*Clearly he's been thinking this important issue over in some depth.
https://github.com/antimodular/Best-practices-for-conservation-of-media-art
Best practices for conservation of media art from an artist’s perspective
RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER · SEPTEMBER 28, 2015
"Dear colleague,
"For most artists I know “Art conservation” is a troubling affair: we are already too busy maintaining operations as it is, we think of our work as a “living” entity not as a fossil, we are often unsure if a project is finished, we snub techniques that may help us document, organize or account for our work as something that stifles our experimentation and creative process. In addition, especially when we are resentful that institutions are not collecting and preserving our work in the first place, we reject the whole concept of an Art collection, —agreeing with critical historians for whom collecting and preserving contemporary Art represents an obsessive-compulsive vampiric culture of suspended animation and speculation that is grounded in a neo-colonial, ostentatious, identitarian drive: Nietzsche’s “will to power” mixed with Macpherson’s “possessive individualism”.
"For this text let’s assume you are already at peace with the contradiction that is conservation: you are now interested in both creating the work and overseeing its death or zombiefication. Perhaps despite being a staunch democratic socialist you now have your own Art collection. Or maybe you have met a few collectors who take risks with you, acquire your work and help keep your studio afloat financially. Most importantly, especially if you are an insecure megalomaniac like me, you don’t want to disappear from history like so many great artists who are not collected by important Museums.
"So here we are, thinking about the topic of conservation in media art. As you know, there is a plethora of existing initiatives to preserve media artworks, but these are always from the perspective of the institutions that collect them. While most institutional programs include excellent artist-oriented components like interviews and questionnaires, the programs are all a posteriori, almost forensic, as they look at the work in retrospect, as a snapshot of time.
"This text is written to outline what artists may choose to do on the subject in order to i) simplify our life in the long run, ii) generate income, and iiii) take ownership of the way our work will be presented in the future. I welcome variations, additions and comments. Yes, it is absolutely unfair for the artist to have to worry about conservation of their work. Now let’s get on with it.
"BEFORE MAKING
"Mistrust anyone who has a “method” for conservation of Media Art. Anyone, such as myself, who offers a set of rules is someone who is not considering the vast range of disparate experiences, methods, constraints and dependencies that can arise even within the work of a single artist. All we can do is suggest a bunch of tips, wait for an artist to prove those tips useless, and then review the tips.
"Study instruction-based art, in particular Moholy-Nagy “Construction in Enamel 2”, his 1923 painting reportedly ordered over the telephone, and then study the instructions of established artists who pushed and are pushing the boundaries of the art of instructions like Sol LeWitt, Felix González Torres and Tino Seghal. Citing these precedents, and Duchamp of course, will immediately relax the concerns that may arise with your own work’s materiality because this discussion already has been happening in the artworld for a hundred years.
"Study precedents of technological art. I find that underlining connections between my work with historical experimental traditions is much more productive (and honest) than pretending what I do is “new”. Quote meaningful precedents that allow the collector to contextualize your work. For example, I often cite the pioneering use of radio broadcast technology by the Estridentista poets in Mexico in the 1920s, or the first use of neon lighting by Gyulia Kosice in 1946, or the first use of a live video feed in art installation by Marta Minujín in 1965 (50 years ago! How can we pretend what we do is “new” media?).
"Decide if the work you are about to make will be a one-off ephemeral performance, a computer virus that is meant to multiply in ways you cannot control, a happening that is so site- and time- specific that it can never be owned, restaged or reproduced. If you decide this is the case then do not ever think about conservation, not once, and work with reckless abandon with the certainty that the death of your creation may be the highest form of beauty and experience. Some voyeur, flâneur, dilettante, opportuniste (or other person who can be described with a French word) will try to capture your piece and sell it or get a PhD, but really all that does is say “you had to be there”. If on the other hand you are interested in conserving the specific work you are making right now then read on.
"WHILE MAKING
"Keep a notebook and/or electronic document where you put any sketches, prototypes, parts lists, bits of research on the project.
"Work in any development platform you feel is best for the project or for you, but if you have a choice always go for open source tools. At my studio we have often used closed commercial systems, such as “FaceAPI” for face recognition and “Shout3D” a proprietary online 3D API, only for the companies to go bankrupt or orphan the software leaving us with the task to re-engineer the work with more open equivalents (OpenCV in one case and Google Earth in the other).
"Consider using versioning systems, like Git. These allow your software projects to be traceable incrementally and they are a great repository for fundamental information on how a project evolves. Of course code can and should have comments to help follow the code, but Git gives conservators a more global view. In my studio we are only now starting to use Git but I really wish we had started earlier. Versioning is important also in schematics, prototypes and manuals. In fact the whole idea of Versioning can be applied to the artwork itself as suggested in the next section.
"Your software is your “score”, the fundamental instructions that create your work, so back it up! At my studio we have a less than stellar system, which is basically a central repository of files in a drive which gets mirrored to an identical drive that is offsite. I also run Apple’s time machine in my laptop to two drives: one at the studio and one at home. I do recommend a cloud-based solution as it can scale up, is (almost) always available and is cost-effective; however, you do need to feel comfortable that a corporation has your data (they always do anyhow) and that you can continue paying monthly fees, which is a big if. Some Museums are starting to have dedicated servers to hold all of their software collections, in the future all Museums will have to have this kind of data repository and conservation will be very linked to IT. If you keep your own server with all your data this may eventually also be co-located at a place for archives such as a particularly forward-looking library.
"As you work, say on a complex installation with hardware, software, manufactured and found components, prepare a “Bill of materials” (BoM), which is basically a list of all components of a piece. List each separate component, writing its brand and model, its function, the URL for information, and a small picture.
"Next to each item in your BoM, write whether the element is replaceable or irreplaceable. An irreplaceable element is for example a Nixie tube that you feel is crucial to the look or functioning of the final piece. If future conservators can’t find an exact replacement the piece should have an honourable death. A replaceable element is everything else; but for every replaceable element there should be notes on what is acceptable, e.g. “this motor can have any specification so long as it fits in the cavity and it can spin the mechanism 5 times a second” or “this screen can be any CRT, LCD, LED, OLED or other technology provided it is between 15 and 17 inch diagonal, has a brightness of around 500 nits and can show XGA resolution” or “this cover is made of acrylic but it can be changed for glass so long as it is tempered and can stand the vibration, please do not use polycarbonate as that is not transparent enough”.
"When choosing hardware, try to limit any moving parts as much as possible, these are the parts that tend to fail most over time. An example is using solid state rather than spinning platter hard disks or heat sink cooling instead of fans. Another example is using a solid-state relay instead of a contact switch. A final example is choosing a wide-angle camera with virtual pan and tilt using region of interest rather than a motorized pan/tilt camera.
"If you have a choice, use “off the shelf” components that are abundant. At my studio we developed our own computer vision tracking systems using industrial cameras for 15 years but now we have moved to Microsoft Kinect2 whenever possible as these are readily available. Another example is microcontrollers, as my studio now mostly develops with Arduinos, which are widespread, open and friendly. Your own developed systems of course should be used if they deliver better results, but then you need to document those appropriately.
"Make global choices in your procurement. For example, choose gear that can function in a range of voltages 100-240V ideally with auto-switching circuitry; or if you are Canadian never use Robertson screws despite how great they are, as no one outside of our proud country has drill bits for this screw head. All your measurements should be metric and all your notes in English (yeah, I said that).
"Program an “Idle mode” and/or an automatic shutdown for your piece. Collectors sometimes just leave a piece operating while they go on a holiday for two months. You need to detect if no one has interacted with the piece for a certain time for it to go into an Idle state that stops or slows down motors, shuts down or dims displays, and in general protects the piece. An auto shutdown is another way to save the piece unnecessary cycles, but ensure that you have a programmable power bar so that all hardware is turned off in the right sequence.
"AFTER MAKING
"Make a video of the project, ideally with you speaking over it and explaining proper functioning. If you are shy then get someone to interview you.
"Install the project in a variety of computers, operating systems and/or devices and test for any SW or HW dependencies. Note these very carefully in a “Read Me” document that is in a way a version of the BoM for hardware. Bundle the Read Me file with installers for every single item in the list. For example include operating system, DirectX, any graphics drivers, APIs, programming environments, etc.
"Prepare one or several flash drives with all the source code for your project, including firmware, binaries, media assets, schematics, 3D print files, EVERYTHING. Then add all the installers for the dependencies from the previous point. These flash drives are meant to be like a time capsule that hold all the instructions required to reproduce the work. Do include a document that explains that they should make a backup copy of the contents of the flash drive and ensure the integrity of the data from time to time.
"Write a manual with the following parts:" (((etc etc etc wow)))
