Hi all
thanks so much for contributing to this discussion on preservation
versus documentation of new media art - i've really been enjoying the
responses so far.
further to Annet's email, i wonder if i can ask some direct questions
of people lurking on the list:
Wolfgang Strauss: in working with the ZKM to preserve
Netzspannung.org do you still feel responsibility for ongoing
documentation of your own activities in relation to it?
Anne Laforet: what are some of the more interesting documentation
strategies you've come across in your study of how museums are
dealing with net art?
Sandra Fauconnier and Gaby Wijers at NIMK: how has involving the
public in curatorial selection of works in the archive (through the
new mediatheque, or curator for a day project, for instance) led to
new ways of thinking about preservation and documentation of the
works? Can you tell us a bit about inside-installations.org and the
OASIS project (Open Archiving System with Internet Sharing)?
Aymeric Mansoux at GOTO10: do you think the idea of 'open-sourcing'
documentation tasks, by distributing them to the makers/developers,
is a good solution?
any thoughts from any others would be great too,
thanks
sarah
On 10 Jun 2009, at 15:07, annet wrote:
> Dear all,
> Although we're not completely finished with deciphering all the
> notes and remarks from our meeting I thought it would be good for
> the discussion to share some of the results with you.
>
> Archive 2020 was a first attempt to sketch out the issues and
> problems that surround born digital cultural content. Although we
> focused on the meaning and possibility of online archives. Most of
> the attention went to the investigation of existing practices,
> examples of failures and successes were mentioned and pro's and
> con's of various strategies were discussed.
>
> *what follows is a short outline of some of the issues:
>
> How can an ONLINE ARCHIVE be SUSTAINABLE? Suggestions that were made:*
> - shared responsibility, a bottom-up approach: create or organise a
> network that feels responsible and is involved in the process or
> content of the work. Think in the line of social networking
> strategies that collaborate on creating shared resources and
> knowledge. In the long run it would be important to clarify and
> distribute responsibilities.
> - distribute the work as much as possible: think of remixing
> strategies and what Kevin Kely calls Ğmovageğ, the more it is out
> there, the more it is seen and the better it is archived.
> Interesting examples were named that showed the working of this
> 'underground' archive strategy.
> - centralise: integrate into existing institutions and have them
> apply for projectfunding. While this strategy has many positive
> sides it is important that a project is grounded into the
> institution and that it is not in the hands of one (enthousiast)
> individual. It also needs to be very clear what happens if funding
> stops
> - standardise: with the same indexing standards access will become
> easier, an international task force is needed that takes this up,
> maybe even similar to the Wikipedia model
>
>
> *The issue of sustainability let inevitably to the DISCUSSION OF
> RESPONSIBILITY: who is responsible and what is the role of the
> artist, programmer, curator, museum, audience,...?*
> - increase the responsibility of the artists, make them aware of
> the problem, for example by introducing preservation strategies
> into funding applications. This however brings up the question what
> is valued more: the quality of the work or the preservation
> strategy. Sometimes works that weren't the best of their time
> become well known because they make interesting case studies for
> preservation, the term 'darwinistic archiving' was introduced (i.e.
> survival of the best documented).
> - institutions and museums, or even universities, have more
> resources and know-how, they could take a coordinating role, so
> that smaller organisations or individuals can join. To make it
> beneficiary for both sides a 'funding for research' approach was
> suggested. (i.e. establishing an institution that is related and
> attached to a research field; the institution would help with
> preservation and in exchange would get access to, for example,
> software artworks as their research materials - it was said that
> the Daniel Langlois Foundation had participated in these kind of
> projects, maybe someone could elaborate?!)
> - network community and users: the web is made by individuals
> instead of organisations. Mobilise them and make them aware of
> their self-sustainability (see for example the case of Turbulence
> and Rhizome).
>
> *
> What to keep - DOCUMENT OR PRESERVE? Although there were no ready
> answers many SUGGESTIONS were made, it would be interesting to hear
> your comments:*
> - you can't save everything, focus on the most informative parts
> that convey the main idea of the work. (who decides, selects?)
> - for born digital works it can be important to preserve/
> document the process
> - instead of saving the original code it could be better to make
> a diagram that represents al the possible states and scenarios of
> the work.
> - videotape the work: desktop video and context video
> - write books, articles and reviews in magazine or newspapers:
> in order to make it visible "the online" needs to become physical;
> - organise exhibitions as they will bring out the urgency and
> problems of preservation: more attention to presentation and exposure;
> - could the strategy of 'scanning on demand' that is practiced
> by some large archives also work for the preservation of born
> digital content?
> - by changing the terminology from 'digital preservation' to
> 'permanent access' might give an incentive to the importance and
> understanding of the work.
>
> The best quote of the day was 'jack the wrapper': put the software
> in a box and describe / document the whole thing so that someone
> else can clone it.
>
> *And finally, some questions and needs that came up:*
> - What is the reaction of artists to existing documentation
> strategies, for example, the VMQ?
> - What has succeeded and what attempts have failed and why? Make
> best/worst case practices where we can all learn from.
> - How are other fields dealing with these issues, for example,
> archeology, musicology, information science, dance and performance
> art,... and what can we learn from them?
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