The Virtual Memory Project

The Virtual Memory Project is calling for submissions :
We are soliciting and collecting short films and videos documenting, describing, or otherwise acknowledging the analog-digital transition for a curated, traveling film program to coincide with the analog switch-off in 2009.

Farewell, Analog : What’s this all about ?
In 2009, analog broadcast television signals will cease.

Somewhere back in the first half of the previous century, the first analog broadcast signal floated out across the air.

Ever since, analog processes, technologies and aesthetics have shaped our existence – we’ve been sending and receiving analog, speaking to each other through these long, sinewy, unreliable analog waves – and now we’ll officially replace them with digital packets, invisible streams of 0s and 1s that wouldn’t know an antenna from a reel-to-reel.

Will you miss it ?
Does it matter ?

Are you an analog purist ? Do you prefer celluloid to megapixels ?
Or are you a digital prophet ? Streaming along above the fray – no rabbit ears for you…

Love it or hate it, analog’s been a good friend to us – shouldn’t we say goodbye ?

Make something, and submit your work today !

Criteria :

• Submitted films don’t have to reference the analog switch-off directly but should be closely related to the themes of :
  — the quirks, pleasures and frustrations of analog technology (film, photography, vinyl, radio, magnetic tape, vacuum tubes, cathode ray television, etc etc)
  — obsolescence (do all technologies have to end ?)
  — digital future (utopia or apocalypse, you tell us)
  — the difference between analog and digital
  — the work of art in the age of digital reproduction, etc, etc
• All genres accepted – Documentary, Experimental, Narrative and Animation, etc
• Works may be newly created for the project, or be existing works.
• Work will be reviewed for thematic content, production quality, and programming viability.

Length :
No limitations, but length may affect submission’s ability to be programmed

Deadline Extended:
Submit work by May 1, 2009.

How to submit :
Send an email containing a link to your video to : [email protected]
Please put the following in the subject line : VMP: Your Project Title

Required information for submissions (include in email) :

• maker’s full name
• contact information
• project title
• project link
• project running time
• project description – 2-3 sentences maximum
• full project credits for the work you are submitting

Please note : If you intend to submit multiple works, great !  But please send a separate email for each.

Notification :

• If selected, you will be contacted regarding rights and permissions for inclusion in a curated program.

Questions ?

Email The Virtual Memory Project

Analog is                                       Digital is
fuzzy                                              sharp
waveforms                                    bitstreams
muddy                                           clean
warm                                             cool
crinkly                                            smooth
transistors                                       silicon
the telephone game                        cloning
steel and wood and leather             aluminum and glass and plastic