Race to save digital art from the rapid pace of technological change

Pioneers of computer art are in danger of becoming the lost generation of our cultural heritage because scientists are unable to
preserve their work

Vice Versa Et Cetera by Simon Payne

Vice Versa Et Cetera by digital video artist Simon Payne, who argues
that the temporary lifespan of this art form is often part of the
experience. Photograph: Simon Payne

A race is on against the fast pace of technological change as
scientists search for ways to preserve today's most innovative artworks.

A team of experts is warning that some of Britain's contemporary
artistic landmarks will be no more than memories within a decade
unless conservationists can effectively archive digital works and
stop them degrading.

"The threat is very real that, unless we do something, we will have a
'lost generation' in terms of our cultural heritage," said Dr David
Anderson, who, together with his colleague Dr Janet Delve at the
School of Creative Technologies at the University of Portsmouth, is
leading efforts to save the more complex artworks of the digital age
from oblivion.

"Past generations captured who they were and what they did via
museums and books," Anderson said, "but the pace of technological
development in the digital age has now outstripped our capacity for
preservation."

At the same time as the visual artist
Hilary Lloyd is
nominated for this year's Turner Prize for her inventive work in film
and video, "digital preservationists" are campaigning for more shared
research and have organized the first of a series of symposiums to be
held at King's College London and Cambridge next month.

The fast pace by which technology changes means that many of the
earliest works of art created on computer are in danger of being
lost, or are already impossible to read, while new interactive
digital artworks, such as visualizations and video games, are so
complex that scientists are not yet capable of faithfully preserving them.

"Digital preservation is desperately important," said Anderson. "In
technology little things change all the time. Over the course of a
20- or 30-year working life, the software we use is updated or made
obsolete all the time, but most of us aren't really bothered by the
changes. But in terms of science and art, digital preservation is
increasingly important."

Preserving today's works of art poses more of a challenge to science
than continued efforts to restore and conserve the great oil
paintings and sculptures of the past, Anderson and Delve argue.

It is a problem already faced by collectors and contemporary art
galleries, as formats are updated and CDs, DVDs and digital recordings degrade.

Lloyd, 48, from Halifax, creates innovative work that poses typical
problems for conservators. Her recent film and video footage,
previously on display at the Raven Row gallery in London, was put
together in a way that subverts expectations of art. A piece that
initially appeared to be a still life, for example, turned out to be
in perpetual motion. Projectors and monitors formed a part of the work itself.

"In digital art, the key is to find ways of preserving the colour and
visual aspects of a piece of art. If we don't preserve the digital
art made today, it could be like walking into a world-famous gallery
and seeing nothing on the walls, that no art has survived some global
meltdown," said Anderson.

A new digital art gallery is to launch on Monday in the centre of
Cambridge. The vaulted section, set up by Anglia Ruskin University
inside the Ruskin Gallery, which was opened by the art critic John
Ruskin in 1858, has been fitted with cutting-edge plasma screens
to enable digital artists to experiment.

But the preservation of this kind of work, in contrast, is still a
work in progress.

Dr Simon Payne, a
digital video
artist and senior lecturer in film and media at Anglia Ruskin
University, who will be exhibiting at the gallery, points out that
many contemporary artists are happy for their work to have a short
lifespan, or at least can accept that its temporary nature is a key
part of the experience for viewers.

"Some artists who make digital art that is ephemeral, who are almost
like performance artists, are dedicated to the idea that it will not last.

"But from an academic point of view, of course, you want to be able
to recreate the culture of the past and to show it to students."

Payne's own work is what he describes as "perceptual", playing with
what the viewer can see, such as the Op Art movement of the 60s and 70s.

"It is designed with the idea of creating a discrete physical effect
on the viewer and for me, ideally, it should be shown in the context
of a cinema, so I don't know how you would ever preserve it effectively."

Ironically, an artwork made or recorded on celluloid, or even on
videotape, is more likely to survive the test of time than more
recent work created or archived digitally, Payne added.