For an ongoing project administered by the Bay Area Video Coalition, I
am gathering information as to whether fine art museums are collecting
(not just exhibiting) digital art.  As an art conservator, I am also
wondering what (if any) steps collecting institutions should take to
preserve digital art.  To me the most serious threat to the
preservation of digital art would be machine and file format
obsolescence.  As new technologies quickly replace older ones, should
museums consider adopting policies that require accessioned digital art
be: preserved in its native state? -- re-formatted to meet some sort of
software/hardware standard? -- or both?

Paul Messier
Conservator of Photographs & Works on Paper
Boston Art Conservation
77 Griggs Rd.
Boston, MA 02146
tel: 617.738.7072
fax: 617.738.8841
email: [log in to unmask]