Intro


2009 - 2011


The preservation of playback and display equipment for audiovisual art.

A research project by PACKED in collaboration with the Netherlands Institute for Media Art (Amsterdam), MuhKA and S.M.A.K. Période : 2009-2011.

The goal of this project is to improve and ensure the digitization and long term preservation of audiovisual artworks that are threatened by the obsolescence of essential playback and display equipment.

For the realization of this project PACKED receives an international project grant within the framework of the cultural heritage decree of the Ministry of the Flemish Community. The grant agreement stated:“The minister believes that the quality of the concept with respect to content and the concrete execution of it, is high. It concerns a real and urgent issue of great importance to the cultural heritage field in Flanders. The project has therefore an example function. The international collaboration with Dutch institutions can augment the sharing of expertise and exchange of knowledge.”

With this project PACKED and the Netherlands Media Art Institute – Montevideo / Time Based Arts, Amsterdam (NIMk) have begun an intensive collaboration over a two-year period. Experience has shown that, given the complexity of the matter and the limited budgets, knowledge about such very specific aspects of preservation can’t be developed (and therefore will also not be able to find its way into the Flanders arts and cultural heritage world) without a solid international collaboration. In a first stage (01/07/2009 - 30/06/2010) the project will focus on a series of video based works, and in a second stage (01/07/2010 – 30/06/2011) on a series of computer based works.

Other partners in the project are the MuHKA and S.M.A.K. in Flanders, and the Kröller-Müller Museum and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in the Netherlands (and also, under reserve, the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN) and the Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven).