which I think is only 20 years old. Make a down town park. Now that brings in a lot of tax money. He'll probably get stimulus money for it the way he did for that phony Obaloney show on saving the police class right after the coronation. They've now run out of "stimulus" money, and will probably have to let some of the go.

Today's new word is LIGNIN

Yes, another one I should have remembered, but didn't. Lignin is an organic bonding material found in the wood fiber of untreated papers. The acidic properties of lignin have a deteriorative effect on paper and photographs. When buying a scrapbook or photo album makes sure they are lignin free.

At How Stuff Works: "Lignin makes wood stiff and trees stand upright. You could say it acts as a glue to bind the cellulose fibers together. It is a polymer, a substance that is formed by the joining of simpler molecules into giant molecules that act differently than the smaller molecules did. Dr. Hou-Min Chang, a professor of wood and paper science at N.C. State University in Raleigh, N.C., compares lignin to the concrete used in buildings, with cellulose as the steel frame. Without lignin, Chang says, a tree could only grow to be about 6 feet tall. Lignin also helps protect the wood from pests and other damage. Newsprint, which must be produced as economically as possible, has more lignin in it than finer papers. At the mill, the wood that will be turned into newsprint is ground up, lignin and all." That's why old newspapers turn yellow very quickly.

About 30 years ago I moved these photos of my 12 year old classmates from a scrapbook that was crumbling to a cheap photo album, and now it's starting to go. Fortunately, black and white photos are a lot more permanent than color.

Click to enlarge