Idea1:
“Is it possible to isolate a work, take it out of context and still preserve its original meaning? Should we preserve individual specimens or the ecosystem?…Or is the action of botanical gardens and art museums that of generating new habitats for certain individuals and exchanges between the different ecosystems?” ([1], p26-27)
How can an entire net art ecosystem be preserved? How can the ecosystem on which net art depends exist after the internet as we know it no longer exists? How will such an ecosystem’s boundaries be defined?
I am thinking about the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History, capturing the subjects within the context of their habitat, implying their connection to the rest of the ecological systems involved (but not fully preserving it together as one cohesive, living whole).
Perhaps digital art ecosystems can be preserved using a similar model to dioramas, using VR to encapsulate them in their native digital space allowing them to behave and be experienced fairly closely to as originally intended by the artist.
This is a very concrete, visual approach (and not by any means a complete solution, but rather an emulation susceptible to the same problems)… perhaps there are more abstract, simpler approaches to explore this idea.
Idea 2:
“Each work [of new media art] poses a different problem to the conservator. Each work calls for a different communication strategy.” ([1], p21)
How can a system be made to account for each individual conservation strategy? Perhaps one model for such a system involves the artists themselves acting as archivists — they must embed the conservation process into the creation and/or performance/execution/experience of the work itself.
[1] Gustavo Romano, “Madonna, Water Maps, and Botanical Gardens.” from Net Art Latino Database