“Memory and the Digital Archive of Contemporary Art. The Case of the Spanish Archive of Media Art”
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2021-12
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Resumen
This article outlines some reflections about digital reality, contemporary art production, and possible ways of archiving and constructing memory through and for a historiography of contemporary art in light of the project Archivo Español de Media Art / Spanish Archive of Media Art (AEMA/SAOMA). In the first part I propose a definition and an account of media art and its artifacts. In the second part I present and describe the SAOMA project, and its antecedent, the MIDECIANT museum project, and discuss the conceptual and technical requirements of an archive devoted to the media arts. In the third part I sketch some interconnections between the concepts of memory and archive with reference to new media art and outline the difficulties that are inherent to any effort to define and archive these art forms. The final section includes some concluding thoughts and a brief explanation of what I regard as the most urgent needs for any archival project in the realm of digital art (digital restoration, documentation, and narrative).
Descripción
One of the most delicate and problematic aspects of archiving
media art is, as we have noted, the fact that some of the
disciplines that work through programming code and/or specific
devices have become obsolete. The evolution of hardware and
software during the past few decades has been such that many
works based on supports like the floppy disk or the CD-ROM can
no longer be viewed or studied in conventional contexts and it
is necessary to resort to period hardware. Such hardware is
occasionally still available—when its obsolescence is relatively
recent—but it is becoming progressively more difficult to keep
period media devices operational.
Some institutions have devoted some effort to conserving
these works in order to include them in exhibitions, but their
aim is typically to present the works under the same conditions
and the same level of consciousness in which they were
created. Our experiences working with intangible or digital art
at SAOMA have taught us that the archive and memory of media
art will inevitably traverse passive and active strategies in the
composition and configuration of its past, present, and future:
—Digital restoration. We must look for the technical formulas
that guarantee the preservation and the possibility of future
viewing and interaction, conserving content through specific
hardware/software solutions. Some of these proposals have
been described above; some members of the MIDECIANT
team focus their work specifically on the design of technical
solutions (TetraArt). In any case, this technical component
must be complemented by a second component that accounts
for the processes and states of consciousness in which the
work was developed: that will be the narrative.
—Narrative. We must assume that the first generation of
works of intangible art has already been lost, although it is
also true that we may still have an opportunity to conserve
and preserve those original sources that are still available (or
“alive”); in any case, it is also necessary to emphasize that
the very passage of time produces a new narrative or a new
consciousness for the protagonists.
—Lastly, documentation. In the case of second and later
generations, and on the basis of period materials that are
conserved, we must organize exhibitions—or analogous
projects—that may allow us to obtain photo and video
documentation of the works, as well as other materials that
can be published for future consultation.