Module I - Introduction to Media Art and Museums

1) Conservation and Preservation

Conduct case studies in order to guide institutions and facilitate their acquisition and long-term conservation processes of media artworks:

• Case study by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA): Embryological House by Greg Lynn - conducted by Karen Potje, Head, Conservation/Preservation; Howard Shubert, Curator of Prints and Drawings; and Andrea Kuchembuck, Lawrence Bird and Guillaume LaBelle, Research Assistants, CCA, 2007.
• Case study by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC): Unex Sign Nº 2 (from the Survival Series) (1983-84) by Jenny Holzer - conducted by Richard Gagnier, Head of the Conservation Department, MMFA; Ariane Noël de Tilly (NGC) and Émilie Boudrias (MMFA), Research Assistants, 2008 (forthcoming).
• Case study by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (1989) by Nam June Paik - conducted by Richard Gagnier, Head of the Conservation Department, MMFA; Émilie Boudrias, Research Assistant, MMFA, 2007-2008 (forthcoming).
• Publish a Best Conservation Practices Guide for Artworks with Technological Components (2009).

2) Documentation and Archival Management

• Prepare documentation strategies and methods adapted to the collections of records and archival fonds of media artworks;
• Create a typology of documentation methods found in artist archives and museums;
• Conduct case studies on records collections and archive fonds.
• Digital files of artworks featured in the exhibition e-art: New Technologies and Contemporary Art - Ten Years of Accomplishments by the Daniel Langlois Foundation (The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts) - produced by Andrea Kuchembuck, Research Assistant, DOCAM, 2007-2008 (forthcoming).

3) Technological Timeline

Create a directory of information resources on the various technologies used, including links to user guides and technical data:

• Technology Resources Directory - produced by Marilyn Terzic, Research Assistant, McGill University, 2007.
• Develop an historical directory of technologies.

4) Cataloguing Structure

• Establish a cataloguing structure for artworks with technological components to complement traditional museum collections management systems;
  • Survey by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts with 43 museums in North America, Australia and Europe to identify the practices and needs associated with the management of their media art collections, including:
    • The procedures applied to the management of media artworks;
    • The need for a cataloguing system and standardized terminology.
  • Report on the Intelligent Preservation of Media Artworks in Museums: the Importance of Metadata - produced by Tommy Lavallée, Research Assistant, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MACM), 2007. Importance of Metadata (PDF)
• Conduct case studies to validate this new cataloguing structure;
  • Case studies by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: In Your Dreams (1998) by Gisele Amantea; and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (1989) by Nam June Paik - conducted by Émilie Boudrias, MMFA, Research Assistant, 2007 (in French only). Case studies by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (PDF)
  • Case studies by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal: Beats and Butterflies (2006) by Jean-Pierre Gauthier; Conspiracy Theory (2002) by Janet Cardiff; Dervish (1993-1995) by Gary Hill; and Générique by Alexandre Castonguay - conducted by Tommy Lavallée, MACM, Research Assistant, 2007;
  • Case studies by the National Gallery of Canada: The Table: Childhood (1984-2001) by Max Dean and Raffaello D'Andrea; and Unex Sign Nº 2 (from the Survival Series) (1983-1984) by Jenny Holzer; Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal: Générique (2001) by Alexandre Castonguay - conducted by Marie-Ève Courchesne, DOCAM, Research Assistant, 2008. Case studies by the National Gallery of Canada (PDF)
• Publish a Best Cataloguing Practices Guide for New Media Artworks (2009).

5) Terminology

Develop vocabulary management tools for standardized media art terms through a glossary, thesaurus and ontology. Bilingual English-French DOCAM glossary - produced by Corina MacDonald, Research Assistant, McGill University, 2009 (forthcoming).

The complexity of conserving media artworks is based on the following factors:

Deterioration of technology

Deterioration occurs when a part of the artwork no longer functions due to a mechanical breakdown or the physicochemical weakening of its materials. Through prolonged use, any technology may become vulnerable to breakage, deterioration, or, in the case of computers, corruption.

Obsolescence of technology

Obsolescence occurs when a technology becomes outmoded and can no longer be used, because both the content format and the equipment needed for its upkeep are no longer available on the market. For example, computer companies are regularly producing new models of equipment, operating systems and programs to replace previous versions, which risk being discontinued. When a component used in an artwork becomes outmoded or obsolete, the artwork may cease to function.

Operating Equipment and Content Format

Media artworks contain technological components that are an integral aspect of the artwork and are considered as part of its content format. The presence of these components is essential to the viewer's experience of the artwork during an exhibition, as they contain the information that constitutes the master source of the artwork. This master source is not used during exhibitions, and reproductions of the content format should be made available to assure their conservation. These reproductions may include software, DigiBeta or Betacam tapes, DVDs (digital video discs), etc. and are part of a purchasing policy. They are operated or executed on functional components that make up the artwork. This equipment may include DVD players, computers, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, etc. Unlike the content format, the equipment is not always included with the artwork when it is acquired, which may oblige the institution to procure it.

Transcript of Richard Gagnier talking about storage as a conservation strategy

Richard Gagnier, Head of the Conservation Department at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), discusses storage as a conservation strategy

Storage is probably what a person traditionally thinks of first in terms of preserving media art works. However, media installations and media works are not just about storing content. There's often a sculptural aspect too. A work may have elements that are present in space, that are physical or, once again, even sculptural, and these elements may be made out of various materials that are important to preserve in their original state as much as possible. So in the end, the objective of storage is to create conditions that'll maximize the display life and archive life of these various elements. Of course, another goal of storage is to provide a format for archiving content over the medium term, which is the ideal for preserving all of a work's information content. For example, in the case of a video work, NTSC tape may not be the best format; it may be better to use beta, or half-inch tape instead of three-quarter-inch. Whatever the format, it's important to find the best support for storing and preserving the content in question. Physical materials come into play here as well: recording tape is made out of some kind of plastic polymer, usually polyester, and so you have to create optimal conditions for storing the tape, like low humidity. And certain procedures need to be followed to maximize the life of the support, for example, playing magnetic tapes periodically. This remagnetizes the tape, and so doing things like this are important. And then other procedures are necessary for content preservation, and the same applies to the equipment. Generally speaking, equipment just needs a good storage place, which creates the option of going out and buying two or three pieces of the same equipment to make the most out of a work's lifespan over the long term. If you know that each piece of equipment is in good working order and could be used for 15 or 20 years, that you can operate it without worrying about interference in relation to any electronic components around the work or any other programming components or platforms, then the work can be played and kept available almost indefinitely. And so having two or three of the same pieces of equipment can double or triple the lifespan of a work's components and, by extension, the work itself.

Transcript of Richard Gagnier talking about migration as a conservation strategy

Richard Gagnier, Head of the Conservation Department at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), discusses migration as a conservation strategy.

Migration is closely related to the content format in terms of where the information is stored and how to keep up with technological developments. For example, the major turning point, or major transition, recently affecting media works was the switchover from analogue, or electromagnetic videotape, to digital, with the development of CDs, DVDs and other formats like that. The appearance of this new technology made it possible to preserve content much longer using media available today that weren't an option at the time when many works were created. Evidently, this makes transferring videotape content to digital formats the solution of choice, since these digital formats are simply chunks of memory space. For example, it's now possible to store content on the hard drives of computers or even on portable hard drives or other similar devices. These storage options allow for excellent preservation of large expanses of information for a long time in formats that are also likely to survive indefinitely. As a result, people have generally abandoned analogue media in favour of digital media and more contemporary content formats. The most important part of this process is to transfer all content as completely as possible and minimize any kind of signal compression or loss of information. For the most part, the new technologies and content formats perform better than the older technologies, making it possible to transfer information completely while preserving its integrity. That's the phenomenon of migration. Sometimes, migration may also be related, once again, to the use of equipment that still supports analogue formats but where we know the equipment is no longer available or becoming increasingly less available due to lack of demand, industrial production and the appearance on the market of newer models, newer types of equipment. And it's not so much that the equipment at hand is wearing out and not working properly anymore… but more the fear that soon it won't be possible to play a work anymore because the equipment is no longer available, again due to changes in the technology and the quick pace that all technologies grow at. There are just always newer models coming out. And so in some cases, migration becomes necessary based on the simple knowledge that certain equipment probably won't be available any longer in the near future.

Transcript of Richard Gagnier talking about emulation as a conservation strategy

Richard Gagnier, Head of the Conservation Department at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), discusses emulation as a conservation strategy

Emulation is a much more complex concept in that it has to do specifically with creating effects to imitate obsolete technologies. Its purpose is to recreate the original "historical" feel of a work using more contemporary technologies. For example, in terms of programming, it may be necessary to use newer programs that are completely different from a work's original program due to the fact that certain equipment or platforms available when the work was created are no longer around. The most important thing is to seek to recreate the impression and the impact of the work. It's a question of deciding what the artist originally intended for viewers to experience, and then trying to recreate more or less the same experiential parameters so that people receive the work in the same way. Now, this brings the whole notion of time into play because all of the works at hand are based on time in some way. For example, if you think of the fact that the programming used for the consoles and other elements of older interactive games was less advanced, then the reaction time, the time it took for interfaces to respond as people interacted with them, was much longer a few years ago. Things happened in a much more deliberate sequence then, unlike today, when programming and technology advances have made response time much, much faster by comparison. In the hi-tech world we're living in today, people are much more demanding - they want a response pretty much instantly. However, it's important to gauge things like response time carefully, because the goal is also to recreate the feel of the work and place it in a certain historical period. It's also necessary to take into account the technological limitations of certain works in terms of their equipment. For example, you have to take into account things like image definition, luminosity and contrast when you recreate images; and audio quality, since the objective is to recreate a certain auditory experience based on the technologies available in a given space. It's also important to understand the limits of technologies so that you don't improve the experience too much, because if you do, then people may make a leap that doesn't fit in with the earliest works. If you look at works from the 60s and 70s, the artists working with technology were pushing the envelope, maximizing the technological capacity of their works, perhaps even distorting certain technologies based on their interest in various aspects of their creations that could be emphasized through technology. And so it's important to understand what the limits of these technologies were and take this into account in recreating the experience today. That's emulation in a nutshell. And in this context, it's extremely important to have detailed documentation, or at least the best documentation possible, about the original experience associated with a work.

Transcript of Richard Gagnier talking about reinterpretation as a conservation strategy

Richard Gagnier, Head of the Conservation Department at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), discusses reinterpretation as a conservation strategy

Finally comes the last aspect, reinterpretation, which could be seen as related to emulation to a certain extent. However, reinterpretation has much more to do with the variable nature of technological media and presentations as they exist in the domain of the visual arts, which, once again, relates more to aspects of documentation. By this I mean that some works aren't presented in exactly the same way every time they're shown or put on exhibit. Artists frequently use the space differently each time when setting up a work, and sometimes they may even leave out certain technological components. For example, if a work has multiple display monitors, the artist may decide for whatever reason to use certain monitors differently or not at all. This reinterpretation is based on the documentation and history of the work, which in turn relates to the artist's production methods and the processes the artist applies to a particular work in a sequential and repetitive manner. This often becomes a platform for various reinterpretations based on the work's multiple iterations, with major influence from either the artist or other individuals with expertise in working with the technical aspects of the work's production. These could be technicians or other people working with the artist who make decisions about presentation while also remaining true to the artist's original intentions and the work's design elements. When installing a work, it's not unusual to leave some components out from time to time. Certain sculptural elements may even be removed permanently. As a result, there's always a chance that the final presentation could become a sort of reference presentation, which is often associated with the addition of a work to a permanent collection or an institution. At this point it's the institution that assumes responsibility for the work and for producing the various documentation on the work. Then, based on this reference aspect controlling the various presentations of the work due to things like space limitations or certain unique aspects of the work, we actually gain a better understanding of the work depending on the parameters at hand and how they're applied. In the end, this highlights the flexibility of playing with the variable nature of certain parameters of the work. Through interviews with the artist, the artist may also tell us, for example, that the number of monitors is not always the same, that it's not essential to always have the same number of monitors, although a certain minimum number of monitors may always be necessary. The same occurs during interaction with the various components of a work: the artist may tell us that certain components have to always be there, while certain others are not as important - that the relationship between components A and B is critical, while the role of component C is more incidental. This makes it possible to revisit the entire installation of the work to a certain extent while at the same time remaining consistent with the artist's intentions, because the work has a presentation history that we can draw on and work with. Reinterpretation may also come into play if certain technologies are no longer available and the originals are no longer at hand. This forces us to consider migration or different approaches to emulation. The work may come out different somehow in the end, but the integrity of its design intentions remains intact. This is more or less what reinterpretation is about.