[-empyre-] Mutating...

["Clare Stewart" <cstewart@acmi.net.au>]

Thanks David, Paul and Tom for your introductory posts.

You all raise a number of points (this topic is seriously endless and spidery!)

Paul, in response to your observation:

>>think about what the significant properties of a web resource are; that is, suppose that the resource cannot be maintained in time exactly in its original form, in order preserve the essential integrity of the resource what could be sacrificed and what could not?
 
This also implies the issue of how the integrity of a work may change in the process of its preservation/restoration. For example, ACMI recently screened a restoration print of Alexander Mackendrick's 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success. The print was visually gorgeous and it was fabulous to see it on the ACMI screens (note though that already, with uniformly bigger screens, brighter projection and contemporary lens, all older films look substantially different now). The issue was not with the reconstruction of image, but with sound. The film was made shortly after multi-channel sound was introduced and it seems that it made conspicuous use of that technology. Digitally remastered and pushed into surround, the sound seemed fractured and 'wrong' to modern ears (or at least, to mine!). This got me thinking about whether your obligation as a preservationist is to represent the work with precision and accuracy to its original state, or do you have a responsibility to 'upgrade' that the work to give it contemporary integrity.

I have questions for each of you:

Paul, most websites are in a permanent state of flux, how do you determine which moment to preserve in a website's lifetime? If you prioritise, what happens if a website you have put somewhere lower on your list disappears before you get to it?

Tom, the elegance of the trace as concept is that the trace itself is a sign of something that has been before it and always seems on the verge of disappearing itself. Aesthetically, how do you juggle this dynamic? Do you actively build into your work a kind of prevention mechanism so that your traces themselves wont disappear?

David, and following on from Tom's comments, given your acute awareness of these issues as an artist how does it impact on your own choice of medium? 

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