In the Digital Art preservation field, we are in the middle of a crisis. This is contents versus containing. This is a crisis of substance, material substance opposing to conceptual/intentional substance of the artwork. What do we want? That all resources be directed towards to the preservation and storage of the original devices? Or, that each time it is exhibited, the artwork be constantly updated and adapted to new versions of hardware and software ? In other word, should we preserve the material (hardware/software) or the intent?
There is no answer, yet. Or, if there are answers, they are as multiple than artworks.
That’s why we saw the emergence of new hybrid forms of conservation and restoration in museums. Indeed, more and more museums take the initiative, with the consent of the artist, to make new versions of digital work. They provide a unique incarnation of the concept of the work. In many cases, the original work is preserved with strategies such as migration or storage, and the museum makes in parallel a new installation based on the intent of the initial installation.
This hybrid form of preservation reveals the envy in the profession of new dynamic practices, by putting aside the practical called “frozen time” in favor of the “dynamic time” and therefore of dynamic preservation.
The ZKM museum has experimented this new strategy for its last exhibition. [>>]
How can rural economies and ecologies benefit from wired citizens? Still Water Fellow Miigam’agan and co-director Joline Blais tackle the subject along with New Media colleague Bill Kuykendall at two conferences organized by Maine Rural Partners and Portland Maine Permaculture.
At the 8th Annual ESTIA EcoPeace Conference, Still Water Co-Director Joline Blais asked her audience how to get more kids involved in growing food, connecting to the earth, and otherwise participating in conversations about a sustainable future.
Which is the oldest human record?
The University of Maine is poised to launch an innovative graduate program in digital curation, beginning September 2012. The online, 18-credit curriculum aims to train anyone who works with digitized or born-digital items to make them accessible and meaningful to present and future generations.
Senator George Mitchell broke ground in November for 
Richard Rinehart, co-author with Still Water’s Jon Ippolito of the forthcoming MIT book New Media and Social Memory, presents conclusions from the book at the POCOS/HATII symposium on Software Art in Glasgow on 11 October.
