Preservation of an interactive computer-based art installation - a case study

Abstract

In contemporary digital art computer technology plays an integral part not only in the creation of art pieces but also in their functioning as artworks. Such digital artworks have usually a performative or interactive character and therefore rely on an underlying working computer system. Since computer technology advances with such unrelenting pace, hardware and software modules eventually become obsolete. How to preserve digital art works in these circumstances from an art preservation standpoint is much debated. In this article we discuss issues in the preservation of digital art works using as a case study a 15 years old interactive art installation '15 seconds of fame'. The art installation could be maintained in a good working order first just by small changes, reacting mainly to new versions of operating systems. After more then ten years a complete rewrite of the code was necessary to move it to a new computing platform.