Preserving Chicago ’ s Living History of Improvised Music

1. Preserving Chicago’s Living History of Improvised Music 1 • Allison Schein - Archive Manager • Patrick Seymour - Project Archivist

2. 2 A Little Background • Experimental Sound Studio • Mission: • A non-profit, artist-run organization • Focused on sound in all its exploratory cultural manifestations • Serve the artists engaged in these disciplines, the audiences who listen to them, and the public who may as yet be unaware of sound's many creative dimensions. • Approach integrates production, presentation, education, and preservation, often in partnership with other organizations, constituencies, artists, and individuals.

3. 3 Creative Audio Archive • The Creative Audio Archive (CAA) is a Chicago based center for the preservation and investigation of innovative and experimental sonic arts and music. CAA is an initiative of the Experimental Sound Studio, formed in response to growing concerns over the general state of historical preservation of non-mainstream audio, in particular, recordings, print, and visual ephemera related to avant-garde and exploratory sound and music of the last five decades. • Established in 2003 • Currently houses 4 multi-format collections • Chicago-centric with an international flair

4. 4 Malachi Ritscher and collection beginnings • 1954-2006 • Political activist • Collection dates from early 1980’s until his death in 2006 • Early live recordings of new wave artists • Cassettes • DAT’s

5. 5 Malachi Ritscher Collection • By the mid-90’s focus became jazz and improvised music • Became Ken Vandermark’s archivist • Chicago’s Improvised Music Community • Period of collaboration between European and Chicago Players • Venues

6. 6 Funding gap and outreach solutions • Traditional fundraising vs. emerging platforms • Focus • Goal • Impact on future funding • Interest generated as we asked for permission for off site listening events • Partnering with retail outlets and venues for listening opportunities

7. 7 Kickstarter • Community members as spokespersons for video • Approached two artists within the collection that are considered accessible to a wide audience • Incentives • Other deliverables • Realistic goals

8. 8 Results • Successfully funded within two weeks • Information provided by Kickstarter and how to make the best of it • Communication with backers • Additional accounts for payments/fees associated • Delivering incentives

9. 9 Digitization - Kickstarter • Equipment • Adobe Audition (yay metadata control!) • Panasonic SV-3700 • Mac Mini • Digi 002 • Shure SRH940 headphones • Event 2020 monitors • 237 DAT’s identified as at risk • 100 of the oldest were a priority for the first round • Three transfer engineers • Oldest of the 100 were given to the engineer with most experience

10. 10 Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation • $30,000 one year grant for preservation and outreach • Preservation: • Completion of transfer for remaining 137 DAT’s • Cassette condition report and prioritization based on same guidelines as DAT’s • Cassette transfer • Equipment maintenance

11. 11 Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation • Outreach • Roundtables with artists and scholars on the importance of the genre, archives in general and accessibility • Permissions database creation of artists within the collection for future use • Partnerships with radio stations, venues, etc. • Performances with artists culled from the collection to create awareness of archive

12. 12 If we could do it all over again… • More crowdsourcing funding options • Asked for more money! • Incorporate grant proposal i a ideas incentives • Would not have attempted a major online overhaul prior to launching • Plotted out information needs better

13. 13 Contact information and links • Allison Schein • allison@creativeaudioarchive.org • Patrick Seymour • seymour.patrick@gmail.com • http://www.creativeaudioarchive.org/ • http://www.experimentalsoundstudio.org/ • http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1391498640/256025245?token=bdfaa26d