what to curate? preserving and curating software-based art
DESCRIPTION
This is a presentation given at the CHArt (Computers and History of Art) conference held in London in November 2011. The slides on the title page are images taken from works exhibited at the V&A Decode exhibition.TRANSCRIPT
What to Curate? Preserving & Curating Software-Based Art
Neil Grindley – JISC Programme Manager, Digital Preservation
Records and Asset Management
Repositories & Preservation
Preservation Exemplar projects
Implementing Preservation Tools
The Business Case for Preservation
EnhancingSustainabilityand Assessing the VALUE of Digital Assets
Preservation/Curation – activity in the UK 2004 - 2011
But Digital Preservation / Curation has a problem …
Definition
The series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary.
It starts off relatively simply …
The 3 principle strategies for preservation
Technology PreservationPreserve the original software (and perhaps the hardware) that was used to create and access the information
Technology EmulationProgramme current computing environments to emulate older obsolete platforms and operating systems
Information MigrationEnsure that information is re-encoded into new formats before the old format is obsolete and inaccessible
Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model
Then it starts to get complicated …
And it quickly gets very complicated indeed …
A work in progress … component preservation & curation tasks?
All of this complexity and where have we got to so far …?
Bit-level preservation
Document type objects
Terabyte-scale homogeneous collections
Mixed unfamiliar collections
Petabyte-scale collections & datasets
Research data
Complex digital objects
A Java and Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) framework translates a stream of fluctuating information into a metaphorical cityscape based on modernist aesthetics of skyscrapers and urban grids.
Requirements: * note * The Cortona3D Viewer is not available for OS X. On these systems FreeWRL can be used to render most aspects of the work. [ online ] Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 computer system with Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome, the Cortona3D Viewer 6, Adobe Flash 10 and Windows Media Player 11 plugins, and 5.1 or stereo audio. A high-specification CPU/GPU, colour display with ≥1024x768 resolution and 512+ kb/s Internet connection are recommended. [ gallery ] High-specification Windows XP/Vista/7 computer system capable of real-time high definition 3D rendering. Multi or single channel high definition video system. 5.1 or 2.1 audio system. HCI device for user navigation. Documentation Images:
Without Whom: Nathalie Hénon + Jean-François Rettig ( curation ) . Hugh Denard ( discourse ) Supported by: King's Visualisation Lab, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London.[ HELP/SETUP . © TAKEO 2009 ]
POCOS Symposia
POCOS focus on three interrelated areas of complex object genres and the respective digital preservation issues:
Visualisations and SimulationsSoftware ArtGaming Environments and Virtual Worlds
http://www.pocos.org/
“Best before… software artworks may be seen after this date; however their quality may be affected by improper storage”
Vicky Isley and Paul Smithboredomresearch / NCCA, Bournemouth University, UK
Possessed is an online artwork commissioned by Artsway, contemporary visual arts venue, New Forest in Dec 2000 and funded by the Arts Council of England. The project was live from May 2001 - February 2003
Possessed explored our relationship with unexplained digital phenomena. The user downloaded two pieces of software from the web: a Spook Generator, which creates spooks, and a Spook Player, to play spooks. Once installed on a user’s computer, the spooks would gradually make themselves known through their behaviour made visible to the user on screen. They could be friendly, violent, perverted or prophetic. After a time spooks began to ask questions. By responding, users would further affect their spook¹s development. Many played pranks unexpectedly: moving icons, opening windows and giving fake error messages. Love letters left by spooks on their hard drives fascinated some users. All spooks would ask the user to help them find a file. Users began to contact each other via the Possessed website trying to find the code their spook was searching for. Every user could experience a completely different phenomenon. For some, the experience was addictive; others fell in love with their spooks; others found them too annoying and deleted the spook software from their machine.
What are the key elements of preservation and curation practice that we need to adopt when approaching the preservation and curation of software art?
Bit preservation! Effective backup, redundancy, replication
Effective description (representation information)
Technological preservation, emulation, software preservation
Original File
Hardware & Software
Preservation Action Updated File
Updated Hardware & Software
Is it a ‘good enough’ representation of the original object?
MigrateEmulateRefresh
Significant Properties
See also: Significant Characteristics & Transformational Information Propertieshttp://www.planets-project.eu/docs/papers/Dappert_SignificantCharacteristics_ECDL2009.pdfhttp://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/0wf3j9cw#page-1
Is it pointless even contemplating trying to preserve software art if you don’t have technical skills or preservation experience?
Potential Customer/Service Framework for a Preservation Service Environment
The practicality and efficacy of having a disruptive technology exist in an everyday computing environment and the difficulty of communicating and documenting the experience
The cost/ benefit calculation of sustaining access to the data sources and maintaining the integrity of the concept
The ethical and legal issues of inflicting pain and infringing IPR
What are the underlying important issues …?
There may be added complexity in preserving complex art objects!
The added complexity needs to be tackled by non-technical curators.