RDLP / Russian Digital Libraries Journal / Year 2005 / Issue 3

2005 | Volume 8 | Issue 3

Methods and Policy in the Field of Media Art Preservation

Konstantin Bokhorov, Olga Shishko
Center of Culture and Art “MediaArtLab” (Russia)

The Art of modernity is mainly media art founded on two basic ideas of scientific paradigm of the 20th century:

“Meaning is use” (L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 1953); “The medium is the message” (M. McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964).
Art and culture nowadays are developing in a result of reconsidering and using new technologies by the artists and their adaptation in “semeiosphere”.

Approach to media art should be conceptualised from two different perspectives. Firstly, media art is an important tool for the animation and preservation of cultural heritage, i. e. of interactivity and digitalisation. Secondly, media art itself should be considered as a subject to cultural preservation, i. e. it should be institutionalised and technically and conceptually supported.

At the present time Centre of Art and Culture MediaArtLab1 is a unique institution in Russia that practices this complex approach to the media. In Russia these ideas still haven’t received wide recognition of public and culture administration. The situation abroad is better but media art is still unjustly treated as specific cultural field. We, all the media art activists, recommend to the UNESCO at the threshold of the society of knowledge and information to reconsider this issue and include thesis about media art and its important role in modern culture in its documents.

Video / Media Art and Increasing Pace of Technological Development

The theoretical research and social environment of the 1950-60s inevitably led to the new generation philosophy. Beginning in the 1960s there has been an increasing interest of artists to the electronic technology and to the information systems as a cultural environment. The retrospective analysis of the early video art, organised by “Аrs Electronica” (1992), demonstrated that the simultaneous emergence of video art and electronic technology of the new generation in the late 1960s (later followed by media art and information technologies) represented a rather unique occurrence: an artist and an engineer engaged in a creative dialogue and became inseparable; their collaboration unified machine and masterpiece having demonstrated an unprecedented blend of their form and function. An interest to various means of audio and video art expression was an important factor of media art development: these were light, movement, sound, and, later, computer as a potential instrument of creating artwork.

The influence of science and technology upon art became irrefutable, and starting in the 1960s up to modern days we can observe the following:

The artists become interested in scientific and technical issues, such as interaction of humans and computer systems and creating artificial intelligence,
The virtual reality phenomenon appears,
The artists use computer technologies and complex engineering solutions,
Collaboration with technical professionals began, i.e., creation of interdisciplinary artistic associations, such as “The Kitchen” in New York and others.

Hence, the development of video and media art perplexed the modern art critics, who were now faced with the task of preserving, protecting and restoring the modern artwork, especially various “intangible” media artwork, as well as their representation in museum and exhibit environment.

Examples – Video Art:

Nam June Paik, U. S. A. “Magnetic TV”, 1965, Whitney Museum. The development of media art is permanently interrelated with the development of television technology. Its history was made by artists as well as specialists in electronics, who invented new ways of processing the electronic signal. Nam June Paik declares, “As collage technique replaced oil paint, so the cathode-ray tube will replace the canvas and soldering iron – a painting brush.” In the early sixties it was the soldering iron that was the main tool of television experimenters, because the effects they invented were based primarily upon the primitive ways of distorting the screen image – these ranged from powerful magnets that diverted electronic rays to artificial ethereal disturbance.

A Special Videotape Show exhibit, 1971, Whitney Museum of American Art, Massachusetts. This exhibit commemorated an inclusion of the video art concept into the discourse of critics, curators, and artists; the museums assisted in presenting and implementing the television art projects.

The first experiments with creating interactive video (Douglas Davis, 1976, Nam June Paik’s experiments with utilising the ATT telephone corporation technology, Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, public communication sculpture “Hole in Space”, 1980).

Bill Viola, U. S. A.: “Reverse Television – Portraits of Viewers”, 1983. The substitution of the television advertisement blocks with Bill Viola’s creation. This is the first example that leads us to a conclusion that some media artwork cannot be presented without their context. In this case all we have left is a conceptual framework and description of this project and some images that enable us to reconstruct this project in our imagination.

Application of new graphic medium in art leads to reconsidering its boundaries. Thus, video art of the 1960s and the art of electronic networks and telecommunication media of the 1980-2004 are unified by the following aspects:

The idea of collective creative work;
The search for possibilities of global communication, overcoming the cultural barriers with the ultimate goal of creating an “equitable dialogue”; and
The attempt to create a non-commercial form of art.

Examples – Media Culture and Mass Communication Media (Internet and radio):

“Sonic Projections from Schlossberg Graz” (1988, Linz, radio art). This initiative connected the public space (with points reminiscent of the national-socialistic times) and the radio. The media art required for its existence a certain space and certain culture that was capable of materialising its structures into something just as concrete as the electronic space of the global networks of international communications.

The international festival “TrashArt” (organiser – “MediaArtLab”) (Internet art.) The festival project author is Alexei Isaev, Russia (http://www.da-da-net.ru/TrashArt).

Bruce Sterling & Richard Kadrey, U. S. A. “The Dead Media project”, net art.

Ways of Classification and Identification

Proto-media art: narrow screen and short experimental cinema, media in conceptual art.

Video art: is divided into analogue and digital.
Analogue format, analogue technologies – analogue form of information translation represents the process of recording the vibration during signal transmission: the signal, transformed into the electronic impulses and then into the magnetic energy, is transferred onto a tape or a disc, and the original qualities are preserved.
Digital video with nonlinear montage and computer graphics.
The digital format, digital technologies – determine the characteristic of mathematical or physical quantity allowing only a limited number of values. The digital information is processed by the computer as a sequence of the information bytes, which is recognised only with mathematical values of the digital carriers 0 and 1.
Media in performing genres of the modern art.
Media (video) installations, Multimedia art.
Installations (with the use of computer multimedia technologies, interactive).
Interactive art – type of media and multimedia artwork, wherein interactivity plays the key role – a particular functional technological characteristic, allowing the user / spectator to physically interact with the artwork using various technological solutions. The interactive artwork can include media installations; artwork created in CD ROM format or in game format; artefacts (or projects) of network (or Internet) art.
CD ROM art, computer games as art projects, software as art projects.
Software art.
The existence of this category of works as a genre of modern art is still debated. The creative process in these works depends to a large extent on programming. The software is regarded not as a functional instrument upon which the artwork relies, but rather as a creative material. Software art is rather problematic in terms of the festival exposition. Since the creative process cannot be comprehended by the end result alone, meaning by the artwork in the form of the networked site, the installation or the program itself should be presented in another way.
Network art.
Online galleries.
Art servers.
Conceptual projects.
Mail art.
Shares, companies.
Projects with the use of video and audio networked technologies.
ASCII art (static and video).
Streaming media (networked radio, TV, hybrid media).
Multi-user projects (virtual cities, VRML art).

Institutionalisation of Media Art

Major Problems of Presenting the Media Artwork in Museum Environment. Reconsideration of the Concept of Art

The analysis of the historic development of media art technologies identifies two trends:

The first trend is related to photography, cinema, and TV and it is enabled by the media capacity of recreating the time and space as a contemplative experience. Following the painting traditions, the images here are situated behind the fixed frame and represent a rich sight, which opens to a passive viewer (video art).
The second trend is connected to the transformation of panoramic painting into the virtual reality that is based on the media technology’s capability of recreating time and space by forming their surrogate (interactive art.) The purpose in this case is elimination of the picture frame, which enables an active viewer to immerse into the reality and image.

With regard to the emergence of media art we can speak about re-conceptualisation of the very notion of art, primarily, of such concepts as author, artefact, and spectator:

The idea of authorship is replaced by the idea of multiple authors;
The spectator ceases to be a passive contemplator; the viewer becomes a user when encountering interactive artwork;
During the course of interactive viewer’s perception there is a change in the material characteristics of an image; as a result, the notion of a closed finite artefact is no longer valid;
The artefact as such disappears; it is replaced with communicative games and prompting the action.

The Perception Problem with Media Artwork

It is an old thesis that the art – or the artefact – exists only through the human perception with his mind, feelings, memory, and ability to express thoughts: it is the perception of the artwork that defines its meaning and significance.

Therefore, the active relationship between spectator and artwork results in the fact that spectator is “plugged in” to the artwork and becomes part of it.

Marcel Duchamp thematised the concept of art, perception of art and reality and made the spectator co-thinker, similarly to how John Cage gave the musician the option of choice. However, despite the theoretical clarity and confidence in the fact that the spectator is not merely a receiver of the “look from the picture” but is also a partner-creator, the statistical or recorded artwork are not relevant for truly engaging viewer into the artistic activity.

In the early sixties Fluxus was an artistic trend, which followed Dada, Marcel Duchamp, John Cage and others, and achieved new and real engagement of a spectator into the creative process as an active player. The artists strove to create only structures, so to speak “skeletons”; the spectator himself ought to turn them into a living flesh (Wulf Herzogenrath “Closed-Circuit Installations or Personal Experience with a Double”, Media Art, New Art World, 2000, Saint Petersburg).

Such Fluxus representatives as Nam June Paik and Wolf Fostel were the first to apply video communication aspects for engaging a spectator into the process of artwork creation. It was Paik who anticipated the birth of interactive and satellite television by creating “Participation TV”.

Interactive and Communicative Aspects of Art

The art continually joined new alliances, various practices were synthesised, and the productive critical dialogue took place between art and science, politics and economics; all of this led to the constant re-evaluation in the 1990s of the very nature of art and its concepts, such as author, artefact, and spectator. The goal of this re-evaluation is not a postmodernist death of an author, but rather a transformation of the very notion of authorship; the idea of a closed piece of artwork is no longer valid.

Spectator is no longer a passive viewer, s / he becomes a user.

An aesthetic object in the information society is not merely an “open artefact”, as Umberto Eco declared in 1962, neither is it a disconnected object. An artefact as such disappears: it is replaced by communicative games. Peter Wibel writes, “An art object in its traditional understanding is replaced by the open sphere of activity, wherein the new alliances are created between author, artefact and spectator, and the new “aktans” are working (modified author and modified spectator)… it should be noted that it is feasible to speak not so much about the products, but about the practices. Even if a spectator sees certain objects, the artwork as such still does not exist. Because the spectator may see only a consumer product and not an aesthetic object”.

Example: Etoy “Etoy”, net art.

Archiving, Disseminating and Promoting Media Art. The Issue of Copyright

Cataloguing Media Art

The modern art and, specifically, its part that works with modern technologies is a completely new cultural phenomenon, radically different from the traditional mainly in terms of the time parameters. The development of technologies requires professional examination, because their daily transformation leads to the change in technical orientation and “physical parameters” of the art itself.

Hence, the traditional cataloguing of the modern art – critical assessment from the historical standpoint – will become rather problematic in the future due to the fact that it will be impossible to subject a described object (artefact) to critique because its creation technique will be “lost”. In this situation the professional work of labelling, description, critical assessment, and cataloguing media art should already be starting at this time.

Professional Status of Media Culture

This work can be completed by professional expert groups, which include the representatives of traditional art critic, curators, critics-culturologists, as well as professional representatives of technological community. Hence, the work in the sphere of modern art, specifically with the group that has already gained a professional status of media culture and includes such types of art as video art, CD-ROM art, network art, interactive art, should be organised according to the following scheme:

Creating expert groups.
Selection and choice.
Creating classified archive and databases.
Form of presentation.

Mediathecas

The presentation of media culture contains prominent features of culture. Unfortunately, due to the fact that not all the exhibit platforms and museums (excluding the large western media centres) have the necessary equipment and methodology of working with media art, the mediathecas and virtual collections published on the Internet are the most feasible presentation form since the 1990s both in Europe and in Russia. Both forms of getting acquainted with this type of art are an innovation in Russia.

The mediatheca of the centre of culture and art “MediaArtLab” was created in Russia (it works in the House of Journalists with advance registration as well as in the form of the Internet archive on the basis of a unique database developed by the centre’s specialists). At this time the Mediatheca has collected, archived, and annotated over 1,500 artefacts of media art (http://www.mediaartlab.ru). In 2001 “MediaArtLab” held international conference in the Cinema House “Access to Excess” as part of the Media Forum; the conference discussed the problems of archiving and presenting media art (http://www.mediaforum.danet.ru/2001).

Creating the database of the audiovisual archive of the Centre of Culture and Art “MediaArtLab” – Internet archive of the projects of video art, interactive art, and network art – has touched upon the key problem of what should be preserved and archived. Should the work in general or its description be archived, which seems to be most fitting solution, if an artefact incorporates “real” elements and immediate social contact? Or should the technical copy be preserved for exact replication in a more modern technical format? What exactly should be considered an exact copy?

Finally, should the objects themselves be archived or their metadata? In some cases, such as with the infamous duet jodi.org.net.art, the artwork is created in a certain software format. One of the works by jodi.org was based upon a mistake of the Netscape 2.0 browser. What should be archived in such cases – the artwork itself together with the software required for its viewing, artwork and relevant plug-ins? And what about the hardware?

The question of what should be archived in terms of the technical aspect presents an even more difficult choice problem. For the most part, in the area of traditional culture and art the essence of the approach of cultural institutes and initiatives is precisely careful critical selection.

Methodology and Technology of Archiving Media Artwork

The problem of preserving media artwork has become rather topical in the last years. This is related to the fact that the artwork created using the media, especially its analogue forms, quickly loses its original quality. The key aspects of this problem include the following:

the most convenient formats for storing media artwork;
conservation and restoration of artwork;
transformation into other formats, different from the original one.

Archiving Criteria

There should be no visible changes of an image compared to the original.

The system should be compatible with industrial standards to the highest extent possible.

The system should work with cassettes in formats Betacam SP, U-matic, VHS, while preserving the highest image quality possible.

The possibility of montage and compilation should be present.

The archived materials should have a life span from long to very long.

The possibility of copying archived materials into any format (by request) without substantial loss in quality should be present.

The system should provide the possibility of transferring the archived material onto the new technologies and platforms that will appear in the 21st century.

Guidelines on Preserving Various Media

The Guggenheim Museum in new York in 2000 organised a conference, which was dedicated to the issue of preserving the valuable non?material media artwork of all types.

The conference raised a number of questions, for instance, whether video art should be preserved on videotapes or DVD discs, whether a museum can collect websites, and what the similarities are between preserving fragile installation and theatre performance.

Based upon this conference, the index was compiled for different media, which allowed for describing and analysing the media art monuments. Using this index, the students are supposed to compile a form on preservation and presentation of media art of student’s choice. If the index on different media states that the artwork should be “installed”, it means that installing it physically is somewhat more difficult than hanging it on a nail. Such an artwork could be intended for certain space or for use in a unusual place, for example, outside of a building or in a square. For such artwork there are special columns in the form, which deal with specifics of location, scale, public access and lighting.

Performance

The artwork that relates to the “performance” genre is not only dance, music, theatre and other performing art, but also other forms of art, for which the process is just as important as the end product. For such artwork the form offers – in addition to such traditional information, as actors, stage decoration and requisites – the instructions for curators, actors and others to follow in order to complete a certain artwork.

Interactivity

Although this term is most often used with regard to the electronic media, for instance, installations with computer control or websites, “interactivity” also can be used in describing the installations that allow a spectator to manipulate the individual physical components of the artwork and take them with him / her. The form stipulates for such data, as the interface type, methods by which the viewers can alter the artefact, and the form that registers these changes.

Multiplication

Within the media paradigm, one could speak of multiplication when copying the original results in lowering the quality. This concerns such media as analogue photography, film, audio and video.

Reproduction

If artwork can be reproduced, then copying does not result in decreased quality. This relates to the majority of the digital media as well as to the artefacts, which consist of the parts of industrial or mass production.

Encoding

This term is used for the artwork, which are written entirely or in part in the programming language (for example, soft-art in network art) or another language requiring interpretation, for instance the symbols of dance. In the artwork using non?digital component, the code can be archived separately in some cases.

Network Aspect

The network artwork is intended for viewing through the electronic communication network: local or the Internet. The media of this type include websites, e-mail, and streaming audio and video. It is necessary to take into account the strategies for marking the obsolescence of certain media in work description.

Storage

The most conservative collection strategy, which by default is used by the majority of museums is storing the artwork physically in the form of preserving the hardware or archiving digital files on a disc. Thus, storing one of the Flavin’s installations would mean the following: purchasing the light bulbs and placing them in a drawer. The biggest drawback of storing outdated material is self-destruction of artwork as the short-living materials cease to exist.

Imitation

To imitate an artwork means to repeat the original using completely different means. The disadvantages of imitation include its high cost and failure to correspond to the original idea.

Transfer (Migration)

In order to transfer artwork, it is necessary to upgrade equipment and materials. The strong drawback of the transfer is alteration in appearance of artwork due to such renovation.

Reinterpretation

The most radical preservation strategy is to reinterpret artwork with each new recreation. This is a dangerous technique, unless the artist him / herself stipulates for its use; however, it is possibly the only way of recreating performance, installation or net art, which were originally conceptualised for different contexts.

About authors

Bokhorov Konstantin - Centre of Culture and Art «MediaArtLab» (Russia), Curator
E-mail: newart@aha.ru

Shishko Olga - Centre of Culture and Art «MediaArtLab» (Russia), Deputy Director
E-mail: mediaartlab@mediaartlab.ru

The publication is based on the paper presented at International Conference "UNESCO between Two Phases of the World Summit on the Information Society" (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 17-19 May 2005)