For thousands of years, people have created art in media ranging from paint on cave walls, metal or stone sculpture, to computer-generated images, sound, and motion. In recent years, many have tried to digitize physical art in an effort to preserve it for future generations and make it accessible to a wider audience. Many contemporary artists have produced works using digital media, to be experienced entirely online. However, while the Lesco cave paintings are 20,000 years old and still amaze us, it’s unclear whether digital images of this physical art—or any digital art created today—will last 20 years, let alone 20,000.
This is because digital art requires readers (visual media), and often requires software to be seen, heard or experienced. As software, browsers and files update versions or become obsolete and even disappear, both “original” digital art produced using computers and software – and digitized art – reproduced or copied art, digitally processed from the original physical media – are at risk of disappearing.
Google’s art and culture project was launched in 2011 in partnership with 17 of the world’s most famous museums. The collaboration has grown since then and includes over 1500 museums and cultural institutions worldwide. In order to make culture more accessible, millions of artefacts and culture have been digitized through the project and are freely available to anyone via the internet.
Google Arts and Culture is also available as a smartphone app.
Contrary to popular belief that “bits don’t die”, obsolescence is a real threat to digital art – and a big challenge as its use continues to grow. Just as conservationists have identified ways to extend the life of pigment, canvas and stone, solutions must be found to ensure the longevity of digital works, or they may prove to be even less durable than their physical counterparts.
This thought was at the core of the Google Arts & Culture project’s collaboration with Rhizome to help preserve digital art. Rhizome grew out of the blooming web artist community of the mid-1990s, and is now a thriving nonprofit in New York. They have developed unique tools that preserve digital works of art and allow them to be viewed long after their complex software foundations have become obsolete.
