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verams.bsky.social
Karen (not that Karen) Knights
@verams.bsky.social
510 followers 1.6K following 240 posts
Community media archivist. ILike unlikely archives/ archaic video/ feminist & queer video histories/communing with the stubborn spirits in the archive. On the stolen, unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw & səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ Nations.
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verams.bsky.social
Need advice from all my archivist friends:
Compliment?
Or warning?
A battered, brown, banker's box against a white background. Written on the camera facing side of the box in pencil and all caps i is "GOD TO SORT".
July 18, 2025 at 7:29 PM
verams.bsky.social
Portrait of Cynthia Erivo wearing a moss green jacket, matching nail extensons, jewellry and large wire glasses, staring intently into the camera.
March 19, 2025 at 1:08 PM
verams.bsky.social
Either version.
Patti's short hair is rumpled, she's wearing a t. She looks at the viewer as if they're a bit of a dipshit. Her left hand is on her hip, the right bent at the elbow, her palm up and curled, a cigarette dangling from between her two middle fingers. Serious Patti stares straight ahead as if lost in thought, but very serious thoughts. Her hair is long and full, held in place by around very wide brimmed hat. She wears a dark coat and button up shirt. Her hands are up, in front of her body, openly cupping each other as if to give a sense of calm, but maybe ready for action?
March 19, 2025 at 3:08 AM
verams.bsky.social
Here's another US consulate that should not have another moment of peace: 1075 W Pender Street, Vancouver, Canada.
A close up map of downtown Vancouver, Canada, with a red pin denoting the location of the U.S. consulate at 1075 W Pender Street.
March 16, 2025 at 5:06 AM
verams.bsky.social
A reminder that it is ALWAYS the time to support small counter/regional/cultural/specialist archives. Donate to, volunteer your expertise, stand up for, archives committed to their communities.
Colourful Riso posters for the 2016-2017 thirstDays series are held up against different backgrounds and edited into one horizontal image of 2 rows of 6. "thirstdays: love, intimacy and (com)passion, in a geopolitical context" was a monthly series of video, film, performance and ceremony events with 126 artists from settler, Indigenous & immigrant communities. Media documentation of all events archived at VIVO Media Arts Centre.
March 15, 2025 at 7:09 PM
verams.bsky.social
Who wore it best?

Frederick Merz vs Fred Mertz
CDU leader Frederick Merz stands casually, holding a bulbous microphone in his right hand. He's wearing an unbuttoned medium tone suit. His left hand is in his pants pocket. The jacket, white shirt and a dark tie with small white polka dots. An image of I Love Lucy character, Fred Mertz. He's wearing a medium tone suit and looking to his right. His right hand is in his jacket, pocket; his left in his pants pocket. The jacket is unbuttoned. He wears a white shirt and a dark tie with small white polka dots.
February 25, 2025 at 6:16 AM
verams.bsky.social
ATTN MEDIA ARCHIVISTS! We need a dehumidifier for our 1000 sq ft videotape vault. Any recommendations for brands and models? Ideally, it would have wifi for remote monitoring. We can accommodate continuous drainage. Any info on how close to videotape dehumidifiers can be placed also appreciated.
A tightly cropped colour image of rows of archive shelving lined with many formats of videotape housed in plastic cases or cardboard sleeves.
February 1, 2025 at 12:10 AM
verams.bsky.social
I don't know...if he'd been arrested in another part of the world, like Italy, he'd just be meh in comparison to his police escort.
Italian polizia woman in front of the coliseum. Male Italian polizia leans against a police transport, artms crossed, right leg resting on the step, wearing dark sunglasses and looking off to his left.
December 20, 2024 at 7:37 PM
verams.bsky.social
I'm not leaving my house this weekend.
December 7, 2024 at 12:19 AM
verams.bsky.social
You give me hope that, one day, I will finally deaccession the vials of blood that were collected as part of an a one-night art performance in 2004.

They gotta go...
A white bankers box with a red sticker with black print reading FRAGILE HANDLE WITH CARE, and taped below it, a postcard for an art exhibition entitled "Centre for Disease Control" with an xray image of skull and hands. The back of a postcard titled Centre for Disease Control, with text describing the exhibition. Held up in front of several rows of Hollinger boxes. Over a dozen tubes of blood with blue lids in a white tray.
December 6, 2024 at 11:39 PM
verams.bsky.social
Phew! Sent off my grant off 4 hours before the deadline. Now that that's done, I'm officially on vacation until January! Currently, day-drinking and eating shortbread alone.

Don't judge me.
A close-up of a wine glass being held up in front of a decorated Christmas tree.
December 6, 2024 at 10:32 PM
verams.bsky.social
Heading into an intense couple of days of grant writing to get this collection digitized. Vancouver artist Matthew Speier melds experimental portable video techniques with the explosive creativity of the early 1970s Canadian contemporary dance scene.
An image of the cover for the paper catalogue; matte black printing on beige paper stock. Its' dimensions mimic the 4x3 aspect ratio of 1970s television. A TV tube shape with a background of thin grey scan lines dominates the page. Inside that shape, the project title "dance-video canada" is in the top third. A squat, oblong, high-contrast image of a male dancer in profile, framed head to hips, arms outstretched horizontally is centered below the title. It suggests the pupil of an eye. Below the image is the phrase "videotapes by matthew speier." Post-printing artifacts include a white, rectangular sticker in the upper right corner with all caps handwriting in blue ink reading "CAT. B.C.", for "catalogue" and publishing location. Two, green, rubber stamp impressions read "DO NOT REMOVE. FOR REFERENCE ONLY." and "VIDEO INN PRINT LIBRARY, 261 POWELLST, VANCOUVER B.C. 604-4336"
December 5, 2024 at 2:51 PM
verams.bsky.social
Slow scan Hands Across the Border [Video Inn 5th Anniversary 1978]. Centre for New Art Activity (NY), General Idea (Toronto), Sharon Grace/ David Ross (San Francisco), Open Space (Victoria), Televista (Memphis) and Video Inn/ Pumps/Mainstreet/ Digit/ HP (Vancouver). Co-organizer Willoughby Sharp.
A Sony monitor on a rickety, black metal and wood rack, with a tangle of cables draped over top and down the back. On its screen a slo scan image, a handwritten card reading "A Message for the Felix Partz Fan Club (End)".
November 29, 2024 at 11:59 PM
verams.bsky.social
A family historian's dream: a vintage diner napkin, soft as a $500 Tee, serving up the minutiae of a brief but pivotal time in a distant relatives' life.
A customer's writing in blue ink, scribbled on a vintage diner napkin decorated with the logo and catchphrase of a popular Vancouver diner. a vertical row 5 identical squares, show a stylized white and turquoise chicken, fork and spoon, against an organge background. "Nothing Else Tastes Like White Spot" in turquoise frames its bottom edge. The customer makes notes on his conversation with an unknown person about "Catherine", a dancer, and her coming into the family.
November 25, 2024 at 12:40 AM
verams.bsky.social
Vancouver peeps! Here's a chance to see the new short film How I Got My Queer Back, examining the legacy of Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium. Join the filmmakers for discussion and refreshments on 7 December, 2 pm, 825 Pacific.
Free tickets available at www.eventbrite.ca/.../debut-sc....
A poster, slightly askew, advertising a screening and discussion of the film "How I Got My Queer Back" December 7th, 2pm, at 825 Pacific Street in Vancouver, B.C. A photographic occupies the bulk of the space. It is of a person, left hand holding a piece of bread, the right outstretched, palm open, with a bird, wings outstretched upward, as it nibbles crumbs from their hand. Behind them is a stand of Douglas Fir trees, treetops silhouetted against a sky of darkening clouds. A single patch of clear blue peeks through.
November 24, 2024 at 5:26 PM
verams.bsky.social
Do you ever walk through the stacks and just can't resist giving the finger to that box exuding the most obnoxious energy?
A disappearing perspective of shelved, gray, archive boxes. Every so often a red folder pokes out from between them.
November 22, 2024 at 7:47 PM
verams.bsky.social
Spent the day sorting paper, which this media archive, ironically, has a lot of. It reminded me - these a*holes are always with us. The Reform Party was a Canadian incarnation, 1987-2000. Poster circa 1990.
A poster showing a televsion image of Canadian Reform Party Leader, Preston Manning with a Hitler-like mustache added, holding up a paper reading "Queers have no rights". The body of the poster reads "seen this asshole before? Stop it Before it stops you!". It calls out the party's homophobia, racism, ableism, hatred of Francophones.
November 22, 2024 at 5:40 AM
verams.bsky.social
We're enhancing metadata of Indigenous materials and documenting the provenance of all Indigenous video in the collection. Big thanks to the archival impulses of our early collective members who left plenty of data breadcrumbs.

Coyote X, 2013. Terry Haines & Aaron Rice. Photo Ash Tanasiychuk.
Colour photograph of a video art projection. 3 video images, seamlessly joined on a horizontal plane and approximately 8 feet high, show a stand of trees, trunks only, the artist in an urban environment, and a polarized image of a coyote walking in front of the viewer.
November 17, 2024 at 3:11 PM
verams.bsky.social
Getting out a 1970s Sony DXC-1200 Color Trinicon studio camera to document a talk on British artist and AIDS activist Stuart Marshall by researcher, Conal McStravick.
November 17, 2024 at 2:30 PM
verams.bsky.social
Working this month on migrating 3 decades of video documentation from the personal archive of B.C. video artist and activist, Lenore Herb, of her friend, poet bill bissett for an upcoming documentary. bill eating and performing on Lenore's couch.
November 17, 2024 at 2:25 PM