{"id":972,"date":"2019-05-07T12:25:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T16:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/emg-review\/?page_id=972"},"modified":"2019-11-01T15:45:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T19:45:21","slug":"jimenez","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/emg-review\/volume-5-2017-2018\/jimenez\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservation Surveys for Time-based Media Art Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mona Jimenez
The Electronic Media Review, Volume Five: 2017-2018<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABSTRACT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Conservation surveys of time-based media art collections can point caretakers to artworks with urgent needs; they can also lead to improved policies and procedures as part of an organization\u2019s commitment to preventive conservation. However, time-based media collections are typically largely heterogeneous, making it difficult to compare the needs of one artwork or set of artworks against another. In addition, organizational norms and practices\u2014particularly in such areas as classification, description, storage, and staff roles and communication\u2014affect the health and longevity of these artworks. A proposed survey framework, a work-in-progress, was presented by the author at the AIC 46th Annual Meeting. The framework sets out an overall structure for investigation and data collection for surveying at both the macro (organizational) and micro (artwork) levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTRODUCTION<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Conservation surveys\nprovide data to enable conservators to mitigate risks to art collections and to\nset priorities for item-level conservation going forward. Surveys are essential\ntools to identify works with urgent needs, but assessing an entire collection\nof time-based media (TBM) artworks can be daunting. These collections can\nexhibit great variations: obsolescent analog and digital magnetic tapes; a\nmultiplicity of film gauges; file-based works in numerous formats, often still\nstored on removable media; multichannel projections\/installations; software-based\nworks; and works relying on networks or databases, to name a few. An in-depth\nexamination of each individual artwork is usually not feasible within the\nparameters of a survey.1<\/sup> Given such a wide diversity of works, how\ndoes a conservator identify vulnerabilities, both shared and individual? With\nso much variation, how does one know which of the works have the greatest needs\nand, thus, how does one prioritize conservation actions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following extended abstract summarizes the framework to date; it is still a work in progress. The overall goal of the framework is to help caretakers and cultural heritage organizations understand their collections and their current systems and practices so that they can take action: formulating new or improved collection management policies and procedures (preventive conservation) and performing in-depth examination and treatment of individual artworks as needed. Thus far, the framework includes approximately 25 areas of investigation. These areas have been identified to structure observation and data collection on both the organization and status of the artworks. Each area of investigation contains a set of questions drawn from conservation standards and best practices.2<\/sup> Taken together, data from this information can be used to develop a plan that includes actions on both fronts. In other words, the framework emphasizes practical pathways for inquiry and data collection that allow caretakers to compare organizational and artwork characteristics to community standards that support the sustainability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like many works\nof contemporary art, TBM works have not meshed easily with traditional collection\nmanagement and art handling practices and, in many cases, are not given the\nsame care as other art objects. These works are often very challenging to the various\ncaretakers who must assess, track, install, document, and conserve these works.\nThey have demanded changes in classification, description, storage, and\ndepartmental roles and responsibilities, as well as the way staff communicate\nand collaborate. These changes are particularly urgent, as management must be\ncarried out in both physical and virtual domains, since artists increasingly\nwork digitally and digital files have become the target format for preservation\nof older media formats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The framework\nproposes two key areas for organizational assessment: roles and communication,\nand policies and procedures. Roles and communication are investigated as\nfollows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n