Reading Assignment: A Companion to Digital Art

A Companion to Digital Art

A Companion to Digital Art is one of the many Companions to Art History reference volumes. Edited by Christine Paul, it is the view of the histories, aesthetics, politics and the issues that come with the presentation, collection, and preservation of digital art.

Enabling the Future, or How to Survive FOREVER

This essay was written by Annet Dekker, who highlights flexible models and interdisciplinary collaboration is needed to tackle digital conservation as traditional art conservation practices preserve the medium and end product while digital art can be time-based or having technology becoming obsolete the moment it is being created, making it hard or impossible to preserve the medium used. 

Before reading this essay, my prior notion of the preservation of digital artworks is preserving the physical aspects, whether it is to document the artwork by capturing videos and pictures digitally of the participant’s interaction, the process, the final artwork, or to store any medium, e.g. hardware and software, used for the artwork. This essay reminded me of how fast technology can evolve, and how fast it can become obsolete, which requires new ways to preserve the medium of digital artworks or even to preserve the digital culture we have today.

Today, most interactive media artists use and incorporate technology into their art. As mentioned in the video by Google Arts and Culture, digital art cannot be preserved in the same way traditional art is preserved. Many of the readers that used to read the software by the artists will become obsolete which means that the artwork will no longer be accessible.

There is a need to find a way to preserve digital art for future generations just like how traditional art was preserved for ours. As humans, we can learn from our past so as to create a better future. Thus, preserving our cultural heritage is as important as creating art just like how preserving science and math formulas from the past is as important as exploring science now.

Jet Set Willy Forever

JODI, Jet Set Willy FOREVER, 2010

The essay begins with the example of Jet Set Willy Forever, which includes the previous artworks of “Jet Set Willy” by the dutch internet artists duo JODI. It is based on the 1984 game, Jet Set Willy, which was one of the earliest non‐linear games programmed in BASIC, one of the first computer languages designed to empower users of one of the initial personal home computers, the now obsolete ZX Spectrum.

Jet Set Willy Forever displays the documentation of the different ways in which Jet Set Willy was exhibited by JODI, including a 1980s television (CRT) monitor with a ZX Spectrum with the actual Jet Set Willy created by an emulator; a flat-screen computer monitor showing screenshots of the modified game; an iPad which may show where this game is going to be in the future; a DVD containing multiple videos of modifications of the game (Jet Set Willy Variations, 2002); video documentation of the artists demonstrating how the game can be played during a previous presentation of the work; a set of written instructions on how to play the game, and sixty prints showing the interior of the game—a crosssection of the house. 

The documentation in Jet Set Willy Forever has two purposes. It serves as an informational document and is also an integral element of the work itself. The audience will be able to see the art history and how the artwork has evolved and changed over time as new technologies are introduced into the world. Jet Set Willy Forever itself is an artwork that presents its documentation as part of the whole experience.  By displaying the process and the previous software and hardware used, the audience is given the context of the artwork, enabling them to understand the artist’s intent, process, and approach to technology and philosophy.

I do agree that by showing the context it would deepen the audience’s understanding of the artwork, therefore bringing the message across. However, it makes me question if this artwork can still be maintained in the long run. How can the conservator maintain the ZX Spectrum or BASIC software 100 years later? How do we show the future generations the digital works of our time with context when the medium has become obsolete, or even extinct?

In the essay, Dekker mentioned that “The focus of conservation must move away from the purely material to include the original experience and contextual meaning of the artwork,” and  “The value of a digital artwork does not necessarily reside strictly in the materiality of the medium itself but in a number of contributing elements that, together, establish the work’s aesthetic qualities.” Jet Set Willy preserves the essence and concept of the artwork, which is to pay homage to the Jet Set Willy game that was created in 1984.

Authentic Alliances

Dekker argues for a practice that encourages thinking about “authentic instances,” leaving intact the notion of authenticity but allowing for change and variability. This way of working rejects the freeze-frame associated with traditional conservation. David Lowenthal stresses that “authenticity will always be variable,” thus Dekker argues for something more speculative and process-driven: the notion of “authentic alliances.”

Dekker states that she wanted “to connect the concept of alliances to authenticity in order to stress the importance of seeing seemingly different parts as a whole,” and “to emphasize the inherent intertwined structures through which digital art is created.” This approach sees different elements of artwork influencing the other, and not as singular entities.

My interpretation of “authentic alliances” is the preservation of digital artworks through a collective community that preserves the concept and process of the entire artwork. Dissimilar to traditional artworks, I do agree that the process and experiences by the participants of digital artworks should be placed more emphasis instead of the “final product” as digital art can always evolve. So when certain materials go obsolete, how do we understand the context of the artwork?

oldweb.today

One interesting example or approach to preserving digital art is oldweb.today by Rhizome, known for its digital preservation methods of digital art and the internet. oldweb.today allows users to surf the web the old-fashioned way to explore web archives through emulated legacy browsers. It puts us into the world of slow connectivity and responsiveness and raw aesthetics. This provides us with context but also preserving and simulating old technology.

Conclusion

This essay is a fresh perspective for me of how we can look into new preservation methods for digital art. My current creative process now only takes into account documenting what we are creating at the moment digitally and ends when my assignment is “completed.” I have never thought of the preservation of digital art that comes after that as I’ve always assumed that we can revisit the same software and hardware years down the road, never taking into account that technology is ever-changing and can become obsolete despite me knowing and experiencing it. I think integrating the process and experiences into the digital artwork places more importance on the whole creative process from start to end, which should be taken into account when the concept is important in digital art. Even when technology becomes obsolete, emulators are a great way to revive the tool, and most importantly, to show context for the digital artwork.

 

References

http://journal.voca.network/transmissions/?fbclid=IwAR0ICcEnUAFVGhBVAH-BAg903u-L09N42NMf1L4kNf-L0kRLJnviXpq2FHQ

https://www.arshake.com/en/jodi-variable-art-for-the-zx-spectrum-2/

https://rhizome.org/software/

https://www.blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/preserving-digital-art/

 

Published by

Leave a Reply