On January 28, 2017, MARMIA worked with artist Rahne Alexander, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), and the XFR Collective (pronounced “transfer”) to put on a day of video digitization in the BMA’s exhibit, “Queer Interiors”. From the BMA’s website:
“Queer Interiors is part of the BMA’s Commons Collaboration initiative, which commissions an artist and non-profit to work together on an installation and offer a series of public programs related to Imagining Home. The project conceived and produced by Rahne Alexander and Jaimes Mayhew is comprised of a larger-than-life bed, shelving and other furnishings, personal artifacts, and a multimedia wall quilt known as the Baltimore LGBTQI+ Home Movie Quilt. This component of the installation pays homage to Baltimore album quilts and the AIDS Quilt, with the aim of presenting a crowd-sourced multimedia portrait of the city’s LGBTQI+ communities.”
We had interested parties sign up for an appointment to drop their home videos off in the exhibit. MARMIA and the XFR Collective then got started transferring the videos to more easily viewable digital files. While it was not a requirement, the day encouraged participants to view the exhibit and to consider donating their home movies to be projected onto the LGBTQI+ Home Movie Quilt. Several tapes were transferred, some tears were shed, and a wonderful day was had by all!
The Queer Interiors exhibit is up at the BMA until August 31, 2017–check it out while you still have the chance. MARMIA plans to help out with more home movie digitization events in the near future–we can also transfer your home movies for you! Since our end of year campaign, we have added a Digital8 walkman to our equipment: so now we can transfer VHS, MiniDV, DVCAM, Hi8, Digital8, Video8, Umatic, and Betacam. Email siobhan@marmia.org for more details!
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