versions, variations, and variability: ethical considerations and conservation options for...

8/13/2019 VERSIONS, VARIATIONS, AND VARIABILITY: ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND CONSERVATION OPTIONS FOR COMPUTER-BASED ART

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American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works

Washington DC

The lectronic Media Review is published once eve ry two years in print format by t he Elect ron ic Med ia Group EMG), a spec ia

group of the American Ins ti tute for Conservat ion of His toric and Art is tic Works AIC). The lectronic Media Review is distributeda benefit to members of EMG who held membership duri ng the year of the issue Additional copies or back issues are availab le fro


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Papers presented at the Electronic Media Group SessionAIC 39th Annual Meeting May 31 - June 1 2011 Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Overcom ing Obsolescence :The Examination, Documentation, and Preservation of Nam June Paik s TV elloLISA CONTE,CHRISTINEFROHNERT, LISA NELSON, ANDJULIASYBALSKY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Risk Assessment as a Tool in the Conservation of Software-Based ArtworksPATRICIA FALCAO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Tree Decision-MakingModelfor the Preservation ofTechnological EquipmentforTime-Based Media Art:ADOCAMResearch Tool OutcomeRICHARD GAGNIER . . . . . . . . . . 2 1

Acquisitionand InstallationofTime-Based Artat The HirshhornMuseum: lending ElectronicMediaSARA GORDON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Versions, Variations, and Variability: Ethical Considerations and Conservation Options for Computer-Based ArtHANNABARBARAHOLLING 33

Developments at Tate in the Conservation of Artists Video as File-Based DataPIP LAURENSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Anatomyof the Analog:The Preservation of Frank Theyss Video InstallationOratoriumforPrepared Video Player and Eight Monitors(1989)EMANUELLORRAIN . . . . . . . 49

Restoration of MoldedVideotapes: Research on Vacuum-Freeze-Dryingof Water Damaged VideotapesAGATHE JARCZYK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Acquisitionand InstallationofTime-Based Art atThe Hirshhorn Museum: Changing PracticesJEFF MARTIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Mass MigrationofArchival Video Collections:Open Source Tools for Managing DigitizationProjectsDONALD MENNERICH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

CollaborativeConservation:Sharing Expertise at The GoodwillComputer MuseumVIRGINIALUEHRSEN AND KAREN L. PAVELKA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

iv The Ee ctronic Media Review VolumeTwo 2013

Papers p resented at the Electronic Media Group Session .AIC 40 th Annual Meeting May 8-11 2012 Albuquerque New Mextco.

Moving Pictures: Restoring Roy lichtenstein s Foray Into Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CLARE BELL .

Rapid Identification of Sticky Shed Syndrome in MagneticTape Using ATR FTIRand MultivariateStatisticsERIC BREITUNG, SAMANTHASKELTON, AND STEPHEN MORGAN

Conservation in Collections of DigitalWorks of Art. .BEN FINO-RADIN . . .

Conservation of HistoricCathode RayTube-Based Artworksfrom the 1960sCHRISTINE FROHNERT . .

Geeks, Boffins, andWhiz-Kids: TheKey Role of the Independent Expert inTime-Based Media Conservat ionKATEJENNINGSANDTINAWEIDNER

Toward an Ontologyof Audio PreservationS R H NORRIS

Acts of Non-Conservation: Developing More Effective MeansofCommunicationand AdvocacyThrough MetadataJOS UA M RANGER . . . . . . .

Fundamentals of he Cathode RayTube Based Display and its Maintenance and ConservationWithinContemporary ArtworksCHI T\ EN LUI ND R PH ELE S H IRLEY . . . .

Capture Software Study for Preservation of Analog VideotapeL UREN SORENSEN .

Fading Out: The Endof 35 MMSlide TransparenciesTIN WEIDNER . . .

Guidelines for Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

he lectronic Media Review Volume Two2013


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Presented t the ElectronicMediaGroupSession AIC39thAnnualMeetingMay3 June 7 207 Philadelphia PA.

VERSIONS VARIATIONS ANDV RI ILITY : ETHICALCONSIDERATIONSANDCONSERVATIONOPTIONS FOR COMPUTER-BASEDART

HANNABARBARAHOLLING


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IN RODUCTION

S ince th e introduct ion of th e Fluxus ar t movement in

the 1960s and Nam June Pa ik's co ronat ion as one of

the und isp uted fathe rs of video a rt, au d iovisua l media

have been e volving and tak ing ove r the art scene. In art

today their ubiqu itous presence is self-evide nt; it is diffi

cult to pict ure art pract ices, m useum d isplays, and com

me rcial ar t g a llery spaces wit hout media wor ks . With th e

develop me nt of new technologies and the ever -s horter

life cycles of soft wa re and hardware equ ip ment , a new

approach to their implementatio n and maintenance has

bee n sough t. It is no s ur prise that t h e d issemination of

new e lec tron ic media has inev ita b ly in troduce d the top ic

of their preservat ion, fo llowed by th e muc h-deb at ed di

lemmas o f mig rat ion , emulatio n , and rein t e rpre t ation o f

what could already be seen as histo r ical ins ta llatio ns.

Different disco urses foc used on ma inta in ing the for mat s

and forms r ap id ly beco m ing obsolete, in orde r to a llow

th e m to be viewed a nd appreciated by contemporary and

futur e a ud iences . As a consequence, the complex issue

of dev is ing s t rateg ies for th e preservation of techn ical

heri t age for future generat ions became the center of

var ious ini t iat ives . One of them - the Obso let e Equip

m ent Project - gave rise to t he author 's invo lveme n t in

resear ch on conservation of comp uter-based ar t and this

pape r (Obsolete Equ ipment 2009).

Giving th e example of t he spec ific computer -based

artwork , / Eye 1993) by Bill Sp inhoven van Ooste n

(b. 1956) distr ib uted by t he Nether lands Med ia Art In

st itute , Amsterdam (NIMk), this paper will discuss its

te c hnologically comp lex nature. The iss ues pertaining to

its recovery, conse rvation, and presenta t ion w ill be ad

dressed . //Eye beca me a particu lar ly challenging c ase

fo r a nalys is due to its unstab le , processual na t ure , the

recursive obso lesce n ce of its display appa ratus , and the

artist 's ongoing engagement in t he a rtwo rk's development. The in iti a l setting of //Eye when it entered the

col lectio n was complicated by the lack of c larity of its

status, mainly due to th e complexity of institutional d is

t rib ut ion and acquisitio n proced ures. I n th e early stages

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HANNABARBARAHOLLING

of deal ing with media co llec t ions, at least fo ur equip

ment versio ns and a num b er of site-spec ific va riations

of //Eye were generated, an outcome t riggered by tech

nolog ica l obsolescence and ins t itut ional mainte nance

hab its . Mos t rece ntly, a dec isio n was made to recover

the his tor ical func t ionality of //Eye by mea ns of recrea t

ing and presenting it to the audience in its init ial, a nd

additionally newer, virtualized form.

The fo llowing will lead the reader through the life of

//Eye, addressing it s var iable na t ure a nd mai n charac

te rist ics. I will exp lain the reasons w hy com put er-ba sed

art has received little at tention in the profession, how its

tr ansito ry natu re is be ing adapted to inst itutiona l con

straints, and the way in wh ich the emergence o f versi ons

ch al lenges co nse rvatio n eth ics. One of the focal points

of th is essay will be //Eye s init ial status at the po int

of i t s co m mission and subse qu ent acqu isi t ion. Finall y I

wiII show how the recovery of //Eye has been managed

and what the possible options are for its f ut ure ex istence.

CHALLENG S OF COMPUER BA ED ARTWORKS

The fact tha t t he topic o f conservat ion and p resentat ion

of computer -b ased art has attracted I tt le notice so far

is mai n ly due to th e lack of specif ic expertise among

ins t itutions and ca ret akers . Curatorial and a rt his torical

knowledge abo ut new med ia still has to be en hanced to

e ncompass new se t s of categor ies that involve interact iv

ity, connec t ivity, and computabi lity (Graham and Cook

2010) . The t e ndency to isola te these ar t forms from

conventional art, or its ghetto izatio n in th e galleries,

ep it om ize the often difficult re la t ionship that instit utions

ma inta in with them (Pau l 2007, 251).

For some time, on a technical level, competence in

ma inta ining and prese rving computer -b ased works has

been rare and unapprec iated. At times it is t heir technical co mplexity tha t agg ravates the access t o a nd un

de rstanding of th e functio na lity an d specificity of these

objects . As a resu lt, only a small numbe r of co mp uter

based works find their way into publ ic collec ti ons and

e lectronic Media Review VolumeTwo 2013

VERSIONSVARIATIONSANDVARIABILITY:ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND CONSERVATION OPTIONSFORCOMPUTER-BASED ART

fewer enter pr ivate hands. Although va riabi lityv nseems to have been bu i lt in to tec hnology from the very

beginning Rin ehart 20 1 1), the ability to we igh t he im

portance of t he technological subst rata on wh ich the art

works ope rate and thei r conceptual conten t translated

into an aest het ic ou t put, remains one of the most chal

lenging tasks i n the conservatio n of computer-based a rt.

Another reason why source code -based art has att racted

littl e atte ntion amo ng muse um professiona ls might be

that besides maintaining crea t ive autho rship , its cre

a o rs also play the role of technician w hen it comes to

reins ta lling, adj usti ng, arrang ing, and maintai n ing their

artworks. Care t akers and institutions have learned that

only by involving artis t s in col laborative, sy nergetic co

opera tion can they ensure the pro per performance of

computer-based ar t d isplays. These col laboratio ns are

invaluable and much app rec iated as a source of cultural,

socia l, and technical know ledge . They a lso challenge the

common co nservatio n approach ltlat attempts to main

tain an artwor k's or iginal or authen t ic state . Con servation

ethics that have driven t he profession for the las t fifty

yea rs have to be reconsidered an d adapted to a grea t

numbe r of comp uter -based installat ions . A cal l for dif-

ferent approaches often evokes heated discussion in the

conse rvati on field.

ONTHE INTEGRITY AND V RI BILITY OF COMPUTER BASED

ART

The te rm co mput er-based art is wide a nd difficu lt to nar

row to a s ing le definition. In a time of enormous expan

sion of new media and the perpetua l flux of encoded

infor mation o n the Internet, almost every art ins t allation

involves com puta t ion at a ce rta in stage of its develop

ment and/or presen t ation. In t h is essay I w ill attempt to

speci fy w hat, in my understanding, might be incl uded

unde r the te rm computer-based art.

Un like net -based, source-code -based, and computer

gene rated a rt, com put e r-based art generates artis t ic con -tents based . .on computer -technology w1thout a part1cular

he lectronic Media Re ew VolumeTwo 2013

emphasis on the impleme nted apparat us, netw

vironment, or the language of the source code .

words it involves the computing device as a te

support, whic h can - but does not necessa rily ne

participate in the creation of the aesthetic content

artwork . In t he case of //Eye, the aesthetic qua

the visual output a re not exclusively d e pendent

employment of a specific techno logy. Stil l, theing techno logy manages the rendition of the dig

age content and constit utes the greater part of t

of the artwork, or its logic (Lurk 2010).

As a rule, compu ter -based artworks consist of files

operating system , software, and hardwa re. When

ined more closely , the software can consist of a

code of more t hen one generation, involv ing c

annota t ions, a nd, if authored by more then one

techn ical correspondence w ithin the source cod

Hardware may involve the com puter with its proce

driven by machine code, possible mod ifications

oscillator, motherboard, and, in older devices, a

disc reader and a disc, from which the system ca

booted. Additional element s such as camera, di

monitor(s), and, last but not least, the physica l

of the equipment (compute r, camera, and monitor

integral parts of these artworks, and play a crucia

defini ng their properties.

In contrast to a large portion of traditiona l fine art,

the point of departure for the assessment of its

lies in defining the authent icity or originality of

work in ques t ion, the method for de scr ibing co

based artworks is bui lt on the complex term - i

The integrity of com pu ter-based installations depe

hardware and software components. Conceptual

rity refers to th e work's relationship to the proc

technology employed, and the social and cultural

ting in whi ch the work was c reated. Aesthetic i

comprises the look a nd feel of d isplayed compo

and the outputs of the system s uch as sound, imag

both (Laurenson 2005) . Hardware, with all its m


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tions and supplements , may have functional, but also

aes th etic value. In the case of //Eye there are both: the

scu lptural presence of technology and its at tendant aes

thet ic value, as we ll as the functional value of the appa

ratus in a ra t io. The latter seems to be var iable, at least

in obse rvation from a historical or biographical angle .

Further , the location and spat ial setting, as much as its

historical and present man ifestations, are crucial for thework's characterization. Installations in various galler ies,

within indoor and outdoor settings, shape the way the

installation is perceived - and simultaneously - influ

ences the modes of the viewers' interaction. Yet most

importantly, as we will see, due to the adaptation of the

given space and availab le equipment, these reinstal la

tions may also lead to the creation of diverse versions

and variatio n s of the ar twork, and play a crucial role in

const ructing its mul t i-aspectual iden t ity.

In t he la st decade, promoted by the Variable Media In i

t iat ive un derta ken by the So lomon R. Gugge n heim Mu

seum in New York, the term variability has been used

t o cha racte r ize installations (mostly technology-based

and performative) that are in constant flux and for which

identity was constituted by each and every instantiation

of the artwork at any given time of its lifespan (Depocas ,

Ippolito, and Jones 2003). A range of possible values de

fined the core of the work, describing a closely clustered

set of the ar twork's data. These data cou ld inc lude the

artist ic idea, in the form of a score or instruct ions, so und

or audio mater ia l, special installation requ irements/pre

scrip ti ons, and modes of interactio n . The remaini ng var i

ables were subjec t to change, having a status of loosely

prescribed specifications for periphera l elements, of t en

soft- or hardware. Significan t coordinates characterizing

variable artworks-distant from the understanding of

conventional artifacts in terms of their physical com

ponents and materials - constituted their behavior. The

artwork 's behavior was neither permanent nor fixed; it

rather described the ephemeral qualities of the work.

6

HANNABARBARAH LLING

TH ARTWORK

The object and the subject o his study

//Eye is a freestanding installation. It comprises a b lack

and white monitor (48 x 5 1 x 50 em), a man ipulated

camera mod if ied with a fis h-eye lens placed in a m etal

t ube on the top of the mon itor (1 0 x 10 x 35 em )' ablack plinth (125 x 50 x 50 em), and techn ical playbac k

equipment; the latter is no t exposed to the aud ie nce . Onthe monitor, one can see a large eye that fills the format

of the screen. The eye is active, gazing at the viewer in

a continuous manner. Moreover , it reacts to the view

er's movements. The standard role of an artwork, to be

looked at and admired, is peculiarly reversed here. The

artwork looks at and registers the presence of the viewer:

it is not the viewer who watches the artwork, it is the

ar t work that watches the v iewe r. It is a surveil lance tech

niq u e well-known from the many security mon itoring

techniq ues used in public spaces, but an a rtwork tha t, in

an unexpected, asto nishing way, is interactively i nvolved

in t he process of watching and being watc h ed. The work

is slightly provocative, as the viewer is au tomatically im

pelled to personify the installation. A phenomenon of he

early electronic art - humanizing technology - results

here in a vis -a-vis encounter of human and machi ne.

The interaction between the viewe r and //Eye is one of

the central characteristics that define it s behavior. In

this case, the audience interaction with the installatio n

comp rises a doub ling. On one hand, th e re is a viewer di

rect ly engaged with the artwork-the pe rso n standi ng in

the range of the camera, exper ienc ing a direc t enco unter

with the eye that reacts to h is movemen t s-and, on t he

other, t here is a more distant viewer, the t h ird actor,

that observes the encounter o f the first degree.

//Eye created in 1993, is one of the earliest examples

of interactive , computer -based art that found its des

t ination in an inst itutional setting of the Montevideo/

l ime Based Arts later known as NIMk {fig. 1). In the

1990s, interactivity began to celebrate itself as a sort

Te ectronic Media Review Volume wo 2 13

VRSIONSVARIATIONS ANDVARIABILITY:ETHCAL CONSIDERATONSANDCONSERVATON OPTIONSFORCOMPUTER-BASEDART

of hype, mainta ins Rene Coehlo, the founder and first

CEO of Montevideo {Coehlo 1999). Since Documenta

19in Kasse l in 1992, Gary Hill {b. 1951), Bill Viola (b.

1951), Bruce Nauman {b . 1949), and Tony Oursler {b.

1957) have become frequen tly promoted and p resented

artists. Coe h lo's galle ry in the Netherlands innova t ive ly

presen ted a nd dist ribu ted video a rt. In an interview from

1991, Coeh o s t ates: For twenty yea rs we have been

promoting an art form that nobody was asking for. In

the Nether lands it has never attra cted a large audience ,

due to the lack of a scient ific and theoretical founda

tion (Coehlo 1999). Remarkably , in talking about the

artistic achievements in context of the activity of Dutch

art scene, he states ... Bill Spinhoven 's //Eye is an icon,

too {Coehlo 1999).

Early life

F g. 1 Bll Spinhove n van Oosten,//Eye 1993, in erac tive compu erbased instal at ion, dimenso ns variableNetherlands Med a At Institu e , ace.no. 13-January-199725 The imageilu s ra e s he artwork s d splay at theMon evideo gallery n th e Spuistraatin Amsterdam n 1994. Courtesy of heNetherlands Meda Art Ins itute .

The idea for //Eye was first conce ived a t Montev ideo, du r

ing the pe riod Bill Spinhoven spent at Coehlo's galle ry

at the time of its reorganization in the 1980s. The artist

was experimenting in making drawings by recording his

eye using a black and white camera. The fir s t installation

that resulted from these experiment s , and the artist 'scooperation with Paul Klomp, was a double screen pro

jection entitled Shot Across the Mind (1989) (fig. 2a).

The eye became fully computerized and made drawings

e ectronic Medw Revew VolumeTwo 2013

F g. 2 a) BillSp n oven van Oos en , Shot across the mind1989, and (b) Birds Eye 1991 , nteractive computer-ba sedins allations pre cursors of /Eye. Courtesy of the arti s .

by itsel f . La ter, the deve lopment of this idea resu

in an interactive installation entitled Birds Eye (19

which also implements a project ion {fig. 2b). Spinho

was able to conne ct to the installation via telephon

hear visitors' comments. These early versions lead to the

creation of //Eye in two primary ways. The eye im

used in Birds Eye are identical to those incorporate

// Eye only zoomed. Moreover, the program of the

Montevideo ve rsion of //Eye involves sequences of

source code taken from Birds Eye which were able

re-activated in order to recover the dysfunctional piec

(Spinhoven 2010). This allows us to think about

artworks in a new way, one that might have an impa

how they are pe rceived and preserved: computer -b

artworks as a documentation container or a self-docu

menting device . After receiving the Prix de Rome,

highest and oldest art award of the Rijksacademy in

sterdam , Bill Sp inho ven con ceived another installat

t hat used b lack and white images of his eye, but w

any int e ractive functions. Althoug h the ins tal lation

entirely static, intr iguingly, the v iewe r believed it w

teract ive (f ig. 3).

Fg. 3 A si de re rieved fromSpnhoven archive in Henge odepic ting a prototype o //Eyeins a la ion subm tte d or the P ix deRome, Rijksakaca demy. Courtesy ofthe artis .


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Instit utional ife

Asked to create a special artwork for the re -opening of

the Montevideo gallery at the new venue, Spinhoven de

livered //Eye, an installa t ion that conspicuously reverses

the viewer experi ence : My idea was that if everybody

comes to Montev ideo to look at art, I invent art that can

look at people (Spinhoven 2010).

Since its first display in the window of the gallery at

the Spuistraat in February 1994 , and its later acquisi

t ion , the aesthetic appearance - contrary to its inne r

life and spatial setting - of // Eye has stayed virtually

the same. The only except ion was an early (unid en ti

fied ) monitor and a plinth , which were prov ided from the

NIMk's depository (fig. 1). The version of //Eye that is

currently distr ibuted by the NIMk is a black and white

version comprising a Sony monitor placed on a black

cubic plinth, a ca mera hidden in a black cylinder pl aced

on the top of the mon itor, and a p layb ack apparatus,

which is usu all y h idden inside the plinth . The mon itor

displays five images of Bill 's eye from an ear lie r instal

lation. The camera interacts with th e viewer, following

his or her movements by registration of the change ofcontrast within the 180 -degree camera angle .

The very first computer-type implemented was an Archi

medes Aco rn 410 home comput e r dating to 1987, along

with its o p erat ing system Acorn RISC OS , ve rsions 3 .0

to 6.0 , the best at this t ime , according to the artist

(20 10). They were ve ry robu st computers : the passive

components did not need to be c leaned a nd they did no t

overheat. Only the ba ck-up battery might have shown

some problems. 16 MB sound s small now, but in those

days it was a large memo ry (Spinhoven 2010) . The

comp u ter was programmed with the help of BASIC VAs

sembler. Contrary to a num b er of it s precursors , // Eye

was created as a mut e ins ta llation due to the fa c t it wasmeant for the outdo ors .

The artwork was lent out f o r vari ou s exhibitions , such as

The Second. Time B a sed Art fr om th e Ne therlands (Au-

8

HANNABARBARAH LLING

gust -N ovember 1998 ) at the Stedelij k Museum and sub

seq uent ly traveled a round th e world . It was a lso included

in Dert ig J aar Nede rl a ndse V deokunst (J anuary - March

20 0 3) that was show n in , amo ng other cities , Mexico

Ta iwa n , J apa n, Buda pes t, a n d Prague . This s t imulated'

th e creat ion of differen t versio n s of the a rtwor k and t he

imp leme nt ation of more th an one com p uter . The artist

ma intains that in t hese ea rly stages , the artwork existed

in the form of a t leas t two o r th ree versions at the same

t ime. At t he moment when the first and the second ver

sion we re on display - at times simultaneo usly-the third

one was k e pt at his studio and used for testing purposes.

Spi nh ove n used the hardware in more than one version

of th e work , exchang ing i t be twee n versions, manipulat

ing the computer by means of replacing parts such as the

monitor, gra ph ic ca rds , and b atter ies interchangeably .

Si nce its f irs t display at the Montevideo gallery, in the

course of va rious t rave lli ng exhi b itions , th e spatial set

t ing of / Eyes disp lay has c:hang ed . Th is had an impact

on the behavioral character of th e a rtwork related to the

way in whi ch the a u dience engaged with it. For instance ,

the display durin g the ex hi b itio n Kin e ti k un d /nterak

tio n . Multim ed iale Kun st a us de n Niede rl a nde n at the

Stad t isc he Mus e um in Ge lsenkirc hen , Germa ny in 1996 ,

reveals the m on itor hun g on meta l ch ains attached to

the ce iling. A nother dis pl ay set-up from at the Keizers

grach t 2 64, Amsterdam , in 2003, shows // Eye gazing

at the viewe r from a d istant, high window at the current

location (N IMk), render ing its d irect in teraction with the

viewer a lmost imposs ib le (f ig. 4a) .

Rel e vant f or t he ques t ion o f the spat ia l se tti ng of the

a rtwo rk is whe th er th e fi rst exhi b it ed version of //Eye

in the Spuistraat i n 1 993 should be regarded as site

specifi c and , if so , whether th is s ite-spe c ific ity is critica l

for the artw ork' s inte grity. The f irs t se tt ing in a w indowat Ren e Coe h lo 's g allery and th e view from the street

offe red a n ele men t o f sten ogr aphy with in whic h t he in

stallat ion wa s st ag ed : the a cc essibi lity of a public space

a nd th e acc ide ntal ity of the c hose n observer . The v is itors

The lectronic Media Review VolumeTwo 2013

S ARIATIONS AND VARIABILITY: ETHICALCONSIDERATIONSANDCONSERVATION OPTIONSFORCOMPUTER BASEDART

VERSION '

b

c dFg. 4. BillSpinhoven van oosten , 1/Ee, 1993 i n t e r ~ t v ecomputer-ba sed insta llation. Chan.gmg spatial sett ing of .the artwork's displayin course of 1s vanous exh1 1t10nsma) Stadt isches Museum Gelsenkirchen, 1996 (Knetik undJnteraktion. Multimediale Kunst aus den Nederlanden );(b) DASADortmund, 1997 (Short Cuts Ansch iisse an denK rpefJ; c) Inter Communication Center, Tokyo, 1998 Thesecond, Time Based Artfrom the Netherlands); and (d) NMkAmsterdam, 2003 Dertigjaa r Nedera nds e vdeokuns t ). Courtesyof the Nethera nds Med a Art Institute.

to the pub loca ted on the other s ide of the st re et , who

observed the mi seen- s cene, were enthus ia st ic abou t th e

possibi lity of r.ont P m pla ti ng th e surpri sed pa sser s -by fol

lowed by the te lematic eye. On the v ideo tap ed sh ortly

afte r the re-o pen ing (viewab le in th e on line NIMk ca ta

logue), the atm os phere of the st ree t an d t he reaction s

of the pedes tr ian s to the a rtwork are c learly recorded.

With one sin gl e exception, the later vers ions of / Eye

were exhib ited in the context of a museum o r gall e ry

space , tak ing the formal charac ter of a white cub e or a

black box . This c hange had an effect upon the ar twork's

reception and the viewer's interact ion with it in a rat her

dec ided manne r.

The developm ent of // Eye rend e rs t he aspect o f t he re

lations hip be tween // Eye an d its institut iona l affi liatio n

unclear. Althou gh the acqu is it ion recor ds recount qu it e

the o pposite , //Eye seems to have neve r en tered the co l

lection of NIMk in a physical way. The particular posi ti on

of NIMk and i t s mandate to distribute media art render sthe physica l collect ion holdings superfluous .

The Nether lands Med ia Art Inst itute came into being as

Montevideo in 1978 a nd s ince then , an extens ive co l-

he lectronic Med a Review Volume wo 2013

lection o f video and media art ha s been asse mble

a ddit ion to its own co llect ion, th e insti t ute a lso

ages t he video collections of the De App e l Foun d

the Lijnba a n Center in Rotterdam , an d th e Ne th e

Cultural Her itage Agency (RCE ). The d is tribu t io

lec t ion comprises more than two t hou s and m ed ia

varyi ng from the ea rliest exper iments thro ug h r ece

duct io ns by known Dutch and intern at ion al a rti st

in s titu te 's on line archive accommo da tes over a th o

med ia artworks and un ique documentatio n o f event

pro ject s rea lized and pres ented by NIMk.

The pa rticu larity of the N IMk collec tion l ies in its

pi lation of d ive rse reco rding form ats and c a rrie rs,

are d ist ri bute d , but, in many c ase s , h ave no pr es

and s pecif ic m ate ria l man ifesta tion. N IMk acqu is

do n ot involve c o mp lex ins ta llat ion s com prise d o f

tura l ele ments . However , it is surp risi ng to note th

a rc h ival documents prove that the physi cal e qu ipm

//Eye was sto re d at i ts repos itory f or a time. Whe n

sary, th is eq u ipment was re-use d in other in sta ll

Furthermore, th e ar ti st remembe rs that // Eye's

wa s lent out to h is fellow a rti sts when th ey were in

In the in it ia l stage of the research, the fact that

was physically housed in the collec t ion of N Mk w

dent from discussions with personnel, who rem em

the insta ll at ion sto red on the premises, but emp h

its except iona l state. In addit ion the documents

the N Mk archive reveal two acquisit ion s of // Eye

phy s ical fo rm: the f irst one d at ing to Decemb er 6,

a nd //Eye 's seco nd exhib it ion ver s ion d at ing to Ju

1994. The first Ankoopcont rac t inc lude s the ph

components of the artwork, the sum of th e a cqu

and, furthermore , a note about the r eplacement

came ra wh ic h probab ly was pos ing tec hn ical pro

The second docume nt Ankoop //Eye st at es that in

ence to the frequent absence of the a rtwo rk dueous exhib itions , i ts func tion as a flagsh ip (Uithangb

of NIMk had been dism issed . For th is r eason the

was asked to produce ano the r ve rsion of // Eye , t

her e a second vers ion (tweede vesie or tw e ede e


8/10

plaar . The contract involves the equipment, including

all hardware and the pl inth, except for the monitor. The

contract specifies a lso the lowest and highest val ue of

the install at ion in the case it lef t Montevideo afte r being

acquired by a thi rd party.

As tim e passe d, and the instal lation became its mu lti

pl ied fo rm , the display equipment changed location. Dur

ing my visit to the a rtist's studio in Hengelo, Netherlands

(Octobe r 2010), various elements of //Eye were stored in

situ. This proves th e ambiguity of its status: on one hand,

it is a physical object about which con tracts are signed

and records kept and which, as a loan of N IMk, physi

cally tra vels to different venues. On the other, although

included in NIMk's media collection, it is present there

solely as a registration file. Matters become further com

plicated due to the existence of different versions of

Eye at the same time.

Life outside N/Mkand ongoing development

Dating back to the 1990s, there were at least four ver

sions, including its NIMk ver sions, and a number of

variations, or, in the artist's words, editions of //Eyein existence (2010). Worth mentioning, among others,

is a German version from 1997 - the so-called DASA

version (Industrial Safety Association in Dortmund).

//Eye was acquired by DASA on the occasion of an exh ib i

t ion entit led Short Cuts: AnschiOsse an den Korper: ein

Cross-over durch Kunst , Wissenschaft und KorperBilder

(August - October 1997) . This version charac teri zed the

impl ementation of a co lor JVC monitor displaying a black

a nd wh ite image, and a later ver s ion of R ISC OS (286

Acorn RISC, OS 3.7, 1992). DASA made a decision

to conceal the entire apparatus behind a g rey -painted

chipboard casing. The only visible part of the ins tal la

tion remaining was the screen of the monitor. The wall

caption indicates that the install ation was created in

1993; the indication of the remaking of the artwo rk for

DASA, dated four years later, is lacking. According to

the curator of the exhi bition, H ans-Ger d Kaspers, for a

considerable time, //Eye has posed technical problems

4

HANNABARBARA HOLLING

and is th e reason why it has been removed from th d.IS-p lay. It became a subject of a preservation project by

ln term edia Art Institute I MAI), Dusseldor f . In reference

to the num ber of exist ing versions the registration o f

1/Eye by I MAl in 2009 suggests that there a re four edi

t ions of the 1/Eye: two with the ar t ist, on e at the NIMk

and one at the DASA. It is unc lear if al l of th em are

the same (Caian iello 2009, 1 . I nteresti ng ly, and highly

relevant for the discussion about //Eye s future manifes

tations, IMAI planned to recover the installation, taking

the earlier DASA version from 1997 as a starting point.

In 2004 Spinhoven produced a color version of the eye.

This version uses the image of an eye of a st ranger and

was presented as a multiple installation on a la rger num

ber of screens at the Library of Hengelo (The Nether

lan ds) . It is currently out o f order .

Sp inhoven st ill cont inues to deve lop further vers ions of

1/Eye and comprehends the projec t as an open-ended

process. In September 2010 the artist introduced us

to a test version of the artwork that implemented five

images of a child's eye. //Eye s actions were triggeredby the movements of a computer mouse; the prog ram

was w ritten on JavaScript, CTSS, and HTML5, and was

loaded locally.

The conventiona l concep t of a n artifact en ter ing a mu

se um co llection and being frozen i n a sta tic d isplay mode

does not co incide with //Eye s na ture, wh ich has become

inf in itely var iable. It was an insta llati on at the beg in

ning, the n it became a part of a computer, the n th e com

puter became interactive, and a part of it became a core

ve rsion The camera and the monitor are separate

parts, but I would like to make it more organ ic . An

organism, I mean lik e ce lls that have kind of simi larity

and together they create all new organisms (Spinhoven201 0). The latest instance of //Eye is embodied in the

project IART (2010), which focuses on the the possibil

ity to transform fluent ly from o ne c lass ical installation

into another. According to Spinhoven, over time, IA RT

The Electronic MediaR view Volume Two 2013

V RS ONS,VARIATIONS AND VARIABILITY: ETHICAL CONS IDERATIONS AND CONS ERVAT IONOPTONS FOR COMPUT R BASED ART

will become an extremely expressive sel f-suppo rting en

tity, capab le of managing it s own susta inability and de

ve lopment (Sp inhoven 2010). The project is based on

the biologis t James G rie r Miller's living systems theory .

The art ist liberates //Eye from being an art ob ject , a llow

ing it to live in an unr est r icted way, sett ing it free in form

of the IART pro ject. Th is m ight be seen both as an endof the development of 1Eye, but also as its beginn ing . In

order to transfe r 1 Eye, Spi nh oven app lies virtualization

of the computer system to a web-based p latform (Spin

hoven 2010) . As will be shown in the fol lowing para

graph, virtualization plays a key ro le not sole ly from the

conservat ion perspective , bu t tr iggers the artist t o th ink

far beyond its convent iona l implementation for source

code-based systems .

CONSERVATION OP TI ONS

International res earch on the preserva tion of compute r

based art and new media

The research on pre servat ion of computer-based ins t al

lations was predom inant ly conducted concu rrent ly with

the research on a la rger amount of med ia - a nd tim e

based artworks. Within th e profess ion, there have been

a number of attempts to find a way of understanding,

documenting, and preserv ing th ese artwor ks , for ex

amp le: Matters in Media Art , the Variab le Media Init ia

t ive, DOCAM Research Al liance, Internat ional Network

for the Conser vation of Contempo rary Art , and the above

ment ioned Obs olete Equ ip me nt Pro ject by PACKED

vzw in the Bene lux countr ies . A number of exh ibit ions ,

conferences, and sympos ia re sul ted from these endeav

ors, allowing discussio ns of the more general iss ue s of

preserv ing digita l heritage. Furthermo re , t his top ic has

been the focus of resea rch undertaken by var ious int er

national researchers examini ng the possibi l ities of as

sessing, docume nting, and trans ferring computer-based

art (Rineha rt 2000; Dimi trovsky 2004 ; Ga rc ia and Vilar

2007; Lurk 2008; Aktive Arch ive 2012; Variab le Media

Network 2012).

heElectronic Media Review Volume Two 20 13

The iss ues s ur rounding the procedu res, defin it ions,

im plementat ion of a spec ific p rofes s ion a l vocabular

the preservat ion o f electron ic med ia poses a nu mb

ques t ions . There is st il l a great potent ial in the

tat ion , interpretat ion , and ad justme nt of the sc ie

termino logy . Adm it te d ly, terms are cu rrent ly use

very d ifferent manners, depen d ing on t h e p rofile o

spec ia lists and the ir backgrou n d (p rog ramme rs , covato rs , etc .) . At t imes the term em ulat ion is use

terc hangeably with the t e rm virtualization, mea nin

process of extracting the operating system , the so

code , and fi les to a new en viro nme nt. Furthermore,

is no speci fic differentiation between the vocabula

pl ied to the pure ly ca rrier-, mater ial-based aspects o

artwor k and its encoded, d igital content. For exa

the process of rewrit ing a code in a diff e rent la ng

may en tai l a radical stra t egy of re interpr etat ion.

native ly, the mig rat ion of code to enable the op e ra

of a newer appl ication, ope rating system , hardwa

a ll three, impl ies less sever ity to an ar twork 's integ

t e rms of honoring its ini ti a l condit ion .

Pre servation options and outlooks far / Eye

One co uld assume that wit h the research under tak

the preservat ion possib ilities and the subseque nt

sions made concerning t he conse rvat ion of 1/Eye, it s

t rajec tory would reach its f inal stages. As I shall d

stra t e below , what happened was quite the cont rary

In 2010 , a decis ion was mad e at NIMk to rec ove

fun ct iona lity of //Eye . The log ica l c ircumstance o

dec is ion was the se lect ion of one f rom the man

s ions of the inst a llat ion from its twenty -yea rs l ife

The ef forts were concent rated on br ing ing back to

the version of //Eye dat ing to 1993, when it w

quired by NIMk , due to its h istoric s ign ificance

the fact that //Eye s init ial behavior and fu nctio

has a s tr ong re lat ionship with specific computer

ware archi tecture. Imme diate ly, the obj ec tiv e of

covery of th is versi o n encountered comp lications.

early Pa naso nic monito r once d is p layed on the w


9/10

of Montevideo was missing. The implementation of the

Sony monitor that appeared on the occasion of the ex

hibition The Second in 2004, and from th en on most

preferred by the artist, al ready excluded th is st rategy as

revival of the initi al version. Spinhoven maintained tha t

th e installa t ion ret ain ed its look a n d fee l only by be ing

displayed on a cathode ray tube monitor due to the im

age texture . It gradually became clea r that coming backto the early version of the / Eye was illusory, at least as

far as the hardware was concerned. This was confi rmed

by the fac t that the historical Acorn Archimedes 410

dating to 1987 was no longer rec ove rable due to the

obsolescence of it s components . Furthe rm ore , nume r

ous modifications and additi ons were made and removed

over time, which made the return to the original con

figuration of the computer impossible. For this reason,

a la ter and better-maintained Acorn RISC PC dating to

1992 was employed (fig . 5) . The orig inal prog ram was

boote d from a floppy disk. To recov e r t he func tio na lity of

the old version, a la ler motherboard was assembled from

bits and p ieces found on the second hand market; the

source code had to be migrated. The oscillato r originally

used to accele rate the processor was no longer neces

sa ry with the late r, faster processor. The original came ra

was no longer availab le. The digitizer had to be replaced

and , finally, in order to ensu re proper funct ionali ty, an

emulat ion of the machine code was performed. The syn

chronizat ion of the image t imings posed challenges . At

the end the p hysical appearance of th e activated a rtw ork

and its tech nical functions resembled the version f rom

1 993. The em u lation and migration of //Eye went hand

in hand , as it were . One could say t hat the endeavor was

an attempt to recover and p resent a media artwork with

help of archaeological eq uipment.

The next step in the development of preservation strate

gies for //Eye was the isolation of the e nt ire system andits transplantation to a different environment by means

of virtualization. The artist performed the virtualization

of the recovered Acorn R SC PC to a Microsoft Windows

operating system with the help of a virtual machine. The

4

HANNABARBARAHOLLING

latt er is a n iso lated so ftware cont a iner that can run it s

own operating sys tems and app lications im itating the

funct ion o f a phys ical computer . The performance and

be havior of the first version of //Eye we re mai nt ain deThe em ulat ion of the v is ib le hardware eq uipment ren -

dered th e esthet ic appearance of the installa t ion simi lar

to its initial version .

Fg. 5 The inner life o // ye{1993) by B ll Spnhoven vanOosten: an Achimedes Acorncomputer datn g o 1992 inre furbished form in Fe brua ry2011 . Courtesy o HannaHol ng.

In February 2011 th e recovered version of //Eye was

presented side by s ide with its virtua lized clo ne fig. 6 .

The outcomes of th e rei ns tallation of both examp les of

//Eye we re assessed by th e profess ional audience inv ited

to NIMk for the sympos ium To Transform or To Transfer.

Lastly, a fully virtu alized ve rsion of //Eye, operating

sole ly on the web brow ser, wa s conceived . Th is stra tegy

omits th e im med iate phys ica l depe nde n cy on computer

Fig. 6 BillSpnhoven van Ooste n //Eye, 1993/2011 , nteractivecomputer-based installaton.The refurbished ve rs ion of theinstallation from 1993 on the right ,and its v rtualzed form during theren stala tion a NIMkon February 24.20 11 {on the eft . Courtesy of HannaHo ling

The lectronicMedia Review Voume Two 2013

S ARIATIONS ANDVARIABILITY: ETHICALCONSIDERATIONS AND CONSERVATION OPTIONS FOR OMPUTER BASED ART

V RSION, '

d reIt is sole ly the artwor k performance th at is

har wa .. ma intained in a form close to the initia l vers ion .

beingMost critical, however, is the aspect characteristic for

Oh er compute r- and net-based a rtworks, namelyma nythe achievem e nt of a certa in form of independence

from a p hysical carrier, and , th eoretically , from a num

ber of system res trictio n s and ma rket dependencies in

a broader sense. The imp lications of th is type of v irtualization provoke a ra d ica l onto log ica l sh ift , which re-

lates both to th e phys ica l object (wh ich ceases to exist)

and to time (inte rmittent access rather than continuous

prese nce), and para llel the sh ift tha t m ight be observed

in music and film (tran sfer from physical car riers to

distr ibuted records ) .

ETHICAL CO NS IDERATIO NS

For decades the axioma tic concept of the origina l state

of the object has gover ned the disc ipl ine of conservation.

The profession has often str ived to rec ove r th e orig inal.

But, given the pa ce o f tec hno logical developme nt e:mu

obso lescence, it is unl ike ly tha t present and future audi

ences will have the sa me authe ntic experience of media

artwork that aud ien ces had at the time of a work's first

presentation. The a rtwor k mainta ins different rela tion s

with changing te mporal conditions. Technology reg a rde d

as state -of-the -art in the 1990s, over a time spa n of

twenty years and after the emergence of Big Brother

and new monitor ing technologies, became an almost ar

cha eo logica l ins tance of su rveillance in media. Moreover ,

artworks are entang led in social and cult ural netwo rks ;

the ir identi ty is c reated in interact ion with the t ime and

circum stances in wh ich they ex is t. Thus , even the hig h

est atta inab le recove ry of a med ia artifact cannot res ur

rect the Zeitgeist of the era of its creat ion . What it can do

is evoke nostalgic ideas about an irretr ievab le past. How

ever , if one assumes that in some way the conception of

a work extends beyond it s physica l man ifestation , one

risks becom ing bl ind t o the importance of these mani

festat ions and to the tang ible evidence of the ob ject's

histo ry. / Eye is obv ious ly not an epheme ron tha t in its

evanescen ce ad d resses itse lf only to the present .

he learonic MediaReview Volume Two 2013

As in th e theory of musical performance, and pa ra l

to the tendency to re-do performance art , the extens i

of the artist's idea to the I ART p rojec which ex is

on a web-based p latform- a lt ers its mean ing , but a l

preserves the concept for at least th e ne a r future . Co

pute r-b ased a rt teac hes us that f idel ity to the origin

or the origina l mater ia l, wh ich has a long tr ad it ion

conse rvat ion of the convent ional fine arts , h as to b ethou ght. There remains, however , the ch alle n ging que

tio n of what is the co re and what is the p e ripher y. T

quest ion of how, and accord ing to wh ich arguments, a

dis ti nctio n b etwee n them can b e made rests on the

c ia lly and cu ltura lly depen dent level of interp re tat

and re- interpretat ion.

The greatest d ilemma that must be fac ed wh ile des ig n

a p rese rvat ion strategy for //Eye pertains to the def ini t

of its nature. The question must be asked : it is a n

ject or a concept? It is surely one of the most freque n

posed quest ions in the conservntion fie ld of recent

d ia art. The answe r i s far from being stra ightforwa rd.

us rec ons ider the part icu lar case of //Eye in this light

As suggested above , the status of the artwo rk within

N1Mk collection might be regarded as pure ly concept

Without its physical manifestation doz ing in the repo

tories, the ar twork ex ists only in form of docume

tion and registration files. The impac t on conse rvat

might be obvious : s ince there is no phys ica l form o

Eye , why shou ld any e lem ent o f the work be phy s ic

con se rved, or passed to posterity? On the other hand,

opposed to many new art productions , //Eye's long

tory allows us to ana lyze its phys ica l man ifestat ion in

specifi c temporal and spat ia l context. Th e var ious

bod iments o f the instal lat ion over the course of a lm

tw enty years of existence provide a sol id testimony o

development, w hich responds to the g iven technologcapacities. These h isto rical instant iations construct th

trajectory of the a rtwork in its struggle wit h ti me, prov

its tang ib le de pendency on these physical forms. All

them respond to the temporary state of know ledge


10/10

technology, and involve programmers, conservators, cu

rators, technicians, and other actors. Conservation of the

installation should thus respect its unique trajectory by

documenting its life, which is constructed through socia l

entanglement with peop le and things.

ROLE OF THE RTIST

A novelty in preservation of these types of artworks isthe particular role played by the artist. Following con

servation doctrines, respect of an artist's intentions was

always assigned the highest value and priority. Now, how

ever, it is the artist that takes an active role in designing

and re -designing the preservation strategy of his or her

piece, programming , re -p rogramming, and manipulating

the work. Like craftsmen in centuries past, the contem

porary media artist is also a specialist in information

technology, and acts as restorer of his or her own artistic

production . For a conse rvator, bearing witness to the art

ist's (re-) engagement may, over time, be not enough. An

extended collaboration is called tor, one that requires

subtle and skillful maneuv eri ng and negotiation in the

zones between technological know-how, creativity, and

fidelity to conservation dicta.

In the case of Bill Spinhoven, the particularity of his

engagement with computer-based arts is evident in the

support that he used to offer other artists. The gath

ered expe rience and knowledge inseminated his own

creations . Spinhoven states: At the beginning I earned

money w ith p roducing artworks for other a rt ist s. I used

the modules then for something e lse (2010). In ad

dition, his cooperation with other artists, such as Paul

Klomp, had an impact on the realization of his artworks.

It cou ld thus be assumed that the ea rly Dutch media

art that arose around the Montevideo cross-fertilized on

the te chnological and aestheticallevel. This could play a

role in th inking about preserving this significant portion

of our digital heritage.

HANNABARBARAH LLING

CONClUSION

We can sta te that //Eye has existed in many forms and

variations. The artist's persona l prefere nce and the de-

velopment o f the insta llation dur ing the last two decades

render conservat ion decision-making a highly complex

and mu lt ilaye red iss ue . //Eye s variab ility is a part of its

ve ry nature, and its original or authentic state is notre

coverable. Rather than existing as something fixed andstable, it is merely a conglomerate of the artwork's em-

bodiments and instantiations. Facing the impossibility

of the recovery of old, obsolete equipment, conserva-

tion produces further ve rsi ons of the work. The question

remains open as to when its conservation begins and

ends. In the course of the conservatio n process, artworks

are being remed iated, enriched with new values and de-

prived of others; new versions emerge. The conservator's

responsibility is not only to honor and safeguard the ma-

terial authent ic ity of the artwork's var ious instantiat ions

thro ugh documentation, but also to ensure its intrinsic

fluidity, a llow ing for ongoing development and change.

KNOWLEDG ENTS

This article is informed by conversations with Bill Spin-

hoven van Oosten, th e team of the Netherlands Media

Art Ins tit ute in Amsterdam; the curator of the DASA

in Dortmund; Han s-Gerd Kaspers; Re nate Buschmann

from lntermedia A rt Institu te in Dusse ldorf; Tiziana

Caianiell o f rom the Zero Foundation in Dusse ldorf; and

co-researchers fr om the Obso lete Equipment Projec t.

For fru it ful discuss ions and hel p, my spec ial grati tu de to

Professo r Deborah Cherry, Glenn Wharton, Gaby Wije rs,

and my colleagues and researchers from the project New

Strategies for th e Conserva t ion of Contemporary Art.

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