New Books in Science, Technology, and Society Jimi Jones and Marek Jancovic, "The Future of Memory: Jimi Jones and Marek Jancovic" (U of Illinois Press, 2025)
Aug 21, 2025
Jimi Jones, an experienced archivist and author, teams up with Marek Jancovic, a media studies professor, to discuss their book on audiovisual preservation. They dive into the evolution of digital video standards like JPEG 2000 and Matroska, balancing fidelity with practical needs. The duo reveals the social complexities besetting archivists and the tech industry's role in shaping these formats. Their conversation highlights the delicate interplay between innovation and the sustainability of cultural heritage, underscoring the dynamic nature of memory in our tech-driven world.
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Matroska Moment That Sparked Research
- Jimi Jones recounts a Library of Congress meeting where Matroska was proposed and dismissed for being associated with piracy.
- That moment seeded his interest in format politics and drove his later PhD research on standards.
From Film Distribution To Joint Book
- Marek Jancovic describes his film-industry background, distribution work, and PhD on video compression history.
- His meeting with Jimi at the Netherlands Film Institute led them to combine projects into this joint book.
Why Lossless Matters For Video Archives
- Lossless compression reduces storage while preserving original data so archives can save space without losing fidelity.
- Archives favor lossless video codecs to balance fidelity and practical storage costs.