[-empyre-] Games, histories and preservation

[Paul Brown]

My favourite is the Gustav Metzger piece at the 60's Show at the Tate  
a couple of years back.  It was from their collection and had been  
purchased in the 1960's during his "auto-destructive" period - it was  
a transparent garbage bag full of garbage.  On the night before the  
show opened a cleaner put it in the crusher (well you would wouldn't  
you?) thus, one could argue, fulfilling its destiny.  Tate then  
commissioned Gustav to make another - I just hope they paid him  
well.  (image below)

Also a "priceless" oriental ceramic in a major international museum  
which is still listed as in "perfect condition" after being secretly  
repaired when a photographer dropped it thirty years ago.

Isn't the art world wonderful.

Paul

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Metzger-TATE-2004.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 82627 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/attachments/20080318/6457be38/Metzger-TATE-2004-0001.jpg
-------------- next part --------------


On 18 Mar 2008, at 09:32, Sean Cubitt wrote:

> Goog good: one should also recall the recall of the sony emulator  
> installed on Macs for a few weeks in the 90s
>
> But there are issues here
>
> Eg The Duchamp Large glass replica by Richard Hamilton. It  
> fractured one night in the Tate Millbank. It was repaired. Is it  
> still a replica? (this without discussing the Barnett Newman  
> debacle in Amsterdam when the whole canvas was incorrectly painted  
> over after a knife attack)
>
> [a more curious one: Courbet?s Stonbreakers, icon of 19th Realism,  
> was subject of Agfa colour film tests in the late 30s /. Early  
> forties. It was destroyed in the Dersden firebombings. The colour  
> photo is all that remains. What relation does the photo ? and its  
> replications ? have to the lost ?original??]
>
> Eg (2) the variable media network <http://variablemedia.net/>  
> experiments. Weinbren?s Erl King emulated : the colour gamuts are  
> no longer the same. The touchscreen response times are much faster.  
> Refresh rate is different as is apparent screen resolution and  
> actual luminance. Etc etc
>
> See the excellent discussions, inlcuding a forum on games emulation  
> and technostalgia at
>
> http://www.variablemedia.net/e/echoes/index.html
>
> Emulation not so much a solution as another mode of the same  
> problem, better phrased
>
> Sean
>
>
> On 17/3/08 12:34 PM, "Jason Nelson" <heliopod at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> As for preservation. I've always found game emulators http:// 
>> www.emulator-zone.com/
>>
>> as the ultimate form of preservation (for any digital work).
>>
>>
>>
>> Why are game emulators the ultimate for of digital preservation?
>>
>>
>>
>> The games from the 70s, 80s and 90s, as designed, are no longer  
>> playable (unless you own old consoles and by chance they are still  
>> working). And so there is that classic, change of hardware format  
>> problem. There has been some porting now of the games to stand  
>> alone devices or compilations for newer console systems. But  
>> really the bulk of these games should have been lost to the  
>> changing technologies.
>>
>>
>>
>> Instead, decentralized users, from around the globe, both  
>> individually and in groups starting creating emulators for old  
>> games, for a surprisingly wide range of console systems. They were  
>> not doing this under the umbrella of a company or institution,  
>> they were amateur coders who simply loved the games. There were  
>> also lots of copies of the games out there,
>>
>> usually without working consoles.
>>
>>
>>
>> And now these games are preserved, not in the back room of a state  
>> run library. But on
>>
>> the hard drives of thousands and thousand of individuals.
>>
>>
>>
>> So it would seem that game preservationists have a lot to learn  
>> from 15 year olds and
>>
>> bit torrent enthusiasts.
>>
>>
>>
>> cheers, Jason Nelson
>>
>>
>> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo!  
>> Mobile.  Try it now. <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http:// 
>> mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ >
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
> Prof Sean Cubitt
> scubitt at unimelb.edu.au
> Director, Media and Communications Program
> Faculty of Arts
> Room 127 John Medley East
> The University of Melbourne
> Parkville VIC 3010
> Australia
>
> Tel: + 61 3 8344 3667
> Fax:+ 61 3 8344 5494
> M: 0448 304 004
> Skype: seancubitt
> http://www.culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/media-communications/
> http://homepage.mac.com/waikatoscreen/seanc/
> http://seancubitt.blogspot.com/
> http://del.icio.us/seancubitt
>
> Editor-in-Chief Leonardo Book Series
> http://leonardo.info
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre

====
Paul Brown - based in OZ Dec 07 - Apr 08
mailto:paul at paul-brown.com == http://www.paul-brown.com
OZ Landline +61 (0)7 5443 3491 == USA fax +1 309 216 9900
OZ Mobile +61 (0)419 72 74 85 == Skype paul-g-brown
====
Visiting Professor - Sussex University
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/research/creativity.html
====