Fabiola Rocco, Kezia Toh, Jo-Anne Wong, Mar Cruz, Alex Soo, and Christel Pesme
Electronic Media Review, Volume Eight: 2023-2024
In the past 20 years, the Singapore National Collection has seen an exponential increase in the number of time-based media (TBM) artworks. The collection counts more than 200 works, acquired primarily under the purview of National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum. Several strategies to cater for the needs of digital collection were developed over the years. Although these strategies did not provide immediate resolutions, they raised awareness of the gap between collection growth and institutional limitations at the time. In 2023, a cross-departmental Time-Based Media Working Group (TBM WG) was established with the scope of designing a multiphase Time-Based Media Care and Preservation Plan (TBM Plan) to create a mature ecosystem focused on addressing the many outstanding needs of a growing media collection. With this article, we aim to share our experience and the pivots we made while embracing the challenges that time-based media preservation poses. It is hoped that by sharing our journey, we could offer a pathway to other institutions that are facing the pressing issue of caring for their collection.
INTRODUCTION
The Heritage Conservation Centre (HCC) is the repository and conservation facility for Singapore’s National Collection, comprising more than 250,000 artifacts and artworks. Housed in the western part of Singapore, the HCC is a purpose-built facility with a centralized storage space and conservation laboratories for the treatment of objects, paintings, paper, and textiles, a laboratory for scientific analysis, material testing, and research, as well as a photography studio for the visual documentation of artifacts.
The HCC aims to set and maintain high professional standards of heritage conservation, to improve accessibility to the National Collection, and to disseminate and share with the public its knowledge of heritage care. In addition, it counts among its aspirations as being able to expand its leading role in the heritage sector beyond Singapore, into the region, to leverage its expertise in conservation and collections care and management.
The HCC comes under the ambit of the National Heritage Board (NHB), formed in 1993 as a statutory board under Singapore’s Ministry of Community, Culture and Youth (MCCY). The NHB runs nine museums, heritage interpretative centers, and community heritage institutions, with a new museum set to open in 2028.
Singapore’s museum scene grew significantly with strong government funding from the 1970s. This was partly an effort to shed the city state’s 1960s image as a “cultural desert,” a likely consequence of early reluctance to invest in art institutions and spaces to focus on pressing economic priorities, while a vibrant amateur arts scene prevailed (Hoe and Chong 2018, 242). Two visual arts museums—the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) in 1996 and later the National Gallery Singapore (NGS) in 2015—shall be referenced in this article due to the relevance of their contemporary collections to TBM preservation. SAM and NGS have contributed significantly to the island nation’s move to strengthen its cultural capital and “soft power.” This was done to position Singapore as “the choice destination for arts professionals, whether local or foreign, to create or premiere an original work rooted in Singapore’s own multicultural arts and heritage, as well as the diverse ethnic traditions of Asia, in particular, Southeast Asia” (Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, 2008, 21).
As part of the government’s push, the NHB was positioned as custodian of Singapore’s heritage, with the mission to preserve and celebrate the shared heritage of the city state’s diverse communities, for education, nation building, and cultural understanding. As the largest player in the museum scene in Singapore, the NHB also sets policies relating to heritage sites and the National Collection.
While the collections of SAM and NGS fall under the National Collection and are held in public trust, both museums are corporatized and independent Companies Limited by Guarantee, so as to allow greater autonomy in the growth of visual arts in Singapore. Both institutions collect works highlighting Singapore’s art historical development, such as pioneering and practicing Singaporean visual artists, and art historical periods from the pre-colonial to the contemporary such as in the case of SAM, including experimental and emerging art practices. In this context, digital and analog forms of TBM are cared for by HCC in the National Collection, and acquired and presented primarily at SAM and NGS. As an expanding part of both museums’ collecting strategies, TBM is a small but growing collection of about 210 works with digital media components, such as video, audio, and software-based art. Meanwhile, analog forms of TBM (about 1500 works), such as vinyl records, are also in the National Collection, and were collected as objects rather than for the content they store. The current annual growth is between 25 and 35 new acquisitions in digital media formats, with an expected exponential year-on-year increment.
Against this backdrop, HCC tried various ways to tackle the burgeoning collection over the years. An informal taskforce was formed in 2019 comprising collections managers and visual resource staff to explore long-term storage and preservation of the collection. The taskforce also consulted with museums acquiring TBM works, set out interim workflows for accessioning and receiving, and commenced a base collections survey that proved useful as a preliminary gauge of collection size, profile, and storage needs.
At around the same time, HCC also started discussions with the National Archives of Singapore (NAS), responsible for the collection, preservation, and management of Singapore’s public and private archival records. The NAS, like the NHB, is also a statutory board under the Singapore Government, parked under the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI). Discussions centered around engaging the NAS to store preservation copies of TBM, although differences in file formats and the lack of a viable solution to consolidate digital files for secure transfer meant that the partnership was not feasible. In addition, there was a key difference between the nature of each institution’s collection, as digital preservation in the case of NAS is not akin to the NHB’s conservation of TBM artworks. However, through the conversations, the NHB team benefitted from NAS’s expertise, such as understanding the resources needed to properly care for TBM and increased critical knowledge of the field.
With the knowledge gained and building of professional expertise, HCC started in 2022 to advocate and plan for resources to further strengthen its care of TBM in the National Collection. The generous support from like-minded colleagues working in the sector proved a major factor in boosting professional capability and support for TBM at HCC. Advice on topics from file formats during acquisition, disk imaging, and software acquisitions to lab equipment came from practitioners such as Shu-Wen Lin, the associate media conservator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and M+’s digital and media art conservator David Smith, Hong Kong. Thereafter, the HCC team also made visits to US-based institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), and Smithsonian Institution museums, as well as M+ and the Hong Kong Film Archive, benefitting from their generous sharing of workflows and pre-acquisition and acquisition practices. It was also opportune that key decision makers—such as the NHB’s chief executive and head of the Organisational Design and Innovation department—participated in the trips and were able to glean first-hand the challenges and resources needed to further the care of TBM.
The continued advocacy set good ground for support by senior management to develop HCC’s professional capability in the care and management of the TBM collection. With some resource prioritization, HCC was also able to develop specialized expertise and hence hired its first TBM and digital conservator and digitization manager in 2023. This was enabled by a timely injection of support in 2023 with Our SG Heritage Plan 2.0, a five-year masterplan for the heritage and museum sector in Singapore, which ushered in a new focus on increasing acquisitions under the Design Collection, including works of contemporary design. The masterplan also shared a focus on building professional capability, such as for newer areas of collecting including TBM art.
THE TIME-BASED MEDIA CARE AND PRESERVATION PLAN
In June 2023, the informal TBM taskforce evolved into a formalized cross-departmental working group comprising members from the HCC Conservation and the Collections Management departments. Composed of six active members, the group is championed by Kezia Toh, Assistant Director (Collections Management), and Fabiola Rocco, Contemporary Art Conservator, and mentored by Christel Pesme and Wan Gui Ng, the head of Conservation and head of Collections Management departments, respectively.
The newly established Time-Based Media Working Group (TBM WG) meets monthly and has created a strong network of external collaborators from different departments within the NHB, including the Organizational Design and Innovation (ODI) and the Information Technology (IT) teams, who are offering their professional support.
Thanks to an injection of fresh funding from Singapore’s Cultural Matching Fund, which provides dollar-for-dollar matching grants by the government for private cash donations, the workgroup could start working on a Time-Based Media Care and Preservation Plan (hereafter referred to as the TBM Plan), that could further the care of the Singapore media collection.
Aim of the Project
By the time the TBM WG had regrouped, the urgency to establish tailored policies and workflows, as well as the cost of inaction if timely conservation procedures were postponed, was clear to the upper management. Works with TBM parts, once encountered only once or twice in a year, are now requested for exhibition or loan on a monthly basis, to a point that it has become impossible to ignore the increasing backlog. Thus, the NHB’s senior management approved the plan for the holistic care of the media collection, which could address the many outstanding, and often unseen, requirements of a collection that by definition is changeable, ever-evolving, and in constant flux (Holling 2017, 7).
The main goal of the TBM Plan is to create a mature ecosystem where collection custodians are enabled to go beyond digital preservation and align HCC with the most relevant practices promoted by the leading institutions in the field that better serve the needs of the Singapore National Collection.
Methodology
Large-scale endeavors, like the TBM Plan, need to be approached following a process perspective, focusing on short-term and long-term goals, but also the interconnected dependencies of each task. Performing an institutional and a collection assessment becomes vital to identify which combination of policies, workflows, and strategies is needed to most effectively meet the institutional requirements and shed light on the makeup of the collection to plan for future improvements (Kramer et al. 2023, 40).
As defined by other authors (Kramer et al. 2021, 238), an institutional assessment for TBM is an evaluation of the institution’s collection management policies, staffing, and infrastructure relating to the acquisition, exhibition, and preservation of TBM. Institutional assessments focus on performing a gap analysis to identify the areas where the organization is underperforming compared to set targets. Two useful resources are available online to guide organizations which are taking their first steps toward digital preservation: the Levels of Digital Preservation developed by the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) in 2013 and subsequently refined in 2019 (NDSA 2019), and the Rapid Assessment Model (RAM) by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) (DPC 2024). Both models are technology and strategy agnostics, and aim to provide an easy-to-use benchmarking assessment of the institution’s maturity level based on a tiered system focused on practical functional areas (i.e., NDSA) or a mix of practical actions and organizational capabilities (i.e., DPC RAM). In contrast to the institutional assessment, which investigates the whole organization, a collection assessment usually takes the form of an item-by-item survey and seeks to inform on both the makeup and the condition of the works, as well as document the intangible and tangible aspects.
Thanks to the previous investigations carried out by ex-HCC colleagues, we already had a general overview of the major institutional weak points. Although policies and procedures, including acquisition, accessioning, documentation, and collection care, have been reviewed over the years, they have always been geared toward traditional artworks that easily fit the structure of cultural organizations (Domínguez Rubio, 2014, 622). Conversely, unruly objects, which are exemplarily represented by media art, disrupt the established boundaries and require open practices and classifications (ibid.). At the same time, the lack of specialized personnel in TBM conservation meant that limited resources had been allocated to build a TBM conservation lab, perform file redundancy and fixity checks, and establish a trusted digital repository.
When benchmarking against the aforementioned levels of digital preservation, it was evident that many areas needed to be considerably improved (fig. 1). However, when mapping out the trajectory of the TBM Plan, we realized that it was essential to tailor it to the resources, structure, priorities, and actual needs of HCC (Pendergrass et al. 2019, 181). While HCC uses proper dry cabinets to store the media carriers provided by the artist, no backup strategy was in place to create file redundancy. As a result, the media collection was still living on physical storage. Improving storage in terms of both geographic differentiation and file redundancy was immediately considered a priority, whereas the lack of a migration or emulation plan, although essential in TBM conservation, did not immediately jeopardize the integrity of the collection.
Self-evaluation, prioritization, interconnected dependencies, and collaboration are at the core of the TBM Plan, which consists of four partially overlapping cycles:
- Cycle 0: Strategic Planning
- Cycle 1: Operational
- Cycle 2: Preservation
- Cycle 3: Sustain.
Cycle 0 was focused on building the foundation of the TBM Plan. In this phase, named Strategic Planning, we concentrated on internal policies and workflows for acquisition, accessioning, documenting, and storing TBM works. Due to outdated acquisition and accessioning guidelines, the conservation team was not extensively involved in the pre-acquisition phase of media art. Important information about the works was collected in a nonsystematic fashion in the form of informal communications, annotation in the collection management system, or as personal knowledge. Additionally, acquisition deliverables remained vague and undefined with the result that the majority of the TBM acquisitions did not include installation manuals or the complete set of functional dedicated equipment (note 1). Even more importantly, the cataloging practice was tailored to traditional works of art with nonhierarchical and fixed components. No provision was in place to assign a different status to each component, track the relationships, or accommodate potential new inclusion, with the result that TBM works were frozen in time (Haidvogl and Leckart 2024, 187).
In this phase, we also focused our attention on determining the technical infrastructure, in terms of hardware and software, needed to achieve the level of digital preservation we were aiming for, as well as starting to evaluate options for safe storage. It was imperative in Cycle 0 to streamline procedures and design solutions to halt the increasing backlog that is planned to be addressed completely in Cycle 2, Preservation.
To be able to move to the Preservation cycle, it is paramount to measure the backlog and document the main issues. Thus, Cycle 1 revolves around two main topics: understanding the makeup of the collection through a detailed collection survey, and procurement. The main aim of Cycle 1 is to fill our knowledge gaps and purchase the technical infrastructure necessary to become completely Operational. A previous assessment of the TBM collection was performed by HCC staff in 2019. In that instance, 177 works were counted as TBM, and most were identified as single-channel video. Since then, the National Collection has grown steadily, with 24 new acquisitions in 2023. Currently, 210 artworks are labeled as TBM works. However, it is expected that the actual size of the collection could be different since an undefined number of TBM installations have been inaccurately categorized based on the predominant medium and are not searchable in the Singapore Collections Management System (SCMS), the centralized database for information about the National Collection. The survey designed for Cycle 1 comprises both an item-by-item evaluation of the physical media carrier and digital components, as well as an in-depth review of the documentation received upon acquisition, and a cross-reference evaluation of the accuracy of the data reported in the SCMS. When possible, it is planned to access the readability of the media files—nevertheless, the full condition assessment and completion of missing reports will be part of the scope of Cycle 2.
Cycle 2 is centered on the preservation of the TBM collection through actions designed to enhance the long-term care of the works, such as digitization of the analog tapes, reaccessioning, and rehousing. The information yielded through the collection survey will allow us to plan for the future exercises, basing our decision on concrete data. Moreover, by the end of this phase, we plan to have agreed on a storage methodology and have a running trusted digital repository.
Finally, Cycle 3 of the TBM Plan is titled Sustain. This cycle is focused on the future and mirrors some of the goals listed under Level 4—Sustain Your Content—in the NDSA’s Levels of Digital Preservation. These include multiple backups in different geographic locations, a migration and emulation plan to secure the viability, renderability, and understandability of the digital resources, and a technology obsolescence plan (Phillips et al. 2013, 220).
The roadmap of the TBM Plan designed for the HCC is presented in figure 2.
KEY LEARNINGS FROM CYCLE 0: STRATEGIC PLANNING
At the time of writing, the tasks related to Cycle 0, Strategic Planning, had been completed and the team was introducing the new procedures into day-to-day practice. A detailed description of the findings and improvements introduced at HCC for the care and preservation of TBM artworks is listed next.
Terminology and Accessioning Method
As mentioned previously, HCC employs a custom-built collection management system. On SCMS, each artwork is cataloged using a nine-digit number: the first four digits represent the year of acquisition, whereas the following five, after the high dash, are uniquely assigned to the work. Additionally, the artwork’s components are tracked individually using sequential numbers.
Both the database and the HCC accessioning strategy were geared toward traditional artworks that enter institutions in a “mature” state, with a fixed list of components. Conversely, TBM works challenge traditional collection cataloging systems, as they may enter the collection in multiple copies, paired with physical installation components, artist-created/modified equipment, or obsolete technology.
The first step in designing a comprehensive new accessioning model for contemporary art and TBM is to define the work’s anatomy and create a standardized vocabulary. Specifically, for TBM, it is imperative to distinguish the components by type (i.e., digital components versus equipment) and define a hierarchy (i.e., master copy versus exhibition copy) (Haidvogl and Leckart 2024, 187). Suffixes were used to visually discriminate the status and intended use of the components, whereas a three-digit sequential number was added to create a sequence (table 1).
The updated accessioning method provides flexibility in case new components/copies are added, without compromising the legibility of the system. Additional copies will receive a unique component number that shares the same root and suffix as the original component and sequential numbers to illustrate the progression.
Functional dedicated equipment and accessories are tracked following the same logic, whereas exchangeable equipment is neither tracked nor listed on SCMS. The decision not to list “off the shelf” equipment in the database lies in the scope of HCC to act as a storage and conservation center, which is only partially responsible for the installation of the artworks. Thus, the obligation of procuring and maintaining generic equipment falls within the responsibility of the collecting institutions, which are tasked with building their own equipment pool.
Finally, TBM installation works, including both digital files and sculptural components, are accessioned starting from the physical components, followed by artist-provided digital files, HCC-created exhibition copies, and equipment. An accessioning example of a TBM installation is illustrated in table 2.
Acquisition, Receiving, and Accessioning Workflows
The new acquisition workflow developed at HCC for TBM art is rooted in the general acquisition process for works that fall under the realm of contemporary art. The primary aim of the workflow is to involve conservators more upstream in the acquisition process to support curators in the discussion with the artist or the gallery. Contemporary artworks will be benchmarked against five criteria, and if one or more criteria are matched, the object will be selected as a candidate for the updated acquisition process (note 2).
As part of the acquisition process, curators and conservators work together to fill out the Pre-Acquisition Assessment (PAA) form (Appendix 1). The data recorded in the PAA form aims to exhaustively inform on the meaning and behavior of the work, variabilities, replaceability of the components, significance of the technology employed, and exhibition history.
In this phase, it is paramount to highlight the cost related to the maintenance and display of the work, as well as to evaluate the need for specific external expertise. Additionally, the TBM WG prepared a list of expected acquisition deliverables tailored to each medium (video art, software-based art, web-based art, etc.) to be used by artists as a cross-check list and a new set of TBM questionnaires.
The PAA form coupled with the data yielded from the questionnaires and the initial research allows conservators to determine the level of complexity of the work. When a new acquisition is labeled as more complex, additional stakeholders are involved and more detailed reports are created. TBM works are often considered more complex than other types of artworks. In these cases, a team composed of curators, conservators, and collection managers evaluates the need for an in-person/online artist’s interview, survey of the work at the artist’s studio or gallery, or in-house test installation prior to concluding the acquisition phase.
At the end of the acquisition process, the work can be shipped to HCC, where it will be permanently stored. The Collections Management department is responsible for handling the safe packing and transport of artworks, and receiving the data carrier. As per HCC internal policy, only files delivered on hard drives are accepted in order to avoid the risk of data loss and corruption linked to third-party file transfer services or cloud storage platforms. Once the work arrives at HCC, the collections manager in charge cross-checks the inventory list and confirms that all physical components have been received. The work then passes under the care of the TBM and digital conservator, who ingests the digital assets and starts the file analysis. Conversely from the previous accessioning method, where each file hosted in an artist-provided carrier was accessioned with a component number, regardless of their status, use, and relationship with the work, the new Accessioning Workflow involves a detailed file analysis and testing phase prior to attributing a digital component number. TBM conservators perform file analysis using a wide suite of programs specifically designed to provide technical information, like format specification (MediaInfo, ExifTool) and quality check (QCTool). The combination of these tools allows the HCC TBM and digital conservator to discriminate the status of the different digital assets and attribute the correct component number following the terminology and accessioning method approved by HCC (see Terminology and Accessioning Method).
Once all digital assets have been thoroughly analyzed and documented, the artist’s provided material is “bagged” and stored in a direct-attached storage (DAS) unit.
Finally, the Receiving and Accessioning Workflow concludes with the creation of the appropriate object components records in SCMS and the assignment of a digital location for tracking purposes.
The proposed workflows for Acquisition, Receiving, and Accessioning of TBM works allow caretakers to gather preliminary information at an earlier stage in the artwork acquisition process, foster collaboration among departments, and provide an overarching stewardship of the media collection.
Building a TBM Lab and Digital Preservation
To practice TBM conservation, it is essential to build a TBM lab that can accommodate a wide array of activities from condition assessment of the artist-provided material to test installation. When HCC was founded, TBM conservation had yet to be established as a necessary conservation practice, thus a dedicated space for media art conservation was not part of the initial layout. A TBM lab necessitates specialized, space-consuming technical infrastructure, including hardware, software, and tools, but also an area dedicated to testing media works and welcoming artists. Together with the HCC Estate team, the TBM WG evaluated different areas within HCC and settled on a shared space on the fourth floor. The area was chosen due to the availability of multiple power outlets, proximity to the so-called “contemporary art corner,” an area entirely dedicated to performing test installation of complex works, and the possibility of adding movable sliding doors to create an enclosed, darker environment suitable for viewing videos. However, compromises will have to be made, such as using headphones rather than playing audio out loud while other conservators are undertaking treatment or planning projection testing after working hours.
Regarding the technical infrastructure, priority was given to build a digital workstation to safely transfer media off the physical carriers, perform file examination, quality control, condition checking, exhibition and viewing copy preparation, and documentation. The list of required hardware and software was prepared after a survey of other institutions and a review of the available literature (note 3). Priority was also given based on the collection and the most pressing risks. Firstly, the TBM WG voted against acquiring a digitalization rack to digitize analog tape. Despite the incomplete data yielded during the previous collection survey, it was clear that the tape-based collection had not grown, with the last analog work acquired back in 2011. On the other hand, the born-digital collection has exponentially increased in number in the past decade. The curatorial and acquisition strategy promoted by NGS and SAM had seen a constant increase in interest toward born-digital works, including complex software-based artworks, thus it was decided to focus on improving the digital capabilities and outsource the digitalization of the analog collection.
Second, the most pressing risk the collection was facing was data loss as all the digital collection was still living in the artist-supplied data carriers and no provision was in place for creating backup copies. Ensuring safe storage and file redundancy are two of the core tasks of digital preservation (Brost 2024, 126). While scoping the storage infrastructure for the digital collection, the team recognized that a robust storage solution was needed to sustain the collection in the long term. However, since procurement can be a lengthy and tedious process in public institutions, the team agreed that an interim solution was needed in the meantime. In March 2024, the TBM WG procured a dedicated Direct Attached Storage (DAS) unit with the scope of providing a safe location in which to store backup copies and centralize the digital collection for easier access. The DAS guarantees that at least one redundant copy in a separate location is created but does not cater for automated technical metadata or fixity check, which still need to be done manually. Nonetheless, the team considered it an acceptable temporary solution in view of the trusted digital repository that is planned to be fully operational by the end of Cycle 2, Preservation.
Beyond the TBM Plan
Alongside the practical tasks related to establishing a successful TBM conservation program at HCC, the team acknowledged the importance of creating a strong network of practitioners, as well as engaging in constructive discussions and outreach. It is our hope to become a vital part of the TBM conservation community in Southeast Asia and to actively contribute to the development of the field. To do so, the team has embraced a culture of sharing knowledge by presenting at international conferences, online seminars, and internal lectures within the NHB. The TBM WG is constantly welcoming opportunities for cross-institutional peer exchanges to prevent isolation and fulfill the HCC mission of disseminating and promoting conservation/preservation principles in Southeast Asia. Additionally, the team aims to foster internal knowledge retention by delivering informal training sessions to both the Conservation and Collections Management departments. These sessions act as a forum for increasing awareness toward TBM conservation, as well as lowering the barriers that usually surround contemporary art.
CONCLUSIONS
Advocating for TBM conservation is not a linear endeavor. Even though media works pose the highest risk in terms of long-term stability, it is always challenging to convey the urgency to redirect resources toward media preservation, especially in institutions where media artworks represent only a limited percentage of the collection. It took many years of advocacy from committed staff members before a consolidated strategy could be presented for the NHB to embrace the quest for media preservation and provide the institutional and financial support essential to establish a successful TBM Plan. Throughout the brainstorming sessions that laid the groundwork for the TBM Plan, the team learned that turning a problem into a project, listening, and communicating effectively are paramount skills to nurture support within the institution and foster senior manager’s buy-in (Coddington 2024, 91). When working in a fast-paced institution like the HCC, staff members rarely have the time to take on additional responsibility and new projects, thus being allowed to dedicate part of our working hours to developing the TBM Plan signaled the strong support from the HCC’s department heads. Despite the achievements of Cycle 0, the TBM WG members recognize that there is still a long road ahead before concluding the project and implementing a well-rounded TBM conservation program. As mentioned by Amy Brost, “doing preservation is a process” (Brost 2024, 123), and for media art, this entails that advocating for sustained care and constant preservation is critical, as TBM artworks are likely to evolve in complexity and scale, thus treatment and storage plans may need to evolve and be iterative.
While transitioning into Cycle 1, Operational, the team has been enriched by the addition of two team members, Angelyn Tan (assistant manager, Collections & Digital) and Run Nan Luo (TBM intern), who helped to complete the first phase of the collections survey. To this date, the collaborative culture established by the TBM WG members has proven to be the team’s strongest asset in the development of the TBM Plan.
Although this article is focused on the specific context of Singapore, where a centralized authority is responsible for the care of the National Collection in its entirety, it is our hope that the roadmap we have outlined can help other institutions that are considering undertaking a similar effort.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank colleagues who generously donated their time and shared their experiences to help us design a time-based media conservation program at the HCC. As described in the article, these colleagues include Shu-Wen Lin, David Smith, Kate Lewis, Peter Oleksik, Amy Brost, Jonathan Farbowitz, Isabel Meyer, and Crystal Sanchez. We are also grateful to our colleagues within the HCC for their preliminary investigations and to our ex-colleagues in the TBM WG, Melanie Barrett, Rozemarijn van der Molen, Jo-Anne Wong, and Ariane Lo, for their invaluable support in developing the TBM Plan. Finally, we thank the National Heritage Board community and Singapore’s government, which provided the funds to start the project.
Appendix 1. THE PRE-ACQUISITION ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE CREATED AT HCC
NOTES
- The notion of “dedicated equipment” with respect to equipment needed to activate/install a work that is solely dedicated to a specific work is discussed explicitly elsewhere. Notable discussions include those of Laurenson (2014), Phillips (2012), and Sherring (2018).
- The five criteria used by HCC and the collecting institutions to benchmark artworks are (1) the acquisition is a kinetic/functional artworks and/or contains kinetic/functional components that require activation for display; (2) acquisition contains TBM; (3) acquisition contains instructional, participatory, performative elements, and/or is a process, research-based work (ephemeral art forms), and acquisition involves refabrication/reprinting; (4) the acquisition has less than 50 years expected lifespan (color photography, slides, plastics, food-based materials, etc.); and (5) artwork by living artist(s). The fifth criterion alone does not trigger the new acquisition workflow for contemporary art and needs to be always paired with one or more of the other preceding criteria.
- For a comprehensive literature review on how to build a TBM lab, please refer to Lewis (2024), Haidvogl (2015), and Phillips (2015). Additional information is available from “Media Conservation Lab Essentials Document,” available at https://www.mediaconservation.io/getting-started, and in the online video “Developing a Media Lab from Workshop 1 (June 11–15, 2018 at MoMA),” available at https://vimeo.com/283104627/7f788b6a01.
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SOURCES OF MATERIALS
Matters in Media Art: http://mattersinmediaart.org
MoMA: https://www.mediaconservation.io/getting-started
AUTHORS
Fabiola Rocco
Conservator, Contemporary Art
Singapore Art Museum and Heritage Conservation Centre
Singapore
fabiola.rocco@singaporeartmuseum.sg
fabiola_rocco_from.sam@nhb.gov.sg
Kezia Toh
Assistant Director, Collections Management
Heritage Conservation Centre
Singapore
kezia_toh@nhb.gov.sg
Jo Anne Wong
Former Assistant Manager, Collections Management
Heritage Conservation Centre
Singapore
jo_anne_wong@nhb.gov.sg
Alex Soo
Manager, Photography
Heritage Conservation Centre
Singapore
alex_soo@nhb.gov.sg
Mar Cruz
Conservator, Digital and Time-Based Media Collection
Heritage Conservation Centre
Singapore
marion_cruz@nhb.gov.sg
Christel Pesme
Former Chief Conservator and Deputy Director, Conservation Services
Heritage Conservation Centre and National Heritage Board
Singapore
christel.pesme@gmail.com