Media art is an artistic genre just a few decades young, but its preservation already presents enormous challenges for curators and restorers today. How can the future be secured for media-art installations? This book introduced theoretical and practical approaches and helps develop sustainable concepts.
Media-art installations usually have a life of the duration of an exhibition and then disappear until their next presentation. Technology is evolving so rapidly that equipment and storage media have to be updated at regular intervals to preserve the functionality of installations. Moreover, with every new presentation, the sculptural and spatial qualities have to be considered. Is there an original to be preserved, or is there not rather an “ephemeral” work that has to be concretized anew again and again?

The theoretical discussion of these questions is followed by the presentation of four case studies by the IMAI Foundation in Düsseldorf. Using the examples of works by Studio Azzurro, Gary Hill, Bill Seaman, and Katharina Sieverding, the authors discuss fundamental issues and approaches to solutions for long-term preservation and presentation of technology-based installations.