Graduates Provide Community Preservation Services

Several graduates of NYU's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) program contribute their professional knowledge and skills to XFR Collective, a unique non-profit organization that is dedicated to making media preservation accessible.

XFR Collective (pronounced Transfer) grew out of a 2013 exhibit at the New Museum, XFR STN, which digitized and preserved time-based media artworks from obsolete formats. Since 2014, the Collective has been partnering with "artists, activists, individuals, and groups to lower the barriers to preserving at-risk audiovisual media–especially unseen, unheard, or marginalized works–by providing low-cost digitization services and fostering a community of support for archiving and access through education, research, and cultural engagement."

XFR's volunteer membership includes a variety of media and preservation professionals. Five active members are NYC-based MIAP graduates (Carmel Curtis, MIAP '15; Ethan Gates, MIAP '15; Caroline Gil, MIAP '16; Michael Grant, MIAP '15; and Marie Lascu, MIAP '12), as are six members-at-large (Rebecca Fraimow, MIAP '13; Julia Kim, MIAP, '14; Kristin MacDonough, MIAP '13; Lorena Ramírez-López, MIAP '15; Yvonne Ng, MIAP '08; and Pamela Vizner Oyarce, MIAP '14). MIAP adjunct faculty member Rachel Mattson, Manager of Special & Digital Projects in the Archives of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, is also a member of the Collective.

National Public Radio (NPR) recently profiled XFR Collective as part of the "All Tech Considered" segment on its daily news program, All Things Considered. See the link above for the audio piece and an associated article, both of which describe the Collective's work and the vulnerability of the media they are committed to saving. See here for a compendium of past XFR Collective events, and follow the group’s Facebook page and twitter account to get updates on future activities.

Amazing work, XFR Collective!