Annet Dekker (ed.): Archive2020 – Sustainable Archiving of Born-Digital Cultural Content (2010)

The term ’born digital’ is closely related, maybe even synonymous, with the term ‘natively digital’. This term is often used as reference to the object of study in the academic research of the Internet that gives focus to digital methods. In other words, research strategies that follow the specifics of the Internet as a medium. In this context the term refers to digital materials that are specific, and/or born into the Internet, like the link and the tag, and devices, like search engines, and opposed to those materials that have migrated to it, in other words, have been digitally reformatted.

“We have asked several stakeholders from different disciplines to write down their experiences, findings and solutions. These specialists from the area of born-digital preservation and archiving reflect on the current state of affairs in their specific field and identify the most pressing concerns. Established Internet artist Martine Neddam elaborates on the challenges an Internet artist faces over the years, from domain name registration expirations, to database back-ups, recent updates and much more. Researchers and artists Anne Laforet, Aymeric Mansoux and Marloes de Valk explain the benefits of using FLOSS and open standards for preserving born-digital material. Florian Cramer, lecturer at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, reflects on the PRINT/pixel international conference that was organized in May 2009, and discusses the issue of digital print material. Departing from the closure of two important advocates for media art preservation – the Daniel Langlois Foundation and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute – Canadian researcher and writer Caitlin Jones focuses on the issue of responsibility for keeping our media art heritage alive. Gaby Wijers, head of Collection and Conservation at NIMk, Amsterdam and Gabriele Blome, art historian, University of Siegen, Germany, shed light on the first internationally shared online archive GAMA – the Gateway to European Media Art. Australian curator and researcher Lizzie Muller draws attention to the importance of capturing audience experiences when dealing with the preservation of born-digital cultural material. Jeroen van Mastrigt, lecturer at the Art, Media and Technology Faculty of the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU-KMT) in Hilversum, discusses archiving strategies in gaming.”

Compiled and edited by Annet Dekker
with chapters by Annet Dekker, Martine Neddam, Anne Laforet, Aymeric Mansoux, Marloes de Valk, Florian Cramer, Caitlin Jones, Gabriele Blome, Gaby Wijers, Lizzie Muller, Jeroen van Mastrigt, Maurits van der Graaf, Gerhard Nauta
Publisher Virtueel Platform, Amsterdam, 2010
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 NL License
ISBN 9789490108045
112 pages

Editor
Publisher

PDF (6 MB, updated on 2015-9-26)
Issuu

See also Speculative Scenarios, or What Will Happen to Digital Art in the (Near) Future?, 2013.

Jean Noël Jeanneney: Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge: A View From Europe (2007)

The recent announcement that Google will digitize the holdings of several major libraries sent shock waves through the book industry and academe. Google presented this digital repository as a first step towards a long-dreamed-of universal library, but skeptics were quick to raise a number of concerns about the potential for copyright infringement and unanticipated effects on the business of research and publishing.

Jean-Noël Jeanneney, president of France’s Bibliothèque Nationale, here takes aim at what he sees as a far more troubling aspect of Google’s Library Project: its potential to misrepresent—and even damage—the world’s cultural heritage. In this impassioned work, Jeanneney argues that Google’s unsystematic digitization of books from a few partner libraries and its reliance on works written mostly in English constitute acts of selection that can only extend the dominance of American culture abroad. This danger is made evident by a Google book search the author discusses here—one run on Hugo, Cervantes, Dante, and Goethe that resulted in just one non-English edition, and a German translation of Hugo at that. An archive that can so easily slight the masters of European literature—and whose development is driven by commercial interests—cannot provide the foundation for a universal library.

As a leading librarian, Jeanneney remains enthusiastic about the archival potential of the Web. But he argues that the short-term thinking characterized by Google’s digital repository must be countered by long-term planning on the part of cultural and governmental institutions worldwide—a serious effort to create a truly comprehensive library, one based on the politics of inclusion and multiculturalism.

Publisher University of Chicago Press, 2007
ISBN 0226395774, 9780226395777
Length 92 pages

publisher
google books

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Zehar, 53-57 (2004-2006) [English/Spanish/Basque]

“Zehar is a magazine of art and contemporary culture. Zehar uses a transitory denomination (through) to define its purpose as a receptive intermediary between the artistic community and society at large.The magazine’s aim is to maintain a critical reflective spirit, inspired by the conviction of the need for consolidated stable bases, which enrich the context and a plural environment. Zehar is four monthly. In order to encourage the variety of ideas, we devote each issue to one theme and invite a guest editor to work on it.

The section titled Shorts presents reviews about exhibitions, events, books and films. The paper version has two editions, Basque/Spanish and English/Spanish, but the electronic edition is trilingual. Zehar is published by Arteleku, a public art centre under the auspices of the Culture Department of the Regional Government of Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Spain.”

Perspectives on Listening
Zehar 53, 2004

PDFs
single PDF

Decoys and Disruptions
Zehar 55, 2005

PDFs
single PDF

Archive Fever
Zehar 56, 2005

PDFs
single PDF

Transition
Zehar 57, November 2006

PDFs
single PDF

Magazine website