Thursday, July 31, 2014

[Yasmin_discussions] Re=Collection

yasminers
paul fishwick brings this to our attention
roger

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Cornell
University Library and the Society for the Humanities (Cornell) have
been collaborating on a project that aims to develop scalable
preservation strategies for complex, interactive, born-digital media
artworks. Given our emphasis on use and usability, we recently
administered a survey targeting researcher, artists, and curators to
expand our understanding of user profiles and use cases. The key
finding of the study are summarized at the following site:

http://blogs.cornell.edu/dsps/2014/07/30/interactive-digital-media-art-survey-key-findings-and-observations/


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul Fishwick <metaphorz@gmail.com>


P


From: Humanist Discussion Group <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>

To: humanist@lists.digitalhumanities.org
Subject: [Humanist] 28.239 results from survey on preservation strategies

From: Oya Yildirim Rieger <oyr1@cornell.edu>
Subject: Cornell's Digital Media Art Preservation Survey Results

Dear Colleagues,

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Cornell
University Library and the Society for the Humanities (Cornell) have
been collaborating on a project that aims to develop scalable
preservation strategies for complex, interactive, born-digital media
artworks. Given our emphasis on use and usability, we recently
administered a survey targeting researcher, artists, and curators to
expand our understanding of user profiles and use cases. The key
finding of the study are summarized at the following site:

http://blogs.cornell.edu/dsps/2014/07/30/interactive-digital-media-art-survey-key-findings-and-observations/

We would like to thank our colleagues who responded to the survey and
invite comments and questions from all interested parties.

Warm regards,

Oya
On behalf of the Cornell project team

Oya Y. Rieger, Ph.D.
Associate University Librarian
Digital Scholarship & Preservation Services
arXiv Program Director
Cornell University Library
http://vivo.cornell.edu/display/individual23129
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] re-collection continued

Hello again Yasminers,

I read Johannes Goebel's text with interest and have a few responses that I hope are relevant and will further the current discussion.

First though; I had to chuckle, Johannes, when I read that, in the EMPAC venue as a time-based arts venue, you tend not to leave exhibitions up for a long time in part because of the nature of much of the work and in part because everyone comes to the opening night and then maybe the weekend after and thereafter is little foot traffic. But of course, this last part is also true of many standard museums, especially smaller ones, despite our best intentions in adhering to the museum default of a 2.5 month long exhibition (which, I suspect, has less to do with a theoretical notion of how much time is needed to activate these objects, and more to do with how much work a director can drive their staff to do over the course of a year :)

Your thoughts on time-based media/arts were especially interesting because upon these theoretical points hinge real tractable decisions about how to preserve new media artworks. I'm reminded of a comment Jon received (Jon, correct me if I'm wrong) when he was at the Guggenheim initiating the Variable Media Initiative and their Conservator Carol Stringari said to him something to the effect that no artworks are actually static; that all artworks are time-based - in how they are created, how they are perceived, and how they change (even when in a vault) that it's only a difference in the quantities of time. But at the other end of this continuum is another truth - that quantitative differences among classes of works (ie time-based) necessitate qualitative shifts in thinking about preservation. Seeing these two views on a continuum rather than as a binary led Jon and I to frame the topic of our book (http://re-collection.net) as having new media at the center (where the most urgency and newest challenges lay) but having other time-based arts and even traditional art forms at the edges because the enclosed strategies may apply to them too.

Johannes; regarding your thoughts on notation as it relates to preservation documentation; yes, yes, and yes. I think you'll find much concord in our book. You mention that musical notation requires context and interpretation whereas computer code is executed in a less ambiguous process....yes! And this distinction between prescription and description is exactly why we/I use musical notation and not code as the analogy for the type of preservation documentation needed for media art. The Media Art Notation System, as proposed, does not attempt to function as the code that may have been used in a specific work, nor to represent the code, but to represent the work at another level - a human language recipe, not a machine-language executable. We need a form of documentation that exhibits this level of abstraction, (and here I feel that I'm merely paraphrasing you) that through repeated interpretive acts, remains fluid and avoids attempting to freeze a time-based work in one form. Musical notation provides a widely-understood analogy for this type of documentation (though a recipe would do equally well) that is future-oriented, aiding in the re-making (or re-imagining) of the work as opposed to recordings that document a past state of the work - but of course it's just an analogy, not a map.

In the end, I am very much intrigued by your last question about whether there might be an approach that does not attempt to re-program or revive the work, but re-imagines it! This feels right to me, but my intuition is countered by my super-ego that forces me to ask - if we take this approach to its logical ends, then whither history, historic accuracy and integrity? How can we / should we attempt to balance the two? Am I seeing another binary here where there should be a continuum?

Richard Rinehart
---------------------
Director
Samek Art Museum
Bucknell University
---------------------
Lewisburg, PA, 17837
570-577-3213
http://galleries.blogs.bucknell.edu






On Jul 29, 2014, at 12:59 PM, roger malina wrote:

> yasminers
>
> we have received a long and thoughtful essay by Johannes Goebel
> on the conservation and restoration of new media art, informed by
> his work at ZKM and EMPAC
> the esssay is too long to post here in its entirety so we have
> deposited the whole text in thoughtmesh
> http://thoughtmesh.net/
> if you are not familiar with thoughtmesh i recommend you take
> a look-its an interesting text networking system that Jon Ippolito
> started
> ThoughtMesh generates tags to connect scholarly essays published on
> different Web sites.
>
>
> the whole text by Johannes Goebel is available at
>
> http://thoughtmesh.net/publish/437.php
>
> and we encourage you to post responses on YASMIN or on thoughtmesh
>
> roger malina
>
>
> --
>
> Dear all,
> (from Johannes Goebel)
>
>
> Having written my previous contribution regarding media
> art/time-based art/performing arts in a kind of a fit, I would like to comment
> and modify and maybe extend a little, also evoked by what Jon and Richard
> wrote.
>
> I certainly did not want to pose that performing arts
> institutions are better fit to present or preserve the art at the center of
> this discussion. From my experience they are not at all a better fit. They have
> an equally limited focus, which does not encompass "all time-based
> arts". They are focused on works, which have a
> "well-defined" beginning and an equally defined end. Their institutional,
> production and infrastructural framework does not support for instance
> installations. And they are not focused on documenting either. The moment of
> the performance, of the shared time between beginning and end and artists and
> audience is at the heart of their program.
>
> I should not have written that time-based arts fall under
> performing arts. That is kind of stupid and was meant in a provocative way. On
> the contrary: I think that performing arts may be seen as a sub-set of
> time-based arts.
>
> We have taken this perspective for our curatorial
> perspective, commissioning and programing here at EMPAC "" we have a
> full infrastructure (spaces, venues,
> technology, team members), which may serve traditional performing arts "" but in
> addition we have an infrastructure, expertise and perspective that supports
> media/variable-media/installation/interactive/performance/performing arts .
>
> ==Footnote
> From an institutional
> perspective we have difficulties with the format of longer-term exhibitions
> like a museum "" not so much because we cannot deal with it, but because of our
> location and context. We do not have much foot-traffic, where people come by
> like at a gallery or in part of the city with quite a few galleries in one
> sector. We are not at the heart of a campus that has an emphasis on humanities
> and arts. We are not a museum with many exhibitions or exhibited art works
> where one can stroll through and if one piece is of no interest one moves on to
> another. We have public spaces we can and do use for more exhibition-like works
> "" but dedicating one or more of the large studios to exhibitions over an
> extended period of time is not of very much value, since the most people come
> to the opening and maybe the following weekend "" and then again no foot-traffic
> after that "
> this text is continued at:
>
> http://thoughtmesh.net/publish/437.php
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

[Yasmin_discussions] re-collection continued

yasminers

we have received a long and thoughtful essay by Johannes Goebel
on the conservation and restoration of new media art, informed by
his work at ZKM and EMPAC
the esssay is too long to post here in its entirety so we have
deposited the whole text in thoughtmesh
http://thoughtmesh.net/
if you are not familiar with thoughtmesh i recommend you take
a look-its an interesting text networking system that Jon Ippolito
started
ThoughtMesh generates tags to connect scholarly essays published on
different Web sites.


the whole text by Johannes Goebel is available at

http://thoughtmesh.net/publish/437.php

and we encourage you to post responses on YASMIN or on thoughtmesh

roger malina


--

Dear all,
(from Johannes Goebel)


Having written my previous contribution regarding media
art/time-based art/performing arts in a kind of a fit, I would like to comment
and modify and maybe extend a little, also evoked by what Jon and Richard
wrote.

I certainly did not want to pose that performing arts
institutions are better fit to present or preserve the art at the center of
this discussion. From my experience they are not at all a better fit. They have
an equally limited focus, which does not encompass "all time-based
arts". They are focused on works, which have a
"well-defined" beginning and an equally defined end. Their institutional,
production and infrastructural framework does not support for instance
installations. And they are not focused on documenting either. The moment of
the performance, of the shared time between beginning and end and artists and
audience is at the heart of their program.

I should not have written that time-based arts fall under
performing arts. That is kind of stupid and was meant in a provocative way. On
the contrary: I think that performing arts may be seen as a sub-set of
time-based arts.

We have taken this perspective for our curatorial
perspective, commissioning and programing here at EMPAC "" we have a
full infrastructure (spaces, venues,
technology, team members), which may serve traditional performing arts "" but in
addition we have an infrastructure, expertise and perspective that supports
media/variable-media/installation/interactive/performance/performing arts .

==Footnote
From an institutional
perspective we have difficulties with the format of longer-term exhibitions
like a museum "" not so much because we cannot deal with it, but because of our
location and context. We do not have much foot-traffic, where people come by
like at a gallery or in part of the city with quite a few galleries in one
sector. We are not at the heart of a campus that has an emphasis on humanities
and arts. We are not a museum with many exhibitions or exhibited art works
where one can stroll through and if one piece is of no interest one moves on to
another. We have public spaces we can and do use for more exhibition-like works
"" but dedicating one or more of the large studios to exhibitions over an
extended period of time is not of very much value, since the most people come
to the opening and maybe the following weekend "" and then again no foot-traffic
after that "
this text is continued at:

http://thoughtmesh.net/publish/437.php

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Saturday, July 26, 2014

[Yasmin_discussions] re-collecting

-- De: Clarisse Bardiot <clarisse_bardiot@me.com>

Dear All

I'm new to the list but I would like to inform you about a software
I'm currently developing. It's name is Rekall. It's open source and
free. I join below a short description of the project. I was part of
the docam initiative and Rekall is inspired by the variable media
approach. At first it was designed for digital performances but I hope
it could be used more generally for time based artworks. Some artists
want to use it not to document their work but to design it. There is a
very first betaversion available on the website : www.rekall.fr Go to
« telechargement » . The website is for the moment in french but the
soft is in english. We have to add video demos and a user guide but I
hope it's possible to test it right now (I'm at the Avignon festival…
all the documentation will be published in september…). I really need
feedback so don't hesitate to contact me via email.


best

Clarisse Bardiot

www.rekall.fr


Rekall is a response to the documentation and conservation issues that
arise when dealing with technology-rich art forms, as well as issues
faced by artists when they wish to restage performance works that
involve technology that is now obsolete. During the development phase,
Rekall speeds up the process of tracking the technical and artistic
choices made by artists as they move from one residency to the next.

Rekall is designed for:

Stage managers: it enables rapid note-taking during rehearsals, plot
memorization (for sound, lighting, video, and other technologies
deployed using plots), and storage/retrieval of technical data

Artists: it keeps the artistic and technological components of the
show on file to ensure that it can be restaged, taking into account
the built-in obsolescence of technological components and the
intentions of the artists

Historians: it keeps artworks on file, recording and storing
information on the design process and different variants of each work,
and supporting a whole range of document types

Teachers and publishers: helps with the production of quality
documentary material

Rekall allows you to document a show at several key points during its
development:

rehearsals: provides valuable support for stage managers and technicians

performance: helps artists restage existing shows

post-performance: helps historians and publishers produce quality
documentary material

Rekall relies on elements that are used to describe or transcribe
performance artworks (video recordings, musical scores, patches,
written texts, sound recordings, or simply production notes). These
elements are presented along a timeline that corresponds to the period
during which the work is produced and staged.

Other documents (notes, photographs, videos, written texts, e-mails,
comments, etc.) that relate to the performance or that are simply
useful for understanding it, gravitate around this central timeline.
Presented in an ingenious way, they provide different insights into
the artwork and offer information relating to its unique features.

It is possible to sort the documents using a number of filters: date,
document type, author, etc. Live links between the documents allow you
to map results and perform multiple searches.

All the people involved in the project work together within the same
workspace: the lighting technician, the director, the stage manager,
the video operator and the set designer share a single work platform.

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Only you can prevent the end of history: Preservation recommendations from Re-collection

Dear All,

I am re-diving into the discussion.

I just received the book yesterday (noops ... I did not read
it during the night ;-)

The technicians can be approached in a different way : that
is treating those working with artist as important as the
artist when considering prevervation. That is : their
documents, archives, knowledge, etc. is as important to
preserve (but may be I am "forcing an open door" here as we
say in French).

The "wizard" who worked with Dumb Type is currently
re-working and documenting his own technical and computer
work that he and the group did and that was not at all
described. I think this is really interesting and crucial.

Best
Annick





Le 23/07/14 03:03, Jon Ippolito a écrit :
> Kathelin,
>
> This is an excellent point! Having worked with some great technicians, it probably seems shocking that Rick and I left them out of the "twelve-step program" that concludes Re-collection. Certainly we wouldn't have Nam June Paik without Shuya Abe or Gary Hill without Dave Jones.
>
> Once I thought a little more deeply about your suggestion, however, I remembered that our twelve stakeholders represent professions that desperately need to change if variable media culture is to persevere. And given that intent, I'm led to wonder...do technicians really need to be doing anything differently?
>
> We could of course plead with artists' assistants to use best practices when engineering works for long-term sustainability. But I'm not sure this is a realistic expectation. Video synthesizers didn't really exist when Abe and Paik pieced one together, so there was no standard to turn to; and at the time Jones hacked together custom black boxes, synchronizing videos across a cluster of naked CRTs was hardly standard practice either. Artists like to work on the edge, and in my experience that's one reason inventive technicians are drawn to them.
>
> Of course, museums and other collecting institutions absolutely need expert technicians to maintain old equipment in the short term. I love the look of vacuum tubes and the feel of Bakelite, and am grateful to the dedicated media archeologists who store them on shelves. But actually running the old electronics may not be a viable option in the long term, as bulbs blow, voltage requirements change, and vintage components eventually disappear from eBay.
>
> This inconvenient truth came out in comments by Al Kossow of the Silicon Valley Computer History Museum at the 2013 Preserving.exe conference at the Library of Congress. When Bill LeFurgy and others called for libraries to collect hardware along with software, Al said "I'd like to offer a contrarian point of view," and went on to explain how painful it was to keep frankensteining dead computers back into operation. The exchange led the Library's repository chief at the time, Leslie Johnston, to conclude, "We cannot all become museums of computer hardware."
>
> http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2013/05/what-are-we-going-to-do-about-hardware
>
> Does that mean collecting institutions can do without technical experts? Not on your life! Even if we embrace less media-dependent strategies like emulation, migration, and reinterpretation, we still desperately need technical ingenuity. The difference is that we will rely on engineers less for expertise in outdated technologies than in adapting old ideas to new hardware environments.
>
> I've been extraordinarily fortunate to work with technical savants like Paul Kuranko, who could migrate video and re-solder circuits with the best of them, yet also had the creativity necessary to refashion a work for a new space or technology without losing its spirit in the process. It's hard for me to imagine having mounted any of my media-oriented shows at the Guggenheim without Paul's insights.
>
> So I'd say yes, seek out and reward technicians--but for their ability to look forward as well as backward. I'd be curious about the experiences of others on this list.
>
> jon
> ________________
> Re-Collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory
> http://re-collection.net
> "Read it if you want to prevail"--Bruce Sterling
>
> On Jul 21, 2014, at 5:10 PM, Kathelin Gray <kathelin@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Engineer/technicians important to find, maintain and service
>> old equipment--
>>
>> Kathelin Gray
>> Santa Fe, New Mexico
>> +1 505 471 8428 landline
>> skype: kathelin
>>
>> On 21 Jul 2014, at 12:43, Jon Ippolito wrote:
>>
>>> At the suggestion of some folks on this list, I've created a website that lists the recommendations for new media preservation offered in the concluding chapter of Re-collection:
>>>
>>> http://re-collection.net/recommendations.html
>>>
>>> Our "twelve-step program" to rescue digital culture is broken down by profession:
>>>
>>> Curators
>>> Conservators
>>> Archivists
>>> Collection Managers
>>> Institutions
>>> Programmers
>>> Lawyers
>>> Creators
>>> Dealers
>>> Sponsors
>>> Academics
>>> Historians
>>>
>>> Rick and I hope these guidelines may answer some of the questions asked on this list and spur additional strategies for safeguarding our heritage in the decades to come.
>>>
>>> jon
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
>>> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>>
>>> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>>>
>>> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
>>> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
>>> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
>>> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
>> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>
>> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>>
>> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
>> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
>> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
>> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
> .
>
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Fwd: Only you can prevent the end of history: Preservation recommendations from Re-collection

Roger, everyone,

On the topic of the role of technicians and of their credit in exhibition and historic documentation of the work, Jon wrote a good piece a while back on the inadequacies of the museum label as currently used for much new media art in a paper called "Death by Wall Label" (I didn't realize til just now Jon's seeming fascination with all things dying :)

Of course, the wall label is one form of documentation and - dare I say it? - In our book (http://re-collection.net) we also propose a metadata model for new media art (the Media Art Notation System) that is intended less as a proposed standard to adopt whole-cloth and more as a demonstration of how the special requirements for media art may be incorporated into any metadata standard.

Anyway, this model includes ways to include and recognize people with different roles in the creation of the work as being part of the official/formal record of the work and not relegated to the marginalia where recognized at all. Roger, I like your science paper example and the example I usually use for how documenting roles and credits for media art is that they should look more like movie credits than museum wall labels.


Richard Rinehart
---------------------
Director
Samek Art Museum
Bucknell University
---------------------
Lewisburg, PA, 17837
570-577-3213
http://galleries.blogs.bucknell.edu






On Jul 23, 2014, at 11:12 AM, roger malina wrote:

> Jon,kathelin
>
> this discussion on the roles of key technicians in pioneering
> art and technology work brings up some related issues concerning
> attribution of credit to all collaborators that make the work
> possible- often the technicians or engineers are not included as
> co authors of the work= and in the art world typically there is
> one named artist on a work ( with some key exceptions)
>
> in scientific culture- on papers there are systems of attribution
> so that some collaborators are included as co-authors on the
> scientific paper and others in the acknowledgements ( not all
> scientific disciplines have identical approaches- in particle
> physics typically for instance the order of co authors is alphabetical
> whereas in astronomy the first author is the key author who normally
> drafted the paper)
>
> in the history of art and technology there have been a number of
> different models of how technical and engineering collaborators
> are included as co-creators of the work ( and i am aware of a
> number of resulting disputes)
>
> interestingly the context of showing the work can be pertinent-
> for instance at the Exploratorium science musuem exhibits are
> typically not attributed or signed by the engineer or technician-
> but if the exhibit is an 'art work' but may experientally be very
> simiarly to a science exhibit-then the work is 'signed' by the artist
>
> as the editor of leonardo journal i often get articles from artists
> who have a work resulting from a collaboration with a scientist-
> 90% of the time the scientist is not included as a co author on the
> text and i normally challenge this and insist that the scientist
> collaborator be properly attributed-but even if the scientist is
> a co author on the text when the artist shows the work publically
> it is often shows as the artists work without a co creator
>
> in the case of my father although he was an engineer- he worked
> closed with an electronics engineer patrick boucher to develop
> interactive system- boucher was never included as a co creator
> of the work, but he was named on the back of the work
>
> in many cases its clear that the artist and technician work closely
> enough that there is really co-invention- so i would support kathelin;s
> comment that in the documentation of a work its really important
> to fully document the technicians and engineers who contributed
> to making the work possible
>
> the leonardo call for memoirs by pioneers has received a very positive
> response and we have about 20 pioneers writing about their activities
> pre 1984= as the memoirs come in i will make sure to ask them to
> include documentation of the technicians and engineers who made hte
> work possible
>
> roger
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded meJopssage ----------
> From: Jon Ippolito <jippolito@maine.edu>
> Date: Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 8:03 PM
> Subject: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Only you can prevent the end of
> history: Preservation recommendations from Re-collection
> To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS <yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
>
>
> Kathelin,
>
> This is an excellent point! Having worked with some great technicians,
> it probably seems shocking that Rick and I left them out of the
> "twelve-step program" that concludes Re-collection. Certainly we
> wouldn't have Nam June Paik without Shuya Abe or Gary Hill without
> Dave Jones.
>
> Once I thought a little more deeply about your suggestion, however, I
> remembered that our twelve stakeholders represent professions that
> desperately need to change if variable media culture is to persevere.
> And given that intent, I'm led to wonder...do technicians really need
> to be doing anything differently?
>
> We could of course plead with artists' assistants to use best
> practices when engineering works for long-term sustainability. But I'm
> not sure this is a realistic expectation. Video synthesizers didn't
> really exist when Abe and Paik pieced one together, so there was no
> standard to turn to; and at the time Jones hacked together custom
> black boxes, synchronizing videos across a cluster of naked CRTs was
> hardly standard practice either. Artists like to work on the edge, and
> in my experience that's one reason inventive technicians are drawn to
> them.
>
> Of course, museums and other collecting institutions absolutely need
> expert technicians to maintain old equipment in the short term. I love
> the look of vacuum tubes and the feel of Bakelite, and am grateful to
> the dedicated media archeologists who store them on shelves. But
> actually running the old electronics may not be a viable option in the
> long term, as bulbs blow, voltage requirements change, and vintage
> components eventually disappear from eBay.
>
> This inconvenient truth came out in comments by Al Kossow of the
> Silicon Valley Computer History Museum at the 2013 Preserving.exe
> conference at the Library of Congress. When Bill LeFurgy and others
> called for libraries to collect hardware along with software, Al said
> "I'd like to offer a contrarian point of view," and went on to explain
> how painful it was to keep frankensteining dead computers back into
> operation. The exchange led the Library's repository chief at the
> time, Leslie Johnston, to conclude, "We cannot all become museums of
> computer hardware."
>
> http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2013/05/what-are-we-going-to-do-about-hardware
>
> Does that mean collecting institutions can do without technical
> experts? Not on your life! Even if we embrace less media-dependent
> strategies like emulation, migration, and reinterpretation, we still
> desperately need technical ingenuity. The difference is that we will
> rely on engineers less for expertise in outdated technologies than in
> adapting old ideas to new hardware environments.
>
> I've been extraordinarily fortunate to work with technical savants
> like Paul Kuranko, who could migrate video and re-solder circuits with
> the best of them, yet also had the creativity necessary to refashion a
> work for a new space or technology without losing its spirit in the
> process. It's hard for me to imagine having mounted any of my
> media-oriented shows at the Guggenheim without Paul's insights.
>
> So I'd say yes, seek out and reward technicians--but for their ability
> to look forward as well as backward. I'd be curious about the
> experiences of others on this list.
>
> jon
> ________________
> Re-Collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory
> http://re-collection.net
> "Read it if you want to prevail"--Bruce Sterling
>
> On Jul 21, 2014, at 5:10 PM, Kathelin Gray <kathelin@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Engineer/technicians important to find, maintain and service
>> old equipment--
>>
>> Kathelin Gray
>> Santa Fe, New Mexico
>> +1 505 471 8428 landline
>> skype: kathelin
>>
>> On 21 Jul 2014, at 12:43, Jon Ippolito wrote:
>>
>>> Programmers
>>> Lawyers
>>> Creators
>>> Dealers
>>> Sponsors
>>> Academics
>>> Historians
>>>
>>> Rick and I hope these guidelines may answer some of the questions asked on this list and spur additional strategies for safeguarding our heritage in the decades to come.
>>>
>>> jon
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
>>> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>>
>>> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>>>
>>> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
>>> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
>>> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
>>> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
>> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>
>> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>>
>> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
>> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
>> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
>> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In
> the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name,
> and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and
> enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked.
> Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options
> page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set
> Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>
>
> --
> Roger F Malina
> Is in Dallas right now
> for very very urgent things phone/text me me
> +1-510-853-2007
> blog: malina.diatrope.com
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

[Yasmin_discussions] Fwd: Only you can prevent the end of history: Preservation recommendations from Re-collection

Jon,kathelin

this discussion on the roles of key technicians in pioneering
art and technology work brings up some related issues concerning
attribution of credit to all collaborators that make the work
possible- often the technicians or engineers are not included as
co authors of the work= and in the art world typically there is
one named artist on a work ( with some key exceptions)

in scientific culture- on papers there are systems of attribution
so that some collaborators are included as co-authors on the
scientific paper and others in the acknowledgements ( not all
scientific disciplines have identical approaches- in particle
physics typically for instance the order of co authors is alphabetical
whereas in astronomy the first author is the key author who normally
drafted the paper)

in the history of art and technology there have been a number of
different models of how technical and engineering collaborators
are included as co-creators of the work ( and i am aware of a
number of resulting disputes)

interestingly the context of showing the work can be pertinent-
for instance at the Exploratorium science musuem exhibits are
typically not attributed or signed by the engineer or technician-
but if the exhibit is an 'art work' but may experientally be very
simiarly to a science exhibit-then the work is 'signed' by the artist

as the editor of leonardo journal i often get articles from artists
who have a work resulting from a collaboration with a scientist-
90% of the time the scientist is not included as a co author on the
text and i normally challenge this and insist that the scientist
collaborator be properly attributed-but even if the scientist is
a co author on the text when the artist shows the work publically
it is often shows as the artists work without a co creator

in the case of my father although he was an engineer- he worked
closed with an electronics engineer patrick boucher to develop
interactive system- boucher was never included as a co creator
of the work, but he was named on the back of the work

in many cases its clear that the artist and technician work closely
enough that there is really co-invention- so i would support kathelin;s
comment that in the documentation of a work its really important
to fully document the technicians and engineers who contributed
to making the work possible

the leonardo call for memoirs by pioneers has received a very positive
response and we have about 20 pioneers writing about their activities
pre 1984= as the memoirs come in i will make sure to ask them to
include documentation of the technicians and engineers who made hte
work possible

roger


---------- Forwarded meJopssage ----------
From: Jon Ippolito <jippolito@maine.edu>
Date: Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 8:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Only you can prevent the end of
history: Preservation recommendations from Re-collection
To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS <yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>


Kathelin,

This is an excellent point! Having worked with some great technicians,
it probably seems shocking that Rick and I left them out of the
"twelve-step program" that concludes Re-collection. Certainly we
wouldn't have Nam June Paik without Shuya Abe or Gary Hill without
Dave Jones.

Once I thought a little more deeply about your suggestion, however, I
remembered that our twelve stakeholders represent professions that
desperately need to change if variable media culture is to persevere.
And given that intent, I'm led to wonder...do technicians really need
to be doing anything differently?

We could of course plead with artists' assistants to use best
practices when engineering works for long-term sustainability. But I'm
not sure this is a realistic expectation. Video synthesizers didn't
really exist when Abe and Paik pieced one together, so there was no
standard to turn to; and at the time Jones hacked together custom
black boxes, synchronizing videos across a cluster of naked CRTs was
hardly standard practice either. Artists like to work on the edge, and
in my experience that's one reason inventive technicians are drawn to
them.

Of course, museums and other collecting institutions absolutely need
expert technicians to maintain old equipment in the short term. I love
the look of vacuum tubes and the feel of Bakelite, and am grateful to
the dedicated media archeologists who store them on shelves. But
actually running the old electronics may not be a viable option in the
long term, as bulbs blow, voltage requirements change, and vintage
components eventually disappear from eBay.

This inconvenient truth came out in comments by Al Kossow of the
Silicon Valley Computer History Museum at the 2013 Preserving.exe
conference at the Library of Congress. When Bill LeFurgy and others
called for libraries to collect hardware along with software, Al said
"I'd like to offer a contrarian point of view," and went on to explain
how painful it was to keep frankensteining dead computers back into
operation. The exchange led the Library's repository chief at the
time, Leslie Johnston, to conclude, "We cannot all become museums of
computer hardware."

http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2013/05/what-are-we-going-to-do-about-hardware

Does that mean collecting institutions can do without technical
experts? Not on your life! Even if we embrace less media-dependent
strategies like emulation, migration, and reinterpretation, we still
desperately need technical ingenuity. The difference is that we will
rely on engineers less for expertise in outdated technologies than in
adapting old ideas to new hardware environments.

I've been extraordinarily fortunate to work with technical savants
like Paul Kuranko, who could migrate video and re-solder circuits with
the best of them, yet also had the creativity necessary to refashion a
work for a new space or technology without losing its spirit in the
process. It's hard for me to imagine having mounted any of my
media-oriented shows at the Guggenheim without Paul's insights.

So I'd say yes, seek out and reward technicians--but for their ability
to look forward as well as backward. I'd be curious about the
experiences of others on this list.

jon
________________
Re-Collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory
http://re-collection.net
"Read it if you want to prevail"--Bruce Sterling

On Jul 21, 2014, at 5:10 PM, Kathelin Gray <kathelin@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Engineer/technicians important to find, maintain and service
> old equipment--
>
> Kathelin Gray
> Santa Fe, New Mexico
> +1 505 471 8428 landline
> skype: kathelin
>
> On 21 Jul 2014, at 12:43, Jon Ippolito wrote:
>
>> Programmers
>> Lawyers
>> Creators
>> Dealers
>> Sponsors
>> Academics
>> Historians
>>
>> Rick and I hope these guidelines may answer some of the questions asked on this list and spur additional strategies for safeguarding our heritage in the decades to come.
>>
>> jon
>> _______________________________________________
>> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
>> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>
>> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>>
>> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
>> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
>> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
>> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/


_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In
the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name,
and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and
enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked.
Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options
page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set
Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/


--
Roger F Malina
Is in Dallas right now
for very very urgent things phone/text me me
+1-510-853-2007
blog: malina.diatrope.com
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Only you can prevent the end of history: Preservation recommendations from Re-collection

Kathelin,

This is an excellent point! Having worked with some great technicians, it probably seems shocking that Rick and I left them out of the "twelve-step program" that concludes Re-collection. Certainly we wouldn't have Nam June Paik without Shuya Abe or Gary Hill without Dave Jones.

Once I thought a little more deeply about your suggestion, however, I remembered that our twelve stakeholders represent professions that desperately need to change if variable media culture is to persevere. And given that intent, I'm led to wonder...do technicians really need to be doing anything differently?

We could of course plead with artists' assistants to use best practices when engineering works for long-term sustainability. But I'm not sure this is a realistic expectation. Video synthesizers didn't really exist when Abe and Paik pieced one together, so there was no standard to turn to; and at the time Jones hacked together custom black boxes, synchronizing videos across a cluster of naked CRTs was hardly standard practice either. Artists like to work on the edge, and in my experience that's one reason inventive technicians are drawn to them.

Of course, museums and other collecting institutions absolutely need expert technicians to maintain old equipment in the short term. I love the look of vacuum tubes and the feel of Bakelite, and am grateful to the dedicated media archeologists who store them on shelves. But actually running the old electronics may not be a viable option in the long term, as bulbs blow, voltage requirements change, and vintage components eventually disappear from eBay.

This inconvenient truth came out in comments by Al Kossow of the Silicon Valley Computer History Museum at the 2013 Preserving.exe conference at the Library of Congress. When Bill LeFurgy and others called for libraries to collect hardware along with software, Al said "I'd like to offer a contrarian point of view," and went on to explain how painful it was to keep frankensteining dead computers back into operation. The exchange led the Library's repository chief at the time, Leslie Johnston, to conclude, "We cannot all become museums of computer hardware."

http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2013/05/what-are-we-going-to-do-about-hardware

Does that mean collecting institutions can do without technical experts? Not on your life! Even if we embrace less media-dependent strategies like emulation, migration, and reinterpretation, we still desperately need technical ingenuity. The difference is that we will rely on engineers less for expertise in outdated technologies than in adapting old ideas to new hardware environments.

I've been extraordinarily fortunate to work with technical savants like Paul Kuranko, who could migrate video and re-solder circuits with the best of them, yet also had the creativity necessary to refashion a work for a new space or technology without losing its spirit in the process. It's hard for me to imagine having mounted any of my media-oriented shows at the Guggenheim without Paul's insights.

So I'd say yes, seek out and reward technicians--but for their ability to look forward as well as backward. I'd be curious about the experiences of others on this list.

jon
________________
Re-Collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory
http://re-collection.net
"Read it if you want to prevail"--Bruce Sterling

On Jul 21, 2014, at 5:10 PM, Kathelin Gray <kathelin@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Engineer/technicians important to find, maintain and service
> old equipment--
>
> Kathelin Gray
> Santa Fe, New Mexico
> +1 505 471 8428 landline
> skype: kathelin
>
> On 21 Jul 2014, at 12:43, Jon Ippolito wrote:
>
>> At the suggestion of some folks on this list, I've created a website that lists the recommendations for new media preservation offered in the concluding chapter of Re-collection:
>>
>> http://re-collection.net/recommendations.html
>>
>> Our "twelve-step program" to rescue digital culture is broken down by profession:
>>
>> Curators
>> Conservators
>> Archivists
>> Collection Managers
>> Institutions
>> Programmers
>> Lawyers
>> Creators
>> Dealers
>> Sponsors
>> Academics
>> Historians
>>
>> Rick and I hope these guidelines may answer some of the questions asked on this list and spur additional strategies for safeguarding our heritage in the decades to come.
>>
>> jon
>> _______________________________________________
>> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
>> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>
>> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>>
>> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
>> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
>> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
>> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/


_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] ART, NEW MEDIA, AND SOCIAL MEMORY

Hello Yasminers,

re preservation of digital works from a few years ago - some links:
http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/research.php?Filtres=1&MotsCles=Preservation&Numero=t000076&zoom=1&Format=1&Submit.x=14&Submit.y=11

http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/competence-centres/list/?id=58

and

in reference to an earlier comment by Roger
re kinetic art from the 1950s. In the Pleasure of
Light exhibition in Budapest (2011), Frank Malina's
and Nicolas Schoffer's pioneer works not only worked fine,
the visitors were amazed with the beauty, aesthetic effects
of these works and many commented on their
enigmatic qualities which they felt is sometimes
lacking in contemporary digital presentations

nina


Yaminers

paul and bronac;s anecdotes about how technologies can rapidly become
archaic reminds me of Erkki
Huhtamos's recent Leonardo Book

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0262018519/leonardoonlin-20

Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and
Related Spectacles

Here Erkki deals with the panorama as a popular art form- which never
entered the academic
canons even though during a period they were as big a deal as the
oculus rift is today

Photography and Cinema developed their own archiving and conserving
institutions
but the panorama and innumerable other technological platforms of the
19th century
fell between the cracks of institutional boundaries- Errki and other
archeo media historians
have been resuscitating these

Mind you I remember the crisis at the french minister of culture when
there was a roof
leak in the museum in paris that archived plaster casts of french
monuments- big
debate as to whether the plaster cast replicas were now cultural heritage

In their Re-Collecting book ( http://re-collection.net/ ) Jon and Rick
dedicate Section III
to "death by institutions' talk about the respective roles and
ideologies of libraries,
museums and archives and develop the concept of an "open meta museum" and its
inter-archives

they quote my 'open observatory' manifesto (
http://www.leoalmanac.org/an-open-observatory-manifesto-by-roger-malina/
)
where I discussed the way astronomical data has entered into a regime
of open archives
where now more science is done on archives than taking new telescope
data, and more people
analyse the data than the people who took the data.

perhaps the system in astronomy is approaching the status of an 'open
meta museum" that
jon and rick discuss- with a pretty seamless system between
professional institutional astronomers, to professional amateurs
that are self employed, to amateurs and the general public who can all
contribute and analyse data-
if indeed new media art could be conserved/restored/remembered in this
way it would indeed be more
robust to intentional and non intentional forgetting

interestingly enough the phenomenon of emulation is well established-
in the case of the Hubble
data archives for instance the original images are not stored- but the
raw data is re-processed with
the latest calibration software at the time a request is made to the
archive ie the art work is regenerated
each time someone looks at it - it is far easier to store the low
level digital data from the detectors that
the processed data which as with art work is unstable to software
changes ( this goes the opposite direction
to paul fishwicks' earlier post about storing 'models' rather than the
objects themselves- here the lowest level
least abstract form of the data is the easiest to archive rather than
the higher level models or simulations)

the fact that in astronomy there is a whole range for institutional
professionals to self motivated amateurs
has created a robust system of social archiving very much in jon and
rick's idea of a open meta museum

bernard stiegler has been generalising this idea with his idea of the
'amatorat;
http://revel.unice.fr/alliage/index.html?id=3272
or extrapolating hacker/maker, citizen science, smart citizen trends
into the future to new
phenomena of new ways of capturing social memory

as described in Re-Collecting- there are a number of art forms where
without the 'amatorat'
or amateurs collecting professionally - that will be barely visible in
the museums/libraries/
archiving institutions if left to themselves- computer games are an
obvious immediate example
where amateurs hold the best collections internationally today

finally to pick up bronac's anecdote about the rotary phone and paul's
coment about larry
cuba's obsolete wire frame films ( annick talked earlier about the
research she is doing
on minitel art)- most technologies are doomed to the dustbin and are
not disruptive-
my father frank malina was a prominent kinetic artist in the 1950s-
and developed his own
electronics ( with engineer francois boucher) and interactive art
systems before computer chips
were available- my father never made the jump from electronic art to
computer art- and stopped
making kinetic art in the late 1970s when computer chips started
becoming available-i think
partially in discouragement at not having the computer skills (and his
professional interests moved
elsewhere)

ironically his kinetic art from the 1950s still works fine- you have
to change the lightbulbs=
and with the disappearance of filament and fluorescent bulbs ( rick
and jon talk about the
difficulty of remounting Dan Flavin's light installations because the
fluorescent bulbs are no
longer available) its getting a bit harder-
but the swiss clock motors he used are probably good for three hundred years

its interesting to see a re-surgence of kinetic art in the maker
movement and bricolage
movements = some archaic media can be resusciated

roger malina
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In
the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name,
and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and
enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked.
Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options
page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set
Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to
http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/


_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Monday, July 21, 2014

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Only you can prevent the end of history: Preservation recommendations from Re-collection

Engineer/technicians important to find, maintain and service
old equipment--

Kathelin Gray
Santa Fe, New Mexico
+1 505 471 8428 landline
skype: kathelin

On 21 Jul 2014, at 12:43, Jon Ippolito wrote:

> At the suggestion of some folks on this list, I've created a website that lists the recommendations for new media preservation offered in the concluding chapter of Re-collection:
>
> http://re-collection.net/recommendations.html
>
> Our "twelve-step program" to rescue digital culture is broken down by profession:
>
> Curators
> Conservators
> Archivists
> Collection Managers
> Institutions
> Programmers
> Lawyers
> Creators
> Dealers
> Sponsors
> Academics
> Historians
>
> Rick and I hope these guidelines may answer some of the questions asked on this list and spur additional strategies for safeguarding our heritage in the decades to come.
>
> jon
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/


_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Re-Collecting: call to artists in the Digital Archeology Section of the Barbican Digital Revolution

Hello Yasminers,

Relevant to the recent discussion here and perhaps of general interest is this newly released text:

The Smithsonian Interview Project: Questions on Technical Standards in the Care of Time-Based and Digital Art
http://www.si.edu/content/tbma/documents/SI_TBMA_10_Insights.pdf

Enjoy,


Richard Rinehart
---------------------
Director
Samek Art Museum
Bucknell University
---------------------
Lewisburg, PA, 17837
570-577-3213
http://galleries.blogs.bucknell.edu


On Jul 12, 2014, at 4:20 PM, roger malina wrote:

> yasminers
>
> if any of you attended the opening of the Barbican Digital Revolution
> exhibition-
> would welcome your comments on conservation/restoration/exhiting of the works
>
> http://www.barbican.org.uk/digital-revolution/exhibition-and-events/participants/
>
> and if you a member of the digital archeology list of artists and are on yasmin
> please do comment !
>
> roger malina
>
> Digital Archaeology
>
> William Fetter
> Leon Harman & Kenneth Knowlton
> Charles Csuri
> John Horton Conway
> Allan Alcorn & Nolan Bushnell
> Ralph Baer
> Lillian Schwartz
> Edwin Catmull & Fred Parke
> John Whitney Jnr
> Lynn Hershman
> Peter Foldès
> Larry Cuba
> Herbert W. Franke
> Ed Roberts
> Will Crowther & Don Woods
> Nolan Bushnell, Steve Wozniak & Steve Jobs
> Peter Vogel & Kim Ryrie
> Kate Bush
> Peter Gabriel
> Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force
> Herbie Hancock
> Jan Hammer
> Robert Abel and Associates
> Lucasfilm
> Industrial Light & Magic
> Quantel
> Chuck Peddle
> Paul Brown
> Andrew Lippman/MIT
> Roy Trubshaw & Richard Bartle
> Paul Breedlove/Texas Instruments
> Tomohiro Nishikado, Taito
> Science of Cambridge Ltd
> Angel Studios
> Manex Visual Effects
> Toru Iwatani/Namco
> Atari
> Roger Linn
> Malcolm Evans
> Yoichiro Kawaguchi
> Matthew Smith
> Ian Bell & David Braben
> Susan Kare & Bill Atkinson
> Andy Warhol
> Leonard Tramiel
> Alexey Pajitnov
> Gunpei Yokoi & Shigeru Miyamoto/Nintendo
> Curt Johnson
> Éric Chahi, Delphine Software
> Id Software
> Julian Edwards
> Marisa Bowe & Yoshi Sodeoka
> Antirom
> JODI
> Toby Gard & Paul Howard Douglas/Core Design
> Olia Lialina
> Alexei Shulgin
> William Latham & Stephen Todd
> Tim Berners-Lee & Robert Cailliau
> Massaya Matsuura/NanaOn-Sha
> eBoy
> Daniel Brown
> John Maeda
> Yugo Nakamura
> Vuk Ćosić
> Square Pictures
> Weta Digital
> Kerry Conran
> Aaron Hoffman & Alex Ogle/Tubatomic
> Will Wright/Electronic Arts
> Alexandra Jugovic & Florian Schmitt
> Ed Burton/Soda Creative
> Fred Deakin, Nat Hunter & Alex Maclean/Airside
> Sam & Dan Houser/Rockstar Games
> Crispin Porter + Bogusky & The Barbarian Group
> Jonathan Harris & Sep Kamvar
> Ko Tanaka/Projector
> João Wilbert & Andy Cameron
> Mind Candy
> Rovio Entertainment
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Oral culture and new media WAS: Re: ART, NEW MEDIA, AND SOCIAL MEMORY

Hello Everyone,

Now I wish I had spent the weekend reading and responding to this thread rather than driving all over PA to see installation art ... but perhaps there's something relevant there.

I'm glad that Jon mentioned Bollacker's quip about preserving porn from our conference which you can see at: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/about/newmedia (but hurry because BAMPFA is updating their website and - now that I'm no longer there - who knows how long this online archive of a conference on archiving the online will last :)

My response to Bollacker's quip was A. the concern that this sentiment may only apply to popular culture, but that's been well addressed both here and in Jon's both/and example from the book of both/and thinking, and B. a different concern that, I admit, was not really covered in the book - that is the difference between figure and ground or the "depth of field" focus of preservation. What I mean is that when Bollacker's masses preserve porn, what they are really preserving is a field; a genre, more than any specific work. Whereas memory institutions like museums want to preserve not just "new media art" the genre but specific works and that difference means a lot when thinking about crowdsourcing preservation.

Actually, the split this hair even further; different museums would approach this differently. History and Natural History museums, for instance, collect representative artifacts; artifacts that best represent a period in history, a site, a manufacturing technique, etc. Often these artifacts were mass-produced at the time and any instance would serve. Art museums collect exemplary artifacts; often artworks that are similarly representative of a genre, period, or technique, but with the element of aesthetic quality added in. Any instance would not serve. When we talk about crowdsourcing preservation, it seems prudent to question what social assumptions may come with that language (in the same way that "archving" new media art may carry certain implications about archival practice.) I have asked before whether, when collecting new media art, art museums should behave like museums of history (privileging historic accuracy over artistic function) or museums of art. The question !
also seems valid in this context, but I'd add that the focus on the singular work seems to me not quite as unhelpful (in this context) as the focus on the single (unique) instance of the work.

I also appreciate Dragan's and Annicks' comments on usefuless or myth-building as a preservation strategy. This reminds me of the U.S. Dept. of Energy challenge (now many years going) of creating signage for nuclear waste sites that would persist for 10,000 years. There have been many proposed solutions over the years and one lesson they've learned from history is to not put any message into a form that might be considered precious because it would then be re-used (gold plundered and re-cast, etc.) but instead make the message in something like a million shards of glass scattered around the world because glass is a common but long-lived form of trash.

Richard Rinehart
---------------------
Director
Samek Art Museum
Bucknell University
---------------------
Lewisburg, PA, 17837
570-577-3213
http://galleries.blogs.bucknell.edu






On Jul 14, 2014, at 8:36 PM, Dragan Espenschied wrote:

> Hi Annick!
>
>> what you are describing is very important.
>> To me it resemble a myth building process (which then, at some point, does not
>> need to be true, false, real or imaginary, but mixes all this)
>
> I would much prefer for legends to exist about for example internet art than
> having to introduce it over and over again.
>
>> What is important in what you describe is the *now* (useful or not, sometimes
>> just trendy, if trendy is useful, then it is ok ;-)
>> The problem is that you don't build history on the *now*, it has to last for
>> some time (time-based art, hey!).
>> I would like to believe that this strategy will last beyond the *now* both in
>> terms of what can be used to "surprise somebody" (by definition can happen only
>> once) and in terms of platforms (how long Tumblr will last ?).
>>
>> As you write, history is a mere side-effect. I suspect Jon, Richard, Roger, and
>> others would like it to be more long lasting ;-)
>
> Oh, well, I don't know how it will work out. But I am certain that there will be
> more images of Geocities around on the Internet in 20 years than of material
> presented on archival websites.
>
> In this year's Webby Awards awards ceremony, one of the screenshots was used in
> a introduction video. Without attribution or whatever other information, but it
> made it there.
>
> Of course tumblr will cease to exist sooner or later, it is not the platform
> with the most spreading impact. But then I can create new material and feed it
> to another system. Maybe snapchat. :)
>
> With the project Animated GIF Model, Olia Lialina and me learned that the
> copying of images works over many years, spanning different platforms and
> publishing styles.
>
> Bests,
> Dragan
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/