Don’t You Think it’s Time? Reflecting on Time-Based Media Art Conservation Practices in Australia

Abstract

This AICCM Bulletin special edition on time-based media art (TBMA) conservation is the first publication in of its kind dedicated to presenting new research which explores the progress made within the Australian conservation profession as it grapples with, adapts and evolves to the preservation-needs of works of art that are durational, performative, ephemeral in nature and have finite dependencies on technology. This distinct conservation specialisation has been expanding its sphere of influence since its establishment in the late ’s across North American and European institutions such as SFMOMA () and Tate (). While it would take another two decades before TBMA conservators were formally employed within the Australia profession, the practice of TBMA conservation can be traced back to the early s. Formative work includes research undertaken by conservator Vanessa Griffiths in . Griffiths’ paper, ‘Record, Play, Fast Forward: Developing Strategies for the Care of Electronic Media Art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia’ appears to be the first Australian-based TBMA case study and was presented at the international symposium, Preservation of Electronic Records: New Knowledge and Decisionmaking—Ottawa, Canada, - September . In the following year, a national TBMA discussion group was established. This coalition brought together conservators working with analogue and digital art in national and state art galleries and provided a platform to exchange resources, share experiences and advance collaboration as a fundamental approach to the conservation of TBMA. TBMA conservation in Australia has matured through a process of critical assessment, self-refection and multi-disciplinary participation, bringing the combined elements of practice, research and training into balance. The new knowledge presented in this volume expands on the body of international and national research by responding to the current cultural landscape through a selection of case studies that address key issues relating to collection management, preservation, education and activation of TBMA. Importantly, each paper presents research that reflects on current approaches and seeks to ‘promote wider critical thinking and thoughtful practice’ (Wharton , p. ) across the conservation sector. Opeña, Singer & Müller-Wüsten state (, p. ), ‘we all navigate in the same moment, no matter how old the art, and that is today—in today’s social understanding around our cultural heritage’. TBMA conservators are working at this interface researching conservation ethics, establishing partnerships, creating new decision-making models and recasting interventive treatment from static to continuous. TBMA conservation practice encompasses the fundamentals of consultation, collaboration and transformation; with an awareness and responsiveness to the shifting cultural landscape that acknowledges post-colonial museological philosophies and consistently asks the question ‘what does it mean to collect, display and preserve cultural heritage in the st century?’ Two foundational principles for TBMA conservation, change and adaptation, are also critical drivers shaping the current global socio-ecological context. Change and adaptation are the mechanisms of response to this century’s social emergencies of climate change, the COVID- pandemic, and the  magnetic media deadline; all of which impact the broader cultural heritage sector. Unlike other more-traditional forms of conservation practice, TBMA embraces change and adaptation as a function of preservation and restoration, working beyond the field with artists and multi-disciplinary specialists as collaborators. A distinct theme in this volume is the voice of the artist, being essential to defining and directing preservation approaches undertaken by conservators. Convincingly noting that to understand a TBMA installation the work needs to be installed, activated and experienced by an audience. Through an exploration of David Haines’ and Joyce Hinterding’s softwarebased installation, The outlands, Asti Sherring, Mar Cruz and Nicole Tse traverse the essential relationship between conservator, artist and audience to ‘illicit memories’ and collectively develop future display possibilities. Paul Coleman further justifies the case for audience experience as significant to preservation approaches surrounding internet-based art. In this seminal paper, Coleman present readers with a considered warning; ‘online culture is not static or fixed, it changes with the progression of technology and time’ and as such the continued existence of works that inhabit the internet are reliant on a documentation