On the Conservation of Digital Art

This capsule collects articles by Dragan Espenschied (me!) that were published in different places. My work focuses on software and the reproducibility of its performance. My point of view is that that the conservation of software requires its own approaches and cannot be adequately handled by frameworks developed for Digital Preservation nor Time Based Media Conservation.

💻 In Between Performance and Documentation (2022)

Proposing that specific types of documentation can become part of an artwork’s environment, and that, over time, artworks can be moved into a mixed form, part full performance and part documentation.

📦️ Digital Objecthood (2021)

Conceptualizing digital objects for the purpose of conservation, with some guidance on how to draw boundaries.

🌊 Fencing Apparently Infinite Objects (2018)

— with Klaus Rechert

Introducing bound, blurry, and boundless demarcations of digital objects, and reproducible properties as an alternative concept to significant properties.

✍️ Formatting conventions

My articles on computer systems design can be found on the same host when accessed via HTTP:

despens.systems