Re: [-empyre-] (forwarded from Jaka Zeleznikar) Ana Maria Uribe

["Marjorie C. Luesebrink" <luesebr1@ix.netcom.com>]

Dear Regina, Jim, Jaka, all -

I have been following the empyre discussions all along with much interest -
and, too, was saddened to hear about the death of Ana Maria -
but so glad to see an effort by all of her fellow artists to see what can be
done about bringing her work together for posterity!

Regina and I have had some discussions about Preservation and Archiving -
especially in the light of the wonderful Project Attic (Regina and Reiner
Strasser) - and I want to thank them for keeping the preservation issue in the
foreground - it's important for our community to solve this problem in a way
that respects the important aspects of our art.

As some of you may know, ELO began a project almost two years ago called PAD
(Preservation, Archiving, and Dissemination).  the PAD project was envisioned as
a way to begin the process of saving e-lit and new media work into the future.
Much of our early effort was investigation and research by a group of writers,
programmers, librarians, scholars, curatorial experts, and publishers to see
what practices existed and what needed to be done.  Our conclusion was that we
needed to build a comprehensive network of libraries and organizations to house
the archive (much digital preservation work is being undertaken, but not much of
it takes into account the specific demands of multi-media electronic work).  We
also needed  to begin to set up practices to retreive older works and guidelines
for future work.  Although we had hoped to secure the (sizable) funding to
accomplish this all at once, it now looks as though ELO does not have the proper
institutional grounding to do this alone - so we are working on sections of the
problem, hoping to build a wider network as a basis for support and funding.

The process of collecting and curating Ana Maria's work will provide a very
important example for all of us.  I do hope that one individual who has access
to the files and knows the work will take up the task of doing this right away -

and I would like to be kept current on how the job proceeds, the kinds of
problems that arise, and what solutions are reached.  Even if PAD succeeds in
establishing a central repository and some sort of emulation system that will
allow continued access to older softwares, the initial task of collecting and
organizing the work is best attended to by the author or a close associate.

Right now, the most important thing is to gather as much work as possible
together and begin an archive that includes these features:
1.  Copies of all electronic works saved on CD ROM (regardless of platform -
that may have to be worked out later) -
but documented by a word.doc that lets future archivers know what platform, what
kind of machine it was meant to run on, etc.
2.  Any hard copy articles and photos that can be gathered.
3.  "Reading Experience" documents from readers and/or audiences. (explaining
how they reacted to the work)
4.  Raw data files of text, sound, image that might be associated with the work
(these can be critical in "re-building" works).
5.  Video that might exist of the work on display or being accessed on computer.

6.  Author's statements or notes about the how and why of a piece.
7.  Screen shots of each work.

In general, museums like to have three copies of all works - so if you can, when
you begin to make an archive, save three copies.

Just a start here - but I would like to assist in any way possible with the
archive that will be constructed for Ana Maria - and help other writers and
artists who wish to prepare archives of their work.  Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick
Montfort have written a booklet for PAD outlining some practices for making
material accessible longer; this will be released in the next few months, and we
would encourage all of you to help us circulate these suggestions!

Always, Margie Luesebrink








arteonline wrote:

> Hello Jim and Jaka and all,
>
> I would like to say that to think about the preservation of our digital
> culture is really very important. The tribute to Ana Maria is just
> beggining, I am sure that step by step we will find solutions to the files
> that are missing. However the most important is to imagine what will happen
> with this files in 2024, for example, it will be possible to see them, will
> we have softwares able to open it?
>
> The Project Attic, by Reiner Strasser and me just try to call  attention for
> this possible problem. However I think that perhaps  ELO  is just looking
> for solutions about this. Perhaps Marjorie C. Luesebrink can say anything to
> us. Is she in this list?
>
> I would like to add that  in the Attic we have a work by Ana Maria Uribe. It
> was build just for the Attic and there she shows all her capacity of
> sophisticated synthesis which is so peculiar in her work. We will meet
> there, for example, an incredible animated zipper made only of   the letters
> V   and   I .
>
> http://arteonline.arq.br/museu/attic/uribe.html
>
> If you wan to see the work in popup windows, without menubars, browser at:
>
> http://arteonline.arq.br/museu/attic/introattic.htm
>
> In this page you will find this text of Reiner :
>
> "In the corner of a room is sitting my old computer with all the stuff I
> have created on it. Is it a real art object? Wouldn't it be the right
> instrument to play the art created on it, the right way to present and
> preserve it? --- Now it is virtually placed and visible in the Attic, a
> spaceless gallery of the Museum of the essential and beyond that."
>
> (Reiner Strasser)
>
> It is really very important to think about this.
>
> Regina
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Andrews" <jim@vispo.com>
> To: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 10:02 PM
> Subject: RE: [-empyre-] (forwarded from Jaka Zeleznikar) Ana Maria Uribe
>
> >
> > > I hope her whole web work is saved and backuped, web servers tend to
> > > disappear (maybe not a time to write this but I think it's important).
> >
> > Hi Jaka,
> >
> > I have asked her brother what her wishes are for her site and her work
> more
> > generally.
> >
> > I have compared the English versions of http://amuribe.tripod.com (her
> site)
> > and http://vispo.com/uribe (the mirror she made on my site). There are a
> > couple of pieces missing on the mirror. There are also a couple of pieces
> > missing in the Spanish mirror.
> >
> > Regina and I and, no doubt, some others each have a copy of the CD she
> made
> > of her site some time ago, which is done with Director, so it is an
> > executable, ie, it is not html, unlike her site, so there are two forms in
> > which her work can be viewed: html (through the browser) and executable
> (not
> > through the browser). I haven't yet compared the CD with her site to see
> how
> > complete it is.
> >
> > ja
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre

--
Marjorie Coverley Luesebrink
AKA
M.D. Coverley

Electronic Literature Organization
President, Board of Directors
UCLA Department of Design/Media Arts
11000 Kinross Ave, Suite 245
Box 951456
Los Angeles, CA 90095
310.206.1863

Home Address:
200 Nata
Newport Beach, CA 92660
949.644.6587

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mailto:  <luesebr1@ix.netcom.com>