keywords : Events

Abstracts for the fourth annual DOCAM Summit

Case Studies: Works by Nam June Paik and John F. Simon, Jr.
Mona Jimenez, Sarah Resnick, Yvonne Ng (New York University)

Graduates of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at New York University will present two conservation assessments conducted in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, as part of the graduate course “Handling New Media”. Works discussed will be Untitled (Nam June Paik, 1968) and CPU (John F. Simon, Jr., 1999). Both works include altered hardware, and in the case of CPU, custom code. Panellists will also comment on the process of conducting the assessments as part of a graduate curriculum.

L’affirmation des stratégies de préservation d’une œuvre d’art médiatique par l’entremise de l’entrevue d’artiste
Richard Gagnier, Émilie Boudrias (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), DOCAM’s Conservation and Preservation Committee)

This presentation focuses on an analysis of two interviews with artists. It examines the interview structure, the inherent desire to exchange points of views, and the results obtained in confirming, together with the artist, the best conservation strategy for two media artworks. The interviews were conducted with Daniel Dion and Jacques Perron, for their respective works The Moment of Truth and Défilement, both of which are part of the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. By studying the distinctive nature of works featuring visible technological components, the meetings enabled the identification of aspects that contribute to the integrity of the work, as well as an assessment of their degree of importance. The presentation highlights the way in which the dialogue between artist and conservator, made possible by an interview, enables a mutual understanding of conservation issues specific to a work. In the two interviews examined, various conservation and preservation strategies were proposed to the artist in order to identify those best able to guarantee the work’s integrity by prompting the artist to examine its long-term maintenance.

Cataloguing and Preserving Greg Lynn’s Embryological House at the CCA
Howard Shubert, Ivanka Iordanova, Alexis Lenk (Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), DOCAM’s Conservation and Preservation Committee)

Preserving and cataloguing digitally born architectural projects is a challenge that should be met quickly in order to ensure access to some (master-)pieces of contemporary architectural heritage. The case study on the Embryological House, a pioneering conceptual project conceived by Greg Lynn, recommends parallel methods for the conservation of this digital archive. It also identifies the cataloguing information required by curators, conservators, researchers and the general public. Interviewing the author was found to be extremely helpful for understanding his design process, and for defining cataloguing priorities. Another challenge of our project is the need to reconcile the CCA’s existing cataloguing system (TMS) with the new “digital” fields we propose to add. An essential curatorial concern is the need to perform a single “search” across physical and digital objects.

Études de cas en structure de catalogage: Max Dean and Raffaello D’Andrea, The Table: Childhood (NGC)
Geneviève Saulnier, Marie-Ève Courchesne (National Gallery of Canada (NGC) and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MACM), DOCAM’s Cataloguing Structure Committee)

The presentation will report on the progress of the research conducted by the Cataloguing Structure Committee, notably with respect to the work by Max Dean and Raffaello D’Andrea, The Table: Childhood, housed at the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). The research assistant and NGC conservator have produced an exhaustive document describing the work on both a technical and semantic level, while outlining the various transformations it has undergone for each of its exhibitions. This information will help preserve the integrity of the work when re-exhibited or reinstalled.

On the Couch: Capturing Audience Experience
Rolf Erwin Wolfensberger (Museum of Communication, Berne)

Against the background of current preservation strategies for electronic artworks, this presentation discusses the methodological shift towards a focus on documenting user experience and contextual impacts. The paper will present results of a case study (Paul Sermon’s installation Telematic Vision, 1993) carried out at the Museum of Communication in Berne. The chosen multi-layered phenomenological approach takes into consideration that the focus on contextualization and affectively experienced sensation state a strong dependency of the aesthetic experience on changing medial apparatuses and medial everyday surroundings. The hypothesis of the study is that the recording and the documentation of the observer/user’s perception of contemporary electronic artworks are vital methods to complement the body of general preservation strategies

Research on Revolution: A Preservation Case Study in the Scope of Inside Installations
Gabriele Wijers (Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk), Amsterdam)

The focus of this case study, within the scope of the Inside Installations project, was to establish what was important for the preservation of Jeffrey Shaw’s computer-based interactive installation and how emulation can be used as a preservation strategy. In this installation, the spectator pushes a bar attached to a steel column with a built-in monitor. Pushing in a forward position, 180 images of historical revolutions are being presented on the monitor. A fast turn will result in a vague blur of images. Pulling backwards, the image of a milestone appears. The technology used is over 15 years old and, within the next 10 years, one of the components of Revolution (an analog rotation sensor, an 8086 XT PC, a Sony DLP1500 laserdisc player and a handmade sample player/interface box) will probably break down beyond repair. Additionally to in-depth documentation, installation instructions and an artist interview, a precise description of hard- and software, function and user interaction was made, the content was secured digitally and many aspects of the behaviour of the installation were measured and described. To test the validity of this description, an emulation process was implemented using Pure Data (Pd).

Between Real and Ideal: A Documentation Case Study for David Rokeby’s Giver of Names
Caitlin Jones (New York)

In the fall of 2007, Caitlin Jones and Lizzie Muller were researchers-in-residence at the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology. Jones’ research objectives were to examine models of documentation with an emphasis on the artist’s intent, and complete a number of documentation case studies. Muller’s original research objective was to find ways to document and archive the audience’s descriptions of their experiences. We recognized a productive tension forming between our approaches, and between the “real” and “ideal” versions of the artwork that motivated them. Both approaches challenge the authority of the other in a useful way, and each offers the other complimentary information – creating a richer, deeper and more complex overall picture. We chose to conduct a joint case study – David Rokeby’s Giver of Names – to develop and demonstrate the integration of our two objectives, and develop what we believe to be a useful holistic approach to the documentation of variable media artworks.

Website Launch of Shifting Polarities: Proposing a Canon of Canadian Electronic Media Art, 1970-1990
Caroline Langill (The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Toronto)

Electronic media art’s exclusion from museum exhibition and collection, when it emerged in the early 1970’s, can be traced to historical imperatives, suggesting systemic and structural antecedents. In 2006, as researcher-in-residence at the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology (FDL), I examined this history by conducting qualitative and text-based research. Interviews with twenty artists who are representative of early new media art practice in this country were conducted in order to document this important trajectory of early electronic media art practices. From these interviews, as well as through research into the exhibition and collection practices in museums and galleries between 1970 and 1990, I set out to name significant works by these artists from the period in question. In this talk, I will present the results of my research and premiere the website we have produced at the FDL, which documents this project.

The Digital Workfile
Andrea Kuchembuck (Comité Documentation DOCAM)
The presentation focuses on the research work conducted by the Documentation and Archival Management Committee and notably on the development of the “digital file of artwork.” We will present the evolution of case studies on three works by Jim Campbell: Photo of My Mother, Portrait of My Father, and Motion and Rest #5; and on the work Hylozoic Soil by Phillip Beesley. We will also present observations of our experience as researchers during the mounting of the E-art exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2007.

“Distance Liquide”, A Case Study of a Fully Archived Acousmatic Work
Johann Holland (Université technologique de Compiègne (UTC), Compiègne / Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France)

Recent attempts to restore or enhance some famous historical acousmatic works of the early times lead us to think that it is very important to archive more elements than we usually do in order to perform intelligible preservation over the long-term. Our proposal in the framework of the CASPAR project is to archive a more complete set of files and objects belonging to the composition process and to describe these elements regarding their life cycle. This method was applied to a first newly collected work from the German composer Hans Tutschku’s Distance Liquide (2007).

Long-term Preservation for Artistic Communities: How to Interact with a Technical Framework?
Bruno Bachimont, Erik Gebers, Johann Holland (Université technologique de Compiègne (UTC), Compiègne / Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France)

UTC/CNRS designed an interface dedicated to the community members of the performing arts domain. Thanks to the iterative implementation of a prototype, its use and the related feedback by partners from artistic institutions, UTC/CNRS has been able to specify quite finely such an interface. UTC/CNRS will present the main results of this specification, mixing conceptual design and pragmatical implementation.

Fitting Artistic Testbed Data in the CASPAR Model
Michal Masa, Pavel Smetana (International Centre for Art and New Technologies (CIANT), Prague)

CIANT will present complex data sets they are dealing with through several projects like V.I.R.U.S., AMA&NT and ‘Old Town Square’, and the challenge they represent for the CASPAR project.

From Mustica to MustiCASPAR
Guillaume Boutard (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), Paris)

Starting from the outcome of the Mustica project, IRCAM revised the whole architecture in order to apply the OAIS model according to the design defined during the CASPAR project. IRCAM will present the benefits of such an implementation.

Developing Vocabulary Tools for New Media Art Documentation
Corina MacDonald (DOCAM’s Terminology Committee)

DOCAM’s Terminology Committee works to develop vocabulary management tools for DOCAM researchers and the professional community. To date, these tools have taken the form of a glossary and thesaurus, which focus on terminology encountered within the domain of new media art documentation. Currently the committee is working on the implementation of SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) as a model for thesaurus development. This presentation will provide an overview of the work of the committee to date and will introduce some of the practical and theoretical issues encountered while developing vocabulary resources in this field.

Le Répertoire des arts et littératures hypermédiatiques du NT2
Alice van der Klei, Frédérique Dubé, Paule Mackrous, Amélie Paquet (NT2 : Nouvelles technologies, nouvelles textualités, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM))

NT2, the Laboratoire de recherches sur les œuvres hypermédiatiques at UQAM, headed by Bertrand Gervais, has a mission to promote the study, reading, creation and archiving of new forms of literature and art. NT2 has developed research strategies to allow for reflection on ways to disseminate new forms of text or art. Since 2006, NT2 has produced a major index of hypermedia works: the Répertoire des arts et littératures hypermédiatiques, which lists more than 3,500 works (http://www.labo-nt2.uqam.ca/observatoire/repertoire). This database offers a directory of hypertext and hypermedia literary works, as well as hypermedia artworks. In addition to bibliographical information, the entries contain a description of the work or site; a classification based on the nature of the site or work, interactivity forms and format; and, in certain cases, research or technical notes and navigation screenshots.

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