Digitale Medienkunst am Oberrhein

Conservation – Restoration – Sustainability

Cover of the publication »Digital Art Conservation«

Duration: 2010–2012

The three-year digital art conservation project (2010-2012) was dedicated to researching strategies for the conservation of digital art. The project focus lay on artworks created with computer programming and digital technologies.

The project was initiated at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, and was carried out in collaboration with five other institutions from the Upper Rhine region. In the course of the project, issues revolving around the conservation of digital art were analyzed both from a theoretical and a practical perspective. Furthermore, concrete strategies for the conservation of a broad spectrum of digital works of art were tested and critically evaluated by way of the exemplary treatment of ten works from regional collections. An extensive publication in three different language editions (German, English and French) comprehensively documents the project's activities, and presents the results of the case studies.

Project website

http://www.digitalartconservation.org

Organization / Institution

ZKM | Center for Art and Media

Project management

Bernhard Serexhe (Project management)

Project team

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (executing organization)
Project director: Bernhard Serexhe (curator, ZKM | Media Museum)
Project coordination: Chiara Marchini Camia
Preservation management: Arnaud Obermann
Publication: Eva-Maria Höllerer
Assistance: Timo Haubrich, Elke Cordell
Interns: Axel Städter (2010), Claudia Röck (2011), Esther Neumann (2012)

Espace multimédia gantner, Bourogne (France)
Jean-Damien Collin (director until 2004; director of the cultural development department at Conseil général du Territoire de Belfort)
Project coordination: Valérie Perrin (director)
Project administration: Marie-Pierre Hénon (administration and project management)
Supervision of case studies: Anne Laforet (external collaborator)
Technical assistance: Vincent Marguet
Public relations: Clémence Girard

Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR) / École supérieure des arts décoratifs (ESADS), Strasbourg (France)
David Cascaro (director)
Otto Teichert (director until 2011)
Project coordination and lectures: Anne Laforet (associate lecturer)
Lectures: Jérôme Thomas (professor), Francisco Ruiz de Infante (professor)
Project administration: Julia Reth (international relations)

Vidéo Les Beaux Jours, Strasbourg (France)
Marie-Michèle Cattelain (director until 2012)
Georges Heck (director until 2010)
Project coordination: Catherine Mueller (project management)
Supervision of case studies: Nelly Massera (external collaborator)
House of electronic arts Basel (formerly known as [plug.in]) (Switzerland)
Annette Schindler (director of [plug.in] until 2010)
Project coordination: Sabine Himmelsbach (management)
Assistance project coordination: Doris Gassert (research assistant), Fabienne Blanc (collaborator at [plug.in] until 2011), Tabea Lurk (collaborator at [plug.in] until 2010)

Bern University of the Arts (Switzerland), project AktiveArchive
Project coordination: Johannes Gfeller (professor for conservation and restoration, project director of AktiveArchive)
Supervision of the case study Mondrian: Florian Kaufmann (research assistant for the AktiveArchive project)
Supported by the Suisse National Science Foundation (SNFS)

Associated project partners
Ososphère, Festival des Artefacts, La Laiterie, all Strasbourg (France)
Project coordination: Thierry Danet

Involved artists

Partners

· ESAD, Ecole supérieure des arts décoratifs, Strasbourg (FR)
· Video les Beaux Jours, Strasbourg (FR)
· Espace Multimédia Gantner (FR)
· Hochschule der Künste Bern (CH)
· Plugin DAC/DAS (CH)

Sponsors