The Conservator Has Left the Building
@JonIppolito
Inspirations
Old roles
Artist / Curator / Conservator
New role for conservators
"New media art collection implies artists, collectors and exhibitors participate together."
--Yung Hsien Chen (Taiwan)
"In Japan, the reality is that curators at most museums must seek the assistance of outside specialists."
--Uke Uematsu (Osaka)
Why can't we stay in the conservation lab?
The Analog Video Graveyard
"Sticky Tape Syndrome"
(Fenna Yola Tykwer, ZKM/Graz)
"If it's on a shelf, it's in trouble"
(Richard Wright, BBC)
The Digital Afterlife?
"Danger" Cloud (Microsoft, 2009)
Linear A (Crete, 2000 BCE)
Where do we find solutions?
Three video works
Paik Nam June, TV Garden: solution from the studio
Grahame Weinbren and Roberta Friedman, Erl King: solution from the community
Doug Aitkin, Station to Station: solution from the network
Paik Nam June, TV Garden
Studio
Short-term solution on Canal Street (CT Louis)
"Restoring the internal electrical systems while maintaining CRT's identity as a physical object."
--Yuichiro Taira (Tokyo)
Studio
Solution suggested by conservators
Emulate hardware hacks with video?
Unsuccessful
Studio
Solution found in artist's studio
Emulate hardware with hardware.
The Erl King
Grahame Weinbren and Roberta Friedman, The Erl King (1982, emulated 2004)
Community
Erl King problem
laserdisks and computer
Community
Solution found in hobbyist community
emulate hardware with software.
Community
Emulators by amateurs
Diverging, re-converging, and constantly improving.
No one in charge.
Seeing Double: Emulation in Theory and Practice, Guggenheim, 2004.
Library of Congress: "Emulation may serve our needs better than hardware"
Community
Emulation by professionals: 2004-present
Emulation by amateurs: 1974-present
Network
Station to Station problem
loss of context
Solution found in the network
Network
Morten Boerresen, Brainspace--SpaceBrain, 1983
Future solutions
Fab lab
Virtual Reality
Biotech lab
Fab lab
Grazia Varisco and Reprogrammed Art
Virtual Reality
Biotech
Advances in organic computing
Scientists have
________________Storage________________
- Stored Shakespeare and JPEGs in DNA
- Stored data in live neurons
________________Computing________________
- Engineered e. coli to solve logic problems
- Mixed DNA that reads digital images
- Created cellular wifi with viruses
________________Networking________________
- Designed a CellOS operating system
Biotech
Claims for the organic archive
Dense
1 gram of DNA
= 700 TB of data
= 14,000 50-GB Blu-ray discs
Stable
DNA can survive for hundreds of thousands of years in a box in your garage.
Biotech
How does DNA storage work?
1) Encode
2) Replicate
Biotech
Polymerase Chain Reaction "lets you pick the piece of DNA you're interested in and have as much of it as you want"
--Kary Mullis, inventor of PCR
Biotech
DNA is built by evolution for evolution
Problems
Evolution creates genetic drift/draft.
Ultraviolet rays create mutations.
PCR generates errors.
Solutions?
Encapsulate in tiny glass spheres
Hide it in the Svalbard Seed Vault
Fix it with "organic checksums" (Reed-Solomon codes)
@jonippolito • Re-collection.com • DigitalCuration.UMaine.edu
jonippolito.net/presentations
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