Digital Conservation @ AktiveArchive

The research in the field of digital conservation focuses on the conservation of computer and internet based art and the preservation of complex, dynamic media objects.
The susceptibility of net and computer-base art to technical failures and the dependency on specific system environments suggest considering new approaches for lasting preservation strategies. One of the central questions is what sustainability means in a field, where both the physical conditions for displaying the artwork and the environmental, technical context are changing continuingly? How to document, archive, and preserve distributed artworks which dispense a clear physical structure as object?
In addition to questions of permanency and sustainability we try to enable future access to artworks. Thus the observed artworks may be observed as dynamic/living they need to be turned into a stable and if possible “portable” state.
In order to cover both requirements – sustainability and portability - we work with emulation. We do not emulate artworks, as described in the Variable Media Vocabulary, but we apply emulation and virtualization in order to sustain authentic system environments which enable acting the original coding and configuration of the artwork.
 
Examples
Exemplary for the working mode of Digital Preservation@AktiveArchive and the development of bridge technologies between art technology, computer sciences, media archeology and preservation ethics two tools are presented, which have been developed in cooperation with other research partners. They are based on concepts of digital long-term archiving and try to expand them so they are viable for dynamic media objects. In addition to questions of permanency and sustainability guaranteeing the access to the works is of central importance.

 
Related projects

• Compare. Legacy-Applications for the conservation and restoration of computer based art. Tabea Lurk, Jürgen Enge, HKB-BFH-Research Project (report coming soon)
• Netart Router. A preservation tool for analyzing, documenting, archiving and displaying internet based art and dynamic web content, Jürgen Enge et. al (description coming soon)
• Interactive CD-Rom and DVD-Library. Jürgen Enge, Tabea Lurk (details coming soon)

 
Applied projects

• AiP - Archive-in-Progress - Solutions around the archive for Academic Schools of Fine Art (ERASMUS-Networks Projekt)
• Analit - Analogien des Digitalen: von der Fallstudie zur allgemeinen Erhaltungsmatrix me-dialer Kunst (DoRe, Lead: Johannes Gfeller)
• Web-Forensic. Digital analysis and documentation of web-based content (Polish – Swiss Research Programme, Lead: WSTKiT.)

 
Related texts

• Tabea Lurk, Jürgen Enge: Sustaining Dynamic Media Objects and Digital System Environments. An Assessment of Preservation Methods for Computer Based Artworks (EMG 2010)
• Tabea Lurk: On the Aging of Net Art Works (Basel 2010)
• Tabea Lurk: Programmes as space for thought? Notes on the origins of Swiss computer art (Habitat 2010)
• Tabea Lurk: An Evaluation Schema for Born-Digital Media Artworks? Examining the Preservation of Internet-based Art. (Media in Motion / DOCAM 2008).
• Tabea Lurk: Virtualisation as conservation measure (Archiving 2008)

 
Concept papers

• Tabea Lurk: Studie zur Langzeitarchivierung digitaler Medienobjekte. Revision aktueller Strategien und Praktiken in der Schweiz. Evaluation des Handlungsbedarfs (HKB, Berne 2010)
• Jürgen Enge, Tabea Lurk: StorageBroker. Distributed archivingstorage of archival content in Swiss Universities (Switch AAA, Berne 2010)
• Tabea Lurk, Jürgen Enge: Langzeitarchivierung digitaler Kulturgüter. Konzept zur Entwicklung eines disziplinenübergreifenden Modells zum nachhaltigen, kollaborativen Umgang mit digitalen Kulturgütern (BAK, Berne 2009)

 
Responsibility

• Tabea Lurk
• Jürgen Enge