01 :: January 25th, 2022

Introduction to Handling Complex Media

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

Topics
Introductions, syllabus review, course format and goals
Review the Preservation Plan

Class Exercise
Preservation Plan: The Furbee Organ
As a class, analyze complex media object & present a mini preservation plan

Additional artwork/device examples
1. Tommy Talking Tutor Robot
2. GameBoy GameTunes
3. AgIC Circuit Marker (pen and a drawing)

Recommended Readings
Ceruzzi: A History of Modern Computing (Chapter 7, p. 207 – 242)
Oleksik: Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s The Killing Machine

02 :: February 1st, 2022

How Computers Work: Hardware, Troubleshooting, & Repair

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

Topics
How Computers Work: Hardware
Introduction to Troubleshooting
Repair: Planned Obsolescence vs. Design for Repair

Class Exercise
Microcontroller Hardware Exercise:
• Example 001
• Example 002
• Example 003

Lab
Form groups and discuss artwork/device options for midterm assignment

Required Readings & Resources
Smithsonian: Log Book With Computer Bug
GFCGlobal: Inside a Computer
Gil, Krabbenhoeft, Rhonemus, Turkus: Restart it Again – Troubleshooting in Context
Dulaney, Certification Magazine: A guide to troubleshooting theory from a CompTIA A+ perspective
Goldmark/Sierra Club: Built Not to Last: How to Overcome Planned Obsolescence
Khowala: Designing to Enable Repair

Recommended Resources
Rosner, Jackson, Hertz, Houston, Rangaswamy: Reclaiming Repair: Maintenance and Mending as Methods for Design
Apple Computer Press Release: Apple announces Self Service Repair
Jackson: Rethinking Repair
Jonnasen & Hung: Learning to Troubleshoot
CodeNewbie: What is open source hardware? (podcast audio)

03 :: February 8th, 2022

Software Environments & Introduction to Emulation

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

Topics
Software Environments
Introduction to Emulation

Class Exercise
Systems diagram of a complex media object
• Example 001
• Example 002
• Example 003

Lab
In groups, discuss artwork/device options for midterm assignment

Required Readings & Resources
Warren: Windows Turns 35: A Visual History
Finley: Linux Took Over the Web. Now, It’s Taking Over the World (WIRED)
Krzyzanowski: Rutgers Department of Computer Science History of Operating Systems (1970s – Today only)
Kelty: Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (Chapter 3 only)

Recommended
Acaroglu: Tools for Systems Thinkers: Systems Mapping

DUE: MIDTERM PROPOSAL, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11TH

Topics
Building Public Resources for Preservation of Complex Artworks

Lab
Open Lab Time for Midterm Assignment

Required Readings & Resources
The Artist Archives Initiative (for review)
Engel & Wharton: Managing Contemporary Art Documentation in Museums and Special Collections
Wildenhaus: The Possibilities of Constructing Linked Data for Art Exhibition Histories
Getty Research Institute: Getty Vocabularies
Dover / Guggenheim: How the Guggenheim and NYU Are Conserving Computer-Based Art
Part 1
Part 2

Recommended
Wharton, Engel, & Taylor: The Artist Archives Project – David Wojnarowicz

05 :: February 22nd, 2022

Introduction to Software Preservation

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

Topics
Introduction to Software Preservation
Community & Consortia Approaches to Emulation & Software Preservation

Lab
Open Lab Time for Midterm Assignment

Required Readings & Resources
Kilbride, Meyerson & Wheatley (SPN): Introduction to Software Preservation
Dietrich, Kim, McKeehan, Rhonemus: How to Party Like it’s 1999: Emulation for Everyone

06 :: March 1st, 2022

Preservation & Emulation

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

Topics
Emulation of Video Games and Computing Environments for Preservation

Lab
Artist Visit
Open Lab Time for Midterm Assignment

Readings & Resources
Gates: emulation-resources repository
Gates: Classroom Access to Interactive DVDs
Internet Archive: Tour the Console Living Room
RHIZOME: The Theresa Duncan CD-ROMs
CMSI, ARL: Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Software Preservation

Recommended & Reference
Video Game History Hour: DCMA Exemption Ruling with Kendra Alpert and Phil Salvador
Association of Research Libraries: The Copyright Permissions Culture in Software Preservation and Its Implications for the Cultural Record

07 :: March 8th, 2022

Midterm Presentations

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

 Students give presentations for Assignment One

DUE: MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT, FRIDAY, MARCH 11TH

Guest Speaker: Kate Lewis, Chief Conservator, MoMA

Topics
Handling Complex Media in Museums
Artist interviews & building a media lab

Readings
AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice 
V&A Ethics Checklist
Richmond: The Ethics Checklist - 10 Years On
Ashley-Smith: A Role for Bespoke Codes of Ethics
SAA Core Values Statement and Code of Ethics

Wickens & Swanson; Who is a conservator? What is conservation? Evolving our identities and practice to thrive in an inclusive world

Sterett and Candida Smith: Looking Back: The Origins of VoCA and the Artist Interview Workshops [VIDEO]
Starting an Artist Interview Program: Hard-Earned Lessons and Best Practices

Recommended

MoMA Media Conservation Initiative

The Acquisition Process - Getting Started + video

Developing a Media Lab from Workshop 1 -MoMA Getting Started workshop series

Lab
Open Lab Time for Final Assignment

09 :: March 29th, 2022

HCM in Museums: Installation Art

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

Speaker: Caroline
NOTE: Class is fully remote and we will meet over Zoom

Topics
Handling Complex Media in Museums: Installation Art documentation

Readings
Laurenson: Authenticity, Change and Loss in the Conservation of Time-based Media Installations

Finn: Museum Authorship and the Conservation of Media Installations: Two Case Studies from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Oleksik: Rewind: A Brief History of Caring for Video Art in the United States

Lozano-Hemmer: Best practices for conservation of media art from an artist’s perspective with video or audio only

Recommended
Bishop: Evolving Exemplary Pluralism
Fino-Radin: The Nuts and Bolts of Handling Digital Art
Phillips: Implementing Time-based Media Conservation in Museum Practice
Brost: A Documentation Framework for Sound in Time-based Media Installation Art
Roeck: Preservation of digital video artworks in a museum context
van Saaze et al: Adaptive Institutional Change: Managing Digital Works at the Museum of Modern Art
Matters in Media Art website: www.mattersinmediaart.org

Resources
The Met Museum Time-Based Media Working Group: Sample Documentation and Templates [Especially - Artist Questionnaires]

Electronic Arts Intermix: EAI Resource Guide 

Lab
Open Lab Time for Final Assignment

10 :: April 5th, 2022

Collaborations between Media Conservation & Other Conservation Disciplines

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

Guest Speaker: Peter Oleksik, Associate Media Conservator, MoMA

Topics
Collaborations between Media Conservation & Other Conservation Disciplines, Contemporary Art Conservation practices. 3D-printed art in Museum Collections.

Readings
Guidera, S. A. N. Shugar, J. McGlinchey-Sexton Identifying 3D Printing Manufacture Techniques. 2021 AIC Conference Poster Presentation

Artefactual Systems and the Digital Preservation Coalition, Preserving 3D Data Types Series

Oleksik & Randall: (Material Transfers & Translations) Tauba Auerbach’s Altar/Engine: a case study in reconceptualizing materiality

Recommended
Cavoulacos, Oleksik, Everything is Illuminated: Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver’s Immersive Cinema

Lab
Open Lab Time for Final Assignment

Guest Speaker: Tom Ensom, Time-based Media Conservator, Tate
NOTE: Class is fully remote and we will meet over Zoom
Class meeting time may be earlier than usual

Topics
Immersive Media and VR formats and their preservation/management

Readings
Tate Museum: Preserving Immersive Media
Ensom & McConchie: Preserving Virtual Reality Artworks: White Paper
Arden: From Immersion to Acquisition: An Overview of Virtual Reality for Time-Based Media Conservators

Recommended
PIMG Videos on YouTube- dancer’s choice (select one and review for the group)
Campbell: A Rift in Our practices? Toward Preserving Virtual Reality

Lab
Open Lab Time for Final Assignment

11 :: April 12th, 2022

Caring for Real-Time 3D and Virtual Reality Artworks

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

Guest Speaker: sasha arden, Rachel and Jonathan Wilf & Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Time-Based Media Conservation, The Conservation Center NYU IFA

Topics
Software-Based Art, Web-based artworks

Readings
Falcao, Ensom: Conserving Digital Art

Mladentseva : Responding to obsolescence in Flash-based net art: a case study on migrating Sinae Kim’s Genesis

Engel & Phillips : Applying conservation ethics to the examination and treatment of software- and  computer-based art

Recommended
Lialina & Lurk: Owning Online Art: Selling and Collecting Netbased Artworks
Scott: The Hidden Shifting Lens of Browsers
Fino-Radin: Digital Preservation Practices and the Rhizome Artbase
Engel & Wharton: Source code documentation as a  conservation strategy for software-based art

Guggenheim Blog: How the Guggenheim & NYU are conserving computer-based art
    Part I
    Part II

Lab
Open Lab Time for Final Assignment

Guest speaker: Dr. Hélia Marçal, Lecturer History of Art, Materials and Technology, UCL (University College London), Contemporary Art Conservator

Topics

Performance art conservation, participatory approaches towards conservation

Readings

Van Saaze, In the Absence of Documentation: Remembering Tino Sehgal’s Constructed Situations

Lawson, Marçal, Finbow, Developing a strategy for the conservation of performance-based artworks at Tate

Lawson, Finbow, Harvey, Marçal, Ribeiro & Kramer, Strategy for the documentation and conservation of performance

Lab
Open Lab Time for Final Assignment

14 :: May 3rd, 2022

Last Class: Student Presentations

Tue 4:00pm – 8:00pm

DUE: FINAL PROJECT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 11TH