Archiving Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace
On Friday, May 11, 2018, IDAA organizers Mikhel Proulx and Sara Nicole England presented at the symposium Is This Permanence: Preservation of Born-digital Artists’ Archives, at the Yale Center for British Art Yale University.
A recorded version of Sara and Mikhel’s presentation at the symposium is available online (starting at 51:30).
Symposium | Is This Permanence: Preservation of Born-digital Artists’ Archives
The internet pioneer Vint Cerf has said that “preservation by accident is not a plan.” Without a plan, will born-digital art last even one lifetime? If we do not develop solutions now, we risk losing not only born-digital art but artists’ archives as well—effectively erasing the work and memory of this generation and subsequent generations’ art history.
Today, an artist’s studio ephemera likely consists of old laptops, iPhones, professional websites, and social media accounts, as well as traditional analog materials. Artists’ archives are increasingly hybrid collections, requiring adaptable preservation methods. This symposium explores the challenges of born-digital preservation and artists’ archives, including artists’ use of born-digital methods as part of their practice and as a means of documentation; the state of the digital preservation field for artists and those who steward their archives; and preservation strategies for artists, museums, collectors, archives, and libraries.