Re: [-empyre-] emulation and multiple nodes as archive method

Luciana Duranti <luciana@interchange.ubc.ca> · Sat, 05 Feb 2005 11:30:04 -0800

At 04:08 AM 04/02/2005 -0800, you wrote:
So perhaps what should be done, at least in the case
of areas such as digital music, net art, software art,
web page archiving is that we should offer the work
for free. Give people the chance to download work,
make it their own. Also provide people with space to
set up their own archives of work, or support those
digital communities which would create emulators. A
multi-nodal archive would be much healthier and
dynamic.
some thoughts,

Some counter-thoughts to Jason's thoughts:
Since when the best art has coincided with the most popular art? The only 
time I can remember is the Renaissance, but only because the most 
revolutionary art was on the walls of the churches (being the Popes who 
paid for it from the most educated and wealthy families) and people were 
drawn to it by faith, not understanding...the development of taste came 
with familiarity... Do you really want the cultural heritage of the next 
generations be determined by the number of kids who download digital works 
and the greed of investors who would only spend on emulators when they can 
see a big return? What about the undiscovered genius whose obsolete work 
nobody would invest upon by building an emulator? Emulation is really 
worrisome from the point of view of the criteria guiding the decision to 
invest the money in emulating something (it becomes a serious ethical and 
political issue with government records).
Jason's idea is not a bad idea. In my view it is a useful complement to 
systematic methodologies of preservation carried out by both creators and 
preservers, but cannot be a substitute for well thought out strategies of 
both acquisition and long-term preservation.
...just my two cents, keeping in mind that I am only an archival theorist 
(certainly not an artist or a preserver of art)
Luciana