The conservation and restoration of new media art is the study and practice of techniques for sustaining new media art created using from materials such as digital, biological, performative, and other variable media.
New media art runs a unique risk when it comes to longevity that has resulted in the development of new and different preservation and restoration strategies and tools.
To preserve and restore these pieces of new media art, there are a variety of strategies including storage, migration, emulation, and reinterpretation. There are even more tools used to implement these strategies including Archivematica, BitCurator, Conifer, Media Info, PRONOM, QC Tools, and the Variable Media Questionnaire. The common metadata schema used for new media art is Media Art Notation System (MANS). Despite the name "new media art", there is a diverse history of preservation and restoration efforts including both individual efforts and consortium efforts.
Preservation strategies
Storage The acquisition and storage of the physical media-equipment, such as DVD players or computers, used in multi-media or digital artworks has proven a short-term tactic at best, as hardware can quickly become obsolete or can 'stale' in storage. Storage is also notoriously bad at capturing the contextual and live aspects of works such as Internet art, performance art and live electronic music.
Storage involves keeping documents in their original formats whenever possible to maintain authenticity; keeping metadata updated to aid in finding and understanding the preservation strategies taken so far; keeping documents on reliable, non-proprietary software that users would be the most likely to already have or easily get access to; storing multiple copies of bitstreams; replacing the carriers when new, more widely used ones become available.Oliver, G. (2016). Digital curation. Chicago: ALA Neal-Schuman. .
Migration To migrate a work of art is to upgrade its format from an aged medium to a more current one, such as from VHS to DVD, accepting that some changes in quality may occur while still maintaining the integrity of the original. This strategy assumes that preserving the content or information of an artwork, despite its change in media, trumps concerns over fidelity to the original look and feel.
Migration must take place regularly or the original piece may become obsolete with no way to update it to a newer format for accessibility.Owens, T. (2018). The theory and craft of digital preservation. Johns Hopkins University Press. . Migration is especially important when the file is saved on proprietary software like Microsoft Word, Prezi, Archives Space, etc. In the process of migration, a document can be stored in its original form and also migrated to a non-proprietary form in order to maintain authenticity while also providing long-term access.
Emulation The process of simulating an older operating system (or by extension, other supporting infrastructure) on a newer software or hardware platform is called emulation. The idea behind emulation is to maintain the original format and feel of the piece of new media art. Emulation software allows users and researchers to view complex pieces of art like video games, virtual reality, etc. in a way that it was intended to be viewed. Emulation is especially important for art created on proprietary software or software that many users and researchers might not have access to. The emulation software allows them to view the document even without the original software.Introduction to digital preservation: Emulation. Bodleian Libraries, (2021, July 29). University of Oxford. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
Seeing Double: an emulation testbed In 2004, the Guggenheim Museum, in conjunction with the Daniel Langlois Foundation, held an exhibition entitled Seeing Double: Emulation in Theory and PracticeSeeing double: Emulation in theory and practice. (2004). Variable Media. https://www.variablemedia.net/e/seeingdouble/ as a trial of emulation. In the exhibition, artworks operating on their original physical media were displayed alongside versions emulated on newer physical media. The exhibition was organized with the participation of computer researcher and emulation specialist, Jeff Rothenberg. In 1998, Rothenberg had published "Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital Preservation".Rothenberg, J. (1998). Avoiding technological quicksand: Finding a viable technical foundation for digital preservation. (Report). (1999 full text Archived August 22, 2016 at the Wayback Machine).
Reinterpretation Reinterpretation is the final storage form and is only considered when all other storage forms are not available. Reinterpretation involves changing the essence of the art with or without the artist's approval for preservation purposes. This could involve re-coding for access, recasting a piece in a more modern, durable medium, and more. This technique does not maintain authenticity the way the other strategies do, but it can be the most effective. Therefore, it is considered best practice to only use reinterpretation when all other strategies are deemed inappropriate.Wijers, G. (n.d.). Unfold: The strategic importance of reinterpretation for media art mediation & conservation.
Preservation tools Because the conservation and restoration of new media art is a craft, not a science, not every preservation strategy will work for every piece of new media art. Repositories have to make decisions based on the complexities of each individual piece. They will each have their own unique needs, interests, and priorities. Repositories and individual conservators keep up with new tools and technologies available to aid in preservation.Zhao, J. (2021). Methods and tools. Media Artists Speak. https://mediaartistsspeak.org/methods-and-tools/ Retrieved: October 26, 2021.
Archivematica Archivematica is an "integrated suite of open source software tools".Archivematica: Open-source digital preservation system. (n.d.). Archivematica. https://www.archivematica.org/en/ . Retrieved October 21, 2021. It allows repositories to store their documents there for the long-term while also keeping up to date with current industry standards such as Dublin Core, AIPs, etc. Repositories started using Archivematica to address the gap between storage and actual preservation. It helps them along with every step in archival processing.
Bit Curator Bit Curator can be used as a way to examine a collection without going through each individual piece of art. Conservators can upload bulk files and Bit Curator will examine the trends and patterns. From there, repositories can decide what to focus on and which pieces need attention.Bit curator. (2019, January 3). Bit Curator. https://bitcurator.net/. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
Conifer Conifer creates an archive of any page you visit while you browse. It is useful for conservators because they do not have to collect the webpage materials themselves. Everything you see is archived. Unlike other web archives like Wayback Machine, Conifer captures images, video, etc. of pages that can only be seen by you. They capture material that is password protected. From there, conservators can go through the collection themselves to sort, arrange, describe, add metadata, etc.Conifer. (n.d.) Rhizome. https://conifer.rhizome.org/. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
Media Info Media Info is primarily used for audio and visual files. They only take certain formats so more unconventional formats must be converted. This software verifies technical metadata and makes sure everything is working properly and up to date.
PRONOM PRONOM is a resource for information on "file formats, software products, and other technical components".The UK National Archives. (n.d.). PRONOM. The National Archives. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/Default.aspx#. Retrieved October 21, 2021. It helps to ensure the conservation and long-term access to a variety of documents. This information is marketed toward anyone interested in learning more. It is not exclusive to archivists and conservators.
QC Tools QC Tools filters video files to help repositories analyze the contents of the video.
Variable Media Questionnaire The Variable Media Questionnaire is a free web service that allows new media curators and repositories to share the most effective strategies of preservation for different forms of new media art. It focuses particularly on creating guidelines for preserving the art once the original medium or software is not available.Depocas, A; et al. (2003). Permanence through change: The variable media approach. New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications. They utilize the four main preservation strategies while recommending the specific mediums and software and work for different types of art.Variable media questionnaire:A forging the future project. (n.d.). Variable Media Questionnaire. https://variablemediaquestionnaire.net/. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
Involving artists in preservation The future of new media conservation and restoration involves more collaboration between artists and curators.Anderson, D. and Delve, J. (Eds) (2014), Preserving Complex Digital Objects, Facet Publishing, London. When preservation efforts are taken earlier in the creation of the work, future preservation becomes easier and more effective. The artist does not necessarily know the steps that must be taken to accurately preserve new media art and the curator does not necessarily know the artistic intentions of the creator. When these two work together throughout the creation and transfer to a repository, the conservation of the piece will last longer and the intentions of the artist will be honored. Without these efforts, many new media art pieces will not be properly preserved and will never be moved to a repository.Biggs, S. (2014), "Make or break? Concerning the value of redundancy as a creative strategy", in Anderson, D. and Delve, J. (Eds), Preserving Complex Digital Objects, Facet Publishing, London, pp. 21-29. The earlier the intervention, the easier it is going to be for the curator to ensure long-term preservation. Steps can be taken to make sure the new media art is around for future use. Those steps can involve the preservation strategies and tools described above, but the piece can only be preserved if it exists in a state where curators can access and modify it. For example, if it exists on a software that is already obsolete, it cannot be migrated.
Metadata standards
Media Art Notation System (MANS) The Media Art Notation System is a formal notation system introduced by Richard Rinehart, Digital Media Director and Adjunct Curator, Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, in 2007. It was developed in response to a need for a "new approach to conceptualizing digital and media art forms". Rinehart compares MANS to a musical score. An ensemble can change out the instruments, but it will still be the same piece of music as long as they follow the score. In the same way, digital media can be separated from its software and still produce the same computational result. When digital media is presented using a different hardware or software, it may appear slightly different, but it will still be the same piece of media art.
MANS uses XML to present the metadata specifically because it allows the coder to define the framework of the digital media while allowing for variations in how it presents itself. This is particularly useful for conservation because it allows future users to examine the document in a system that works for multiple different pieces of art. If the software or materials for one piece of art becomes obsolete, future researchers will be able to examine the new media art via XML and map it onto a newer schema.