Technological arts preservation

Official URL: https://www.sakipsabancimuzesi.org/en/page/technological-arts-preservation

It is with an increasing tendency that works of art produced with the help of technology (such as video, sound, image, code, virtual reality, augmented reality, kinetic, digital and physical hybridities), or that require technology to work (such as hardware or software) are being included into various art collections. How these artworks would be carried into the future considering the rapidly advancing technology becomes a conundrum for all cultural institutions responsible for conserving cultural heritage. As a response to these needs, The Technological Arts Preservation Project has come into existence with the cooperation of Sakıp Sabancı Museum and Sabancı University. The project was initiated on May 23, 2019 when Osman Serhat Karaman, Sakıp Sabancı Museum digitalSSM Archive and Research Space Manager, invited Selçuk Artut, faculty member of Sabancı University Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program to give a speech on the issue. The Technological Arts Preservation Project aims at cooperation and information-sharing between professionals from various disciplines and areas of expertise. Scholars, media theorists, researchers, digital art conservators, curators and artists, software engineers, and computer scientists from significant institutions such as INA (Institut national de l'audiovisuel), Rhizome, Tate Modern, ZKM have contributed to the research project that gained international status. Within the scope of the project between November 15, 2019 and November 20, 2020, nine conferences and a workshop have been conducted on the preservation of software-based art, preservation of virtual reality, media archaeology, net art and web archiving. Our aim in organizing these conferences and workshops was to contribute to the international research in carrying both digital art and digital culture into the future, to discuss the results of new research, and to develop new and interdisciplinary modes of cooperation. We have reached a total number of 2000 participants through these events we have organized within the scope of the project, continuing our efforts online due to the pandemic, beginning from May 2020. Presently, technological arts preservation is a common issue. Many problems such as erased digital photos, unrepairable, broken backup units, or records that would fall into oblivion due to discontinued media players now constitute a significant part of our daily lives. However, in terms of artworks, it is of vital importance that the matter should be handled with an interdisciplinary point of view within the context of preservation of cultural values. The book you have in front of you was prepared with great care and in awareness of the aforementioned responsibilities. Bringing together esteemed scholars, leading figures in arts and culture, artists as well as scientists, all expert names in their respective fields, this study includes comprehensive texts approaching the issue from different points of view. Consisting of three sections, the first part of the publication includes in-depth essays, the second part brings together content created based on the events we have conducted, and lastly, the third part chronicles answers of the artists to a questionnaire on the preservation of their work. We hope that this book will constitute a well-rounded source for those who have a sensibility for the very cultural values that make us human and how they may be carried into the future; we sincerely hope it will light the way for similar studies in the future.