Permanence Through Change: The Variable media Approach

Jean Gagnon is Executive Director, The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology, Montreal. Since its founding, the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology has considered the preservation of electronic and digital artworks a pressing matter. But it took some years before we received any project demonstrating a truly innovative approach to this issue. When the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum submitted the Variable Media Network project based on the paradigm proposed by Jon Ippolito, the museum's Associate Curator of Media Arts, we recognized the project's potential as a model for approaching the issue of preserving nontraditional media artworks. The project was particularly valuable because it enabled research that was greatly needed in the field of art preservation. To the Guggenheim's original proposal, we added a component: an actual emulation test case to preserve a digital work. We felt that while there have been many theories and discussions on preserving digital and dynamic artworks, there was a need for practical, emulation experiments from which much knowledge could be gained. We are proud to be forging this research partnership with the Guggenheim Museum and to be enriching and helping disseminate our knowledge. This publication, accompanied by a Web site and an online database, is integral to our goal of sharing information and directly involving the communities and institutions concerned with preservation.