Hello there list. I too have been following the preservation discussion
closely, and have not been able to participate as I might have liked. But I would
like to make a contribution - brief and unformulated as it may be. My name
is Tina Fiske, and I teach in the History of Art Department (and also
occasionally in Humanities Advanced Technologies and Information Institute) at the
University of Glasgow.
One issue which has been implicit to the discussion so far is that of
ethics.
My PhD thesis was, broadly speaking, on the acquisition, documentation and
care of 'non-traditional' contemporary artworks, as practiced by British
public collections over the last 15 or so years. Alot of the artworks that I
discussed were acquired within 2-3 years of being created - some were acquired
from their very first showing or realisation even - and of course (though not so
often in British institutions) some are commissioned for acquisition (a
well-known example would be net.flag and Guggenheim).
Aside from the questionable sense of pre-emption that such acquisitions
activity can pose, the proximity (elision even) of creation and issues of
documentation/conservation has and continues to give me (as an historian and briefly
a collections curator) pause.
Collection, documentation, conservation, preservation - all, as practices,
seek of their object (digital or otherwise) the kind of ‘disclosure’ of which
Arthur Danto (yes, Danto) has spoken: ‘the present does not disclose its
structure until it is related to the future’.
The point at which that orientation towards the future happens (as well as
by whom and for what reasons it is brought about) is utterly crucial,
meaningful and contestable - as this very discussion would suggest. In often moving
to collect, or document or conserve as 'early' as we (archivists, databasists,
historians, conservators etc) increasingly do, we are certainly
precipiating such 'disclosure' . We have to exercise ethical awareness (and I would say
that conservators do more than most) as to how far we are determining or
even foreclosing it, and how we will manage and revisit it.
History of Art Department
University of Glasgow
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Glasgow
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