Media Burn Archive
Media Burn Archive is the exclusive repository for a history of video, focusing on documentary, on the political, and on the experimental, with collections ranging from early tapes made on the first widely available video cameras to 21st century digital work. Preserving this history is a constant battle, as the technology required to read the vast majority of video formats is obsolete and unavailable, and the physical materials – the tapes themselves – are rapidly decaying. Further, because independent video producers have never had a reliable means of distributing or broadcasting their work, several generations’ worth of extraordinary work is in danger of being lost. Media Burn, through its larger collection and through its Guerrilla Television project, seeks to preserve and present this overlooked history.
The Curatorial Intern will focus on researching, documenting, and presenting work from 1968-1980, the first era of widespread video production.
They will be responsible for conducting research to create informational web pages providing information on specific productions and video makers, and to research the existence and extent of other early video collections in archives around the country.
They will log and summarize the contents of videos and will provide credits and details for public databases like Wikipedia, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), and Letterboxd.
The intern will write blog posts presenting their research and they will curate and host a virtual event (a screening, a conversation with a video maker).
In addition to viewing the original videos, this research will be done through a variety of methods:
consulting publicity materials
contemporary press coverage
reviewing scholarly journal articles and books
interviewing creators and scholars.
Intern Requirements:
The intern will need to have strong research and writing skills, a high degree of organization and attention to detail, and be able to synthesize large amounts of information in compelling and easy-to-understand ways.
They will need to be creative thinkers with the energy and curiosity to find information on works that were largely overlooked by the mainstream press at the time they were produced.
Most of all, the intern will need to be interested in the history of art and media, and eager to watch and learn.
As the internship includes a virtual event, the intern will need to be interested in public speaking.
The intern will work closely with their supervisor to plan and prepare that event.
No previous public speaking experience is required.
Interns will work onsite 28 hours per week and attend a mandatory offsite program day one day per week with their cohort.
Interns must be available for the duration of the program.
INTERNSHIP DURATION:
Total Weeks: 9 weeks
Work Hours per Week: 28
Total Hours: 252
Workdays: 4 days per week onsite
PROGRAM DAY:
On the 5th day of each week, interns will attend an offsite program day with their cohort.
These hours are separate from the internship hours.