Archiving Complex Digital Artworks

Journal of the Institute of Conservation, 2019 Vol. 42, No. 2, 94–113, https://doi.org/10.1080/19455224.2019.1604398 Dušan Barok , Julie Boschat Thorez , Annet Dekker, David Gauthier and Claudia Roeck Archiving complex digital artworks Abstract The transmission of the documentation of changes made in each presentation of an artwork and the motivation behind each display are of importance to the continued preservation, re-exhibition and future understanding of artworks. However, it is generally acknowledged that existing digital archiving and documentation systems used by many museums are not suitable for complex digital artworks. Looking for an approach that can easily be adjusted, shared and adopted by others, this article focusses on open- source alternatives that also enable collaborative working to facilitate the sharing and changing of information. As an interdisciplinary team of conservators, researchers, artists and programmers, the authors set out to explore and compare the functionalities of two systems featuring version control: MediaWiki and Git. We reflect on their technical details, virtues and shortcomings for archiving complex digital artworks, while looking at the potential they offer for collaborative workflows. Keywords art documentation; archiving; preservation; media conservation; complex digital art; version control Introduction In 2017 UBERMORGEN, a Swiss-Austrian-American artist duo, submitted a selection of their works to be taken into the collection of LIMA, a platform for media art in Amsterdam. UBERMORGEN’s main body of work consists of internet art, installation, video art, photography, software art and performance, and uses the convergence of digital media to produce and publish online and offline. Most of their early works were media hacking projects using low-tech tools to reach large audiences. As part of LIMA’s event series Cultural Matter—about the preservation, presentation and distribution of digital art—researcher and artist Julie Boschat Thorez was asked to select one of the artworks as a starting point to discuss and con- textualise the art historical and technical importance of their works. She selected Chinese Gold (2006–ongoing), a project on the phenomenon of industrial-scale gold mining in the online video game World of Warcraft and operated from China. The project seemed to be the best candidate because some time had passed since it was initiated and it had been exhib- ited several times in multiple ways. It also represents the type of work UBER- MORGEN is known for, involving a lot of research from which different works develop. Hence, a careful consideration of the contexts and history was needed to understand the meaning of the work and any of its subsequent preservation measures. Some of the first questions focussed on the different elements of the work: what was the difference between the work and the documentation? What should be considered as research or contextual material and what should be seen as the actual work? Would it be necessary to make such distinctions? How to preserve and present a work that does not have a determined form? To provide some answers to those questions, many discussions took place with the artists, who also gave access to their extensive (Received 16 January 2019; Accepted 3 April 2019) © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Archiving complex digital artworks 95 archive of the project, which complemented the information already gath- ered through online research. The first step was to list all the work’s elements and the multiple presenta- tions, both online and offline, and with this information in place, and together with the help of the artists, an extensive description of the project could be made as well as a choice about which elements to keep. Chinese Gold can 1 be described as a complex digital artwork —a heterogeneous assemblage, 1 In contemporary art conservation, from which the various elements can be combined, composed and compiled complex artworks have been con- in different ways, at different times and locations (online and offline) and by sidered to be installations and other 2 types of work with one or more of the different people. The next step involved the current research team thinking following elements: variable form (e.g. about all these types of documents, documentation and other materials that involving non-dedicated, replaceable were collected and how to archive them in a way that would do justice to the components), conceptual or otherwise ever-changing nature of the work, in such a way that it would also be useful for immaterial features crucial for re-exhibi- future preservation projects. tion, being process-based and being ’ open-ended—see, among others, Pip The transmission of an artist s research, the documentation of any Laurenson, ‘The Conservation and changes in the presentation of the work, and the motivation behind each Documentation of Video Art’,in display are of importance to the continued preservation, re-exhibition Modern Art: Who Cares? (Amsterdam: and future understanding of the work. However, it is generally acknowl- Foundation for the Conservation of edged that existing digital archiving and documentation systems used by Modern Art, 1999). many museums, such as The Museum System or Adlib, are not suitable 2 A similar way of working, and thus set for these particular kinds of artworks due to their rigidity. For example, of challenges, is inherent in many digital one cannot easily represent changes in the evolution of the work, nor artworks, including mouchette.org by 3 Martine Neddam, the practice of show the relations between its different elements. Even though standard Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries or schema can be adjusted to specific needs, most applications are developed Lynn Hershman Leeson. For more infor- by commercial companies and this kind of flexibility comes at a price. More- mation see, for example, Annet Dekker, over, proprietary solutions usually have high licensing costs and lack a more Gabriella Giannachi, and Vivian van ‘ open model of governance. To move away from these systems and, more Saaze, Expanding Documentation, and Making the Most of the “Cracks in the importantly, looking for an approach that can easily be adjusted, shared Wall”’,inDocumenting Performance. and adopted by others, the research team focussed on open-source The Context and Processes of Digital alternatives that would also enable collaborative working to facilitate the Curation and Archiving, ed. Toni Sant (future) sharing and changing of information. With this choice, the team (London/New York: Bloomsbury, 2017), – also hoped to build alliances with existing communities of practice, 61 78; and Annet Dekker, Collecting and Conserving Net Art: Moving testing and using open-source alternative documentation systems. beyond Conventional Methods (Oxon: While the research presented here is not focussed on preservation of the Routledge, 2018). different elements of an artwork, it does provide a means to discuss alterna- 3 Cf. Annet Dekker and Patricia Falcão, tive ways of documenting the changes and different versions of an artwork ‘Interdisciplinary Discussions about the that take place in its biography and exhibition history, which are important Conservation of Software-Based Art. to consider for both future redisplays and preservation of the work.4 In this Community of Practice on Software- sense the research builds on discussions around the value of allographic Based Art’, PERICLES, March 2017, provenance and versioning in relation to complex artworks.5 As an interdis- http://www.tate.org.uk/download/file/ fid/108032 (accessed 23 September ciplinary team of conservators, researchers, artists and programmers, we 2018); Deena Engel and Glenn are determined to explore and compare the functionalities of two Wharton, ‘Managing Contemporary Art systems featuring version control and web interface: MediaWiki and Git, Documentation in Museums and and its associated repository manager GitLab.6 Special Collections’, Art Documen- Another reason for taking this direction relates to several early steps that tation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America 36, no. 2 were done in archival and conservation practices to test the usefulness of (2017): 293–311. wiki-based platforms and version control systems for documenting art- 7 4 On an artwork’s biography see, for works. This research could be useful to further the discussion and example, Renée van de Vall et al., expand the working methods and possibilities. ‘Reflections on a Biographical Approach The study then focussed on how the version control elements of these to Contemporary Art Conservation’,in systems encourages collaboration between conservators, curators and/or ICOM-CC 16th Triennial Conference— artists in archiving complex digital artworks by reflecting on the technical Lisbon 2011, ed. J. Bridgland (Almada: Critério, 2011), 1–8. details of the different systems, their virtues and shortcomings. 5 For more information see, for ‘ Chinese Gold: the data instance, Renée van de Vall, Document- ing Dilemmas. On the Relevance of Ethi- UBERMORGEN were founded in 1995 by Lizvlx and Hans Bernhard. cally Ambiguous Cases’, Revista de Together they developed a series of landmark projects in digital art, Journal of the Institute of Conservation Vol. 42 No. 2 2019 96 Barok, Boschat Thorez, Dekker, Gauthier and Roeck História da Arte (2015): 7–17; and including Vote-Auction (2000), a media performance involving a false site Dekker, Collecting and Conserving Net where Americans could supposedly put their vote up for auction, and Art, 127–39. Google Will Eat Itself (GWEI) (2005, in collaboration with Alessandro Ludo- ’ 6 This research began with the ‘Version- vico and Paolo Cirio), a project that proposed using Google s own advertis- ing the Networked Archive’ workshop ing revenue to buy up every single share in the company.

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