Conserving Digital Art for Deep Time
Francis T. Marchese
Pace University, New York
http://csis.pace.edu/~marchese
fmarchese@pace.edu
Venice, Winter Morning on the Grand Canal, January 2011
Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child with SS. Nicholas, Peter, Mark, and Benedict, 1488.
Tempera on panel, S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice
Challenge
• Year 2511
• Curate show of time-based digital artwork
from 1st decade of 21st century
• What kinds of works will be available?
• What will be the format of theses works?
Problems: Change and Diversity
• Diversity of programming languages
– C/C++, Java, JavaScript, C#, Flash, HTML, XML, Python,
Processing, Perl, and Max/MSP.
• Diversity of development libraries
– mobile apps, sound composition, virtual worlds, and computer
games
• Software substrates in continuous flux
– operating systems and network protocols evolving, database
formats changing, and globally accessible resources either
disappearing or becoming redistributed
• Hardware - guaranteed obsolescence
Digital Art Conservation c. 2011
• Stockpile computer technology - replace
when it fails.
• Archive computer programs to durable
media.
• Refresh to new storage medium when
either it decays or becomes obsolete.
• Attempt to Document artwork.
Digital Art Conservation c. 2511?
• Proceeds from redefinition of artwork’s identity.
(Pip Laurenson, Tate Modern, 2006)
• A digital work should be considered as a
collection of properties which include:
– the artist's instructions
– approved installations intended to act as models
– an understanding of the context in which the art was
made
– the degree to which the artist specifications reflect his
or her practice at the time the art was created.
• Hence – Documentation !
Software Engineering (SE)
Requirements
Art
Historians
Viewers
Maintainable
Process
Artists
Installers
Museum
Donors
Curators
Museum
Directors
Conservators
Maintainers
Stakeholders
Maintainable
Product
SE and Documentation
SE - systematic methodology for creating and
maintaining documentation
Documentation :
• Intrinsic part of any system
• Supports communication & preservation of
system and institutional memory
• Works with all stakeholders
• Supplies comprehensive information about a
computer system’s:
– capabilities, architecture, design details, features, and
limitations
Kinds of Documentation
Requirements
•
What the artwork is supposed to do – its conceptual foundation.
Architecture/Design
•
What are the essential parts of the system and how do they fit
together. (Usually expressed as diagrams.)
Technical
•
Source code, algorithms, comments within source code.
End User
•
Manuals (e.g. static documents, hypermedia, training videos, etc.)
for end-user, administrators, and support staff.
Supplementary Materials
•
Anything else (e.g. legal documents, design histories, interviews,
scholarly books, installation plans, drawings, models, documentary
videos, websites, etc.)
Adapting the Software Development
Lifecycle
Determine
Requirements
Evaluate
Analyze &
Design
Deploy
Test
Build
I Want You to Want Me (2008) - Jonathan Harris & Sep Kamvar
• Interactive installation about online dating at MoMA
• Sky filled with 100s of pink and blue balloons, each
representing an individual's online dating profile.
• Viewers touch individual balloons to reveal personal
information about the dater found inside
Trigger (2005) – Jodi Zellen
• Sensor-activated, immersively projected, interactive art
installation at the Pace Digital Gallery (NYC).
• Explored transient stories that emerge from our relationships
with urban spaces.
• Filled gallery with overlapping videos from 7 projectors,
infusing its space with transient sounds.
Which to show in 500 years?
I Want You to Want Me
• Distributed architecture
• Multiple operating
systems
• Several programming
languages & APIs
• Unknown data mining
algorithms
• Hardware Dependence
• No source code
Trigger
•
•
•
•
Simple architecture
Sufficient documentation
Clear requirements
No source code
Finally: For Future Art Historians
• Authorship
– Was it in the hand of the artist, or was it built by others?
• Educational/Cultural Context
– Who influenced the artist conceptually or technologically?
• Craftsmanship
– How well was the program written and system built?
• Aesthetics
– How well conceived and designed is the software?
• Development Process
– What were the design strategies used by the artist?
• Technical Context
– What were the development tools available at the time the
artwork was created?
• Theoretical Foundation
– What theories of computing did the artist use?
Conclusions
• Display of digital art at some time in the
distant future remains an open problem
• Solution will come from efforts by artists,
conservators, and curators
• Software engineering practices allow
transformation of conservation practices
• Process will aid digital art scholarship
Future Work
• Engage conservators and curators to
integrate SE process into museum
acquisition and conservation practice
• Engage digital artists and art educators to
investigate how SE methods may be
adapted and integrated into digital art
education
Thank you !