Collecting and Conserving Net Art Collecting and Conserving Net Art explores the qualities and characteristics of net art and its influence on conservation practices. By addressing and answering some of the challenges facing net art and providing an exploration of its intersection with conservation, the book casts a new light on net art, conservation, curating and museum studies. Viewing net art as a process rather than as a fixed object, the book considers how this is influenced by and executed through other systems and users. Arguing that these processes and networks are imbued with ambiguity, the book suggests that this is strategically used to create suspense, obfuscate existing systems and disrupt power structures. The rapid obsolescence of hardware and software, the existence of many net artworks within restricted platforms and the fact that artworks often act as assemblages that change or mutate, make net art a challenging case for conservation. Taking the performative and interpretive roles conservators play into account, the book demonstrates how practitioners can make more informed decisions when responding to, critically analyzing or working with net art, particularly software-based processes. Collecting and Conserving Net Art is intended for researchers, academics and postgraduate students, especially those engaged in the study of museum studies, conservation and heritage studies, curatorial studies, digital art and art history. The book should also be interesting to professionals who are involved in the conservation and curation of digital arts, performance, media and software. Annet Dekker is Assistant Professor Media Studies: Archival and Information Studies at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Visiting Professor and co-director of the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University, UK. Other recent publications include Lost and Living (in) Archives (2017). Collecting and Conserving Net Art Moving beyond Conventional Methods Annet Dekker First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Annet Dekker The right of Annet Dekker to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-8153-8241-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-20863-5 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Voor Corrie, Neely, Bep ContentsContentsContents List of figures viii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 Net art 19 2 Documenting variability 34 3 Networks of care 71 4 Following process and openness 99 5 Authentic alliances 126 6 What is a document? 143 7 Conclusion 162 Bibliography 167 Index 189 FiguresFiguresFigures 0.1 JODI, Jet Set Willy FOREVER, 2013. Floorplan of the game. Installation shot MU Eindhoven. 2 1.1 Olia Lialina, Summer, 2013–present. Screenshot, 12 October 2017. 23 1.2 Übermorgen, The Project Formerly Known As Kindle Forkbomb, 2011–13. Installation shot Kunsthal Aarhus, 2013. 26 1.3 JODI, wwwwwwwww.jodi.org, 1993–present. Screenshot, 15 November 2013. 28 2.1 Blast Theory, Uncle Roy All Around You, 2003. 40 2.2 Blast Theory, Uncle Roy All Around You, 2003. 44 2.3 Blast Theory, Uncle Roy All Around You, 2003. 47 2.4 Blast Theory, Uncle Roy All Around You, 2003. 59 3.1 Martine Neddam, mouchette.org, 1997. 75 3.2 Martine Neddam, Guerrilla Fanshop, 2011–present. 77 3.3 Martine Neddam, Guerrilla Fanshop, 2011. Presentation at SKOR, Amsterdam July 2011. 77 3.4 Martine Neddam, mouchette.net. 88 4.1 Dave Griffiths,Aymeric Mansoux, Marloes de Valk, Naked on Pluto, 2010–present. 100 4.2 Dave Griffiths,Aymeric Mansoux, Marloes de Valk, Naked on Pluto, 2010–present. 102 4.3 Dave Griffiths,Aymeric Mansoux, Marloes de Valk, Naked on Pluto, 2010–present. Installation shot ARCO/VIDA13 Madrid, 2013. 111 AcknowledgementsAcknowledgementsAcknowledgements This book emerged from my activities as a curator at the Netherlands Media Art Institute/Montevideo in Amsterdam between 1998 and 2008. The research for the book developed and evolved during the subsequent years while I worked at Virtueel Platform (2008–10) and SKOR (2010–12), who both partly ensured an outcome with their financial support. Finally, all the work culminated in my PhD at the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths University of London in 2014. At the moment of writing the final manuscript, merely three years later, none of these institutes exist anymore. Some have completely disappeared, others have merged with others into new constellations, and in other cases some parts remained and transformed into new organizations, continuing some things while letting go of others. The main cases I analyzed for this book continue to thrive, despite chang- ing social situations and ongoing technical updates. I want to thank all the artists I worked with for their endurance and for convinc- ing me to allocate part of my time to their works’ survival, – in whatever way or version it may be – in particular, Blast Theory, Constant Dullaart, Dave Griffiths, JODI, Aymeric Mansoux, Martine Neddam and Marloes de Valk. I am also grate- ful to Matthew Fuller and Olga Goriunova for their enduring support, critical commentaries and fun, as well as Mark Poysden for his splendid editorial work in general, his acerbic wit and exasperating meticulousness. Once my quest to explore the world of conservation began, I was grateful to be able to join the project New Strategies in the Conservation of Contemporary Art, a collaborative research undertaken by Maastricht University, the University of Amsterdam and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. The knowledge I have gained in the area of conservation is largely due to the countless fascinating stories, support and constructive feedback in our many meetings. Special thanks go to Renée van de Vall, Vivian van Saaze, Angela Matyssek, Tatja Scholte, IJs- brand Hummelen, Sanneke Sigter, Hanna Hölling, Deborah Cherry, as well as Ariane Noël de Tilly, Paolo Martore, and Panda de Haan for our many exciting discussions – and those yet to come! My practical knowledge of conservation continued to grow after finish- ing my PhD, for which I would like to acknowledge the invaluable support of Gaby Wijers (Lima), Pip Laurenson (Tate), Patricia Falcão (Tate), Joanna Phil- lips (Guggenheim), Mark Hellar (Hellar Studios LLC/SFMOMA), Deena Engel x Acknowledgements (NYU), Dragan Espenschied (Rhizome), Agathe Jarczyk (Hochschule der Kün- ste Bern), Arnaud Obermann (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart), Ben Fino-Radin (Small Data Industries), Kate Lewis (MoMA), Klaus Rechert (University of Freiburg/ bwFLA), Martina Haidvogl (SFMOMA), Emanuel Lorrain (Packed), Morgane Stricot (ZKM-Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe), Claudia Röck (University of Amsterdam), Dušan Barok (University of Amsterdam) and Julie Boschat Thorez. Furthermore, I would like to thank those who encouraged me in the past years to continue pursuing the publication of this book, I am grateful for the inspir- ing conversations and the support you gave me – Christiane Paul, Juan Martín Prada, Beryl Graham, Sarah Cook, Gabriella Giannachi, Jill Sterrett, Layna White, Susan Collins, Ann Butler, Paul O’Neill, Edward Shanken, Tina Basta- jian, Andrew Dewdney, Katrina Sluis, Magda Tyzlik-Carver and the students and researchers of the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University. I am happy to acknowledge that parts of the introduction and of Chapters 3 and 5 dedicated to JODI and mouchette.org were previously published in Christiane Paul’s edited volume A Companion to Digital Art (New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016); some of the section on ‘authentic alliances’ in Chapter 5 was published in Authenticity in Transition, edited by Erma Hermens and Frances Robertson (London: Archetype Publications, 2016); and parts on the conservation of mou- chette.org were published by Necsus. European Journal of Media Studies (in #5 Traces, June 2014); excerpts from Chapter 2 about the documentation approach of Blast Theory were published in Preserving and Exhibiting Media Art: Challenges and Perspectives, edited by Cosetta Saba, Julia Noordegraaf, Barbara Le Maître, Vinzenz Hediger (Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press, 2013); and finally, the ideas about boundary objects in Chapter 2 were previously published as a co-authored article with Vivian van Saaze in the International Journal of Perfor- mance Arts and Digital Media (Vol. 9, No. 1, 2013). I am deeply grateful to the editors (and the reviewers) of these volumes for their critical feedback and gener- ous support. After this initial publication, their comments kept resonating when rewriting and re-contextualizing these sections for this book. Last but not least, I want to thank those of you who supported me throughout by making time for coffee, drinks, walks, dinners or providing chocolate while trying to understand what I was doing. To enduring and evolving friendships! A special mention to Annette Wolfsberger for her everlasting enthusiasm and for allowing me indefinite access to her Facebook account, and Ward ten Voorde for his lone- some summer holiday. The research in this book was partly realized with the financial support of Vir- tueel Platform (2008–11), SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Domain) (2012– 3), Mondriaan Fund (2013), and the Creative Industries Fund NL, digital culture (2016).