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Jalmle Baron, The Archive Effect: Found Footage and the Audiovisual Experience of History. Routledge, 2013.187 pages. $37.27 paper.
Jaimie Baron's book offers a truly original contribution to archival studies, moving beyond investigations of truth, authenticity and power to an exploration of the spectatorial experience of archive material in appropriation film. Baron defines the "archive effect" as "a sense that certain sounds and/or images within these films come from another time and served another function" (11). Thus her primary focus Is the analysis of the spectator's engagement with archive material during different filmic experiences.
Baron redefines the term 'appropriation' In terms of Its verbal root 'to appropriate' rather than In relation to postmodern works as suggested by William Wees (1993). While Wees is quick to dismiss the appropriation film as a found footage mash-up that neglects to engage with the meaning of the original imagery (as in music videos), Baron applies the term more broadly to any films that appropriate archive imagery. She notes that the
proliferation of terminology for both the source material -including 'archival footage', 'found footage', 'stock footage', and 'recycled footage' -and for the films into which these sources are Incorporated- Including 'compilation film', 'found footage film', 'collage film' and 'appropriation film' as well as 'montage', détournement', 'mash-up' and 'remix'- is itself a signal that we need a new way of talking about these objects. (8)
Thus Baron unites this rather disparate field by turning away from questions of form or genre to the spectator. Fundamental to her argument are concepts of pastness and foundness. She continually returns to the lure of the archive's presence (characterised by excess and absence) and its recent 'discovery1 by the filmmakers (like lost treasure). Baron implies that these are the spectatorial pleasures of watching archive material appropriated in new contexts.
Baron's terms "intentional disparity" and "temporal disparity," introduced In chapter one, serve as a useful framework for discussing the sense of distance felt between the spectator and archive material. While such footage is always from the past, Baron intuitively understands that more recently filmed footage, such as that we might discover on YouTube, does not always give spectators the sensation that they are looking into...