Conference
Clicking on the archive - digital technology and the preservation of artistic practices

What happens when the archive becomes accessible at the click of a button on our computers?

Long associated with time and history, the notion of the archive has undergone major changes over the last forty years. It now also applies to the storage of digital data.

Since 1992, French law has provided for the inclusion of digital production as part of France's cultural heritage. However, a large part of the cultural community is unaware of the concept of digital legal deposit. Over the last thirty years, artistic and creative practices have continued to evolve and adapt to the digital tools developed by the web giants and the Open Source community. Despite the emergence of a variety of archiving practices (cloud storage, streaming platforms, etc.), the issue of archiving artistic practices remains unresolved, despite the fact that it directly concerns the various cultural sectors (artistic production, research, heritage).

The aim of this conference, proposed by Vincent Rioux (Beaux-Arts de Paris) and Benjamin Efrati (EHESS/BNF), is to set out a number of observations and provide an overview of current practices in terms of individual and collective preservation. How should we approach natively digital artistic experiences and the digital documentation of material practices? Are there any 'best practices' in terms of individual digital archiving? What role does digital technology play in cultural heritage from the point of view of the French state? This review of the relationship between artistic practice and digital archiving is aimed primarily at art students and young artists, as well as professionals and researchers.

Since 1992, the appearance and disappearance of proprietary media, operating systems and processors have been the driving forces behind changes in the IT ecosystem, storage media and digital practices. Over time, the preservation of works of art in dematerialised form has been put to the test by the versatility of IT techniques. How much data has been lost, erased, formatted?

Si l’on s’accorde à dire que la construction de bases de données et d’interfaces permettant de les consulter est le propre du numérique, alors l’échantillonnage des pratiques artistiques numériques est un enjeu particulièrement important pour rendre compte des transformations culturelles et sociales qui caractérisent le début du XXIe siècle. Que concluront les futurs archéologues en scrutant les vestiges de nos bases de données actuelles ?

Ce colloque propose ainsi une réflexion sur l’archivage et la patrimonialisation des pratiques créatives numériques en croisant les perspectives. Il sera l’occasion de nous interroger sur des questions légales, juridiques, mais aussi philosophiques.

Program