Reactivating and Preserving Interactive Multimedia Artworks: An Analog Performance from the Seventies

Abstract

Interactive multimedia art shows a complex nature as it is time- and process-based, interconnected with technology, derived by the participation of several authors (artists, technicians, performers, to name a few) and an audience, and it is strongly tied to the moment and space of the original exhibition. These characteristics make the preservation of these artworks a multifaceted process. Building on the foundations developed since the 2000s by international projects focused on preserving and restoring these new art forms, the paper proposes an original model for achieving dynamic preservation, called “the multilevel preservation model”. Since it is no longer possible to guarantee physical integrity for interactive multimedia artworks, dynamic preservation involves recording all the changes that occur to display the artworks in the future. In other words, it makes it possible to record the dynamic authenticity of artworks. The model proposes two fundamental properties: multiple layering, which allows to handle different levels of information about the artwork; multiple belongingness, which allows to represent the dynamic authenticity of the artwork at the archival level and achieving dynamic preservation.

The paper demonstrates the high-level implementation of the model by presenting a case study: the reactivation and preservation of an analog video art performance from the 1970s. This case study proposes an interesting real scenario for testing the model, as the reactivation process involved the migration of the entire analog technological apparatus of the artwork into the digital domain.