Postcard from Bishkek

When I was back in the UK, for several years I signed up for courses as part of the Open University’s Associate Student Programme.  I really enjoyed the experience, even if it sometimes meant hard work trying to fit everything in, studying, working, being a trade union rep, being an examiner, and maintaining a private life.

Many of the courses in the programme are also in the undergraduate programme, and although it is possible to convert credits into scores to count towards a degree, I was more interested in keeping my mind active and learning than in getting a qualification  at the end of the day.  Some of the courses I took were work related, but others were more general.   One of them was about the History of Science from 1870 to 1950.

Now, I have always been interested in history, but knew little enough about this particular period or this particular topic, and I suppose that is what attracted me to it.   One of the things they kept stressing in the course materials was the need to return to “primary sources” rather than relying on “secondary” ones.   Secondary sources contain information “about” the topic being studied, but primary sources provide first-hand testimony, or direct evidence, concerning the topic under investigation; they are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented.

These primary sources can include official records, (such as lists, laws, minutes of meetings … and so on), stories in the press, cartoons, paintings, photographs, films, sound recordings, autobiographies, memoires, letters … and so on, even buildings.

One of the hardest tasks I found, was to look at things and to try and analyse what they told us about the thoughts and attitudes of the people who both created them and their audience.  Sometimes it was difficult to put behind me the preconceptions of previous “learning” and the “benefit” of hindsight.

If we look, for example, at some of the engravings, woodcuts, etc. that emerged  during the fifteenth century and were used extensively as propaganda, (by both sides), during the time of the reformation, then there are often connotations which are meaningless to us today but carried tremendous importance to the people caught up in the upheavals of the time.

Then again, take the Mercury Theatre production of War of the Worlds, directed by Orson Welles, which created havoc when first broadcast.  Knowing about the historical events that unfolded made if difficult to see it in the same context as those who heard the broadcast live; the recent introduction of presidential fireside chats by President Roosevelt; the ascendency of science in society and the rise in popularity science fiction and fantasy, to name just two examples.

I have the same problem explaining to the kids why Star Wars, Star Trek, High Noon and even King Kong were so influential despite what now appears to be the ponderous and painstakingly slow way in which the plot and the action unfolds.

As it happens, the introduction of new technology means that a lot of the primary sources that are available for historians to study are no longer in simple documentary format – such as official records.  The introduction of word processors has meant that we are often lacking the writers notebooks and drafts and cannot recreate and analyse the influences and the creative processes that were in play in the author’s mind.

 

For the Kyrgyz, of course, that has has always been a problem.  Much of their culture was handed down from generation to generation by oral tradition.  There was no written Kyrgyz language and we rely on external sources such as refernces in the Chinewse chronicles and accounts written by travellers fo much of our knowledge of their history.   It sometimes seems as if all that we have from the Kyrgyz themselves are the final versions of various epics sach as Manas, Tolumbai, Kurmabek and Er Toshtuk.  Fortunately, travellers started to transcribe and record the tales told by the manashi and akyns from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards so historians, ethnologists, folklorists and literary scholars do have something to go on.

 

These days, an awful lot of material is in visual and audio format – film and sound recordings, television and radio broadcasts.  These are by nature temporal, fleeting glimpses – once broadcast, often forgotten, (like Robert Louis Stevenson’s view from a railway carriage: “each a glimpse and gone forever.”)    However, the impression they create and leave in the minds of their audience can be more long lasting.

Sometimes, these records are lost simply because they were not recorded; sometimes, (and even the BBC admits that this used to happen), the archives are cleared out or the media reused with the result that many “priceless” moments of broadcast history are lost to future generations.

What’s more, in these days of the internet, and social media, the tweets and posts pass up the screen and may never be seen again.  Once a blog’s registration lapses, then it might be removed from the host and hence disappear into the ether.

Indeed, the physical media on which records are preserved, (whether paper, film, tape, or digital discs … or whatever), is vulnerable – “extremely vulnerable” according to UNESCO.  Paper rots and film, whether on acetate or magnetic media, deteriorates.

I remember watching the film of James Hilton’s “Lost Horizon” on television, many years ago.  Before the broadcast, the announcer pointed out the quality was not good, not as good as they would normally want in order to transmit.  However, it had been rescued from the sole remaining copy of the negative which had been found by accident in a depository.  We are still finding the odd document, photograph, film or recording in the most unusual places from attics to cellars in private homes as well in museum collections where they often lie undisturbed and apparently forgotten.  Sometimes, quite a lot of the time I suppose, they are like snapshots, maybe out of focus and without any information to put them into context, but often they add to our knowledge and understanding of events and life in a time past.

There are many restoration projects going on around the world – some working on books or artworks, others on film collections, (I am thinking in particular of the Yugoslav film library, but there are others), to try and preserve part of our heritage that is seriously under threat of disappearing – forever, from decay and destruction, not just for a time while they wait to be discovered and perhaps pieced together by historians and archaeologists at some time in the future.

I am told that there are lots of documents, films, etc., relating to life here in Kyrgyzstan, (especially through the Soviet period), that are possibly already lost.  Much of the documentary evidence relating to mountaineering, for example,  was lost in a fire at the Ala Archa base in the 1990′s – fortunately copies are though to have been preserved in the archives in Moscow.  When it comes to film, I was told that only some of the output of the Kyrgyz Film Studios are still in the country, although most are preserved in depositories in Moscow.

I have been searching for copies of a number of early films from KyrgyzFilm, (such as the 1963 film “Cosmonaut’s Street”), because one of my staff was a child actor who performed in them, (and is even named in the cast list on the Russian version of IMDB).    Not only do films like this help to paint a picture and inform us of life at that time and in that particular society, but his role also gives it a particular point of interest, (and not only would he like to see them again, but he would also to be able to show them to his children and grandchildren).   So far, however, I have not been able to find them, and although we keep looking, I worry that we may be too late.

Many museums and archives around the world have recognized the need to digitalize their collections … it not only increases access to them but should also help to preserve them.

It is estimated that we have no more than 10 to 15 years to transfer audiovisual records to digital to prevent their loss.  Much of the world’s audiovisual heritage has already been irrevocably lost through neglect, destruction, decay and the lack of resources, skills, and structures, thus impoverishing the memory of mankind.  Much more will be lost if stronger and concerted international action is not taken.

It was in recognition of this background of threat of the risks of decay and destruction that face our many film libraries and sound archives, to these valuable historical sources, that back in 2005 the General Conference of UNESCO decided to inaugurate a special day, a “World Day for Audio Visual Heritage“, to focus attention on the issue.  As with most specially designated days, each year they chose to a theme on which to concentrate their efforts and this year the theme is “See, hear and learn“.

 

Today – October 27th – is the UNESCO sponsored World Day for Audio Visual Heritage.

 

 

Tags: Education, Expat, History