Theories, methods and testbeds for curation and preservation of digital art

Abstract

This paper presents the activities and first results of a case study based research on preservation of digital art, with an overview of key challenges surrounding the creation, management and longterm accessibility of digital art and investigation of experimental testbeds to tackle these challenges. An outline of the results of the onsite visit conducted at the pioneering ZKM Media Museum is also provided. So far, the theoretical aspects of the problem of digital art preservation and curation have been examined without much grounding in experimentation, and not responding to the theoretical and methodological dilemmas posed by digital art (e.g. transience, emergence, and lack of fixity). One of the reasons for this is that research in digital art requires an experimental testbed in which to examine the implications of different preservation approaches and the impact they have on the works of art themselves. The goal of this investigation is to develop a theoretical framework against which languages and their notational systems proposed for preserving digital art can be evaluated