Variable Media Initiative

The Variable Media Initiative is an unconventional new preservation strategy that emerged from the Guggenheim's efforts to care for its world-renowned collection of Conceptual, Minimalist, and video art.

For artists working in ephemeral formats who want posterity to experience their work more directly than through second-hand documentation or anecdote, the variable media paradigm encourages artists to define their work independently from medium so that the work can be translated once its current medium is obsolete. This requires artists to envision acceptable forms their work might take in new mediums, and to pass on guidelines for recasting work in a new form once the original has expired.

The Guggenheim presents the progress of this initiative at the Preserving the Immaterial conference from March 30-31, 2001 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The museum plans to publish sample variable media guidelines along with the conference proceedings to serve as an example for other public and private collecting institutions.

	Jan Dibbets A White Wall, 1971. Photo collage. more	Mark Napier Net Flag, 2001. Web site. more

	Ken Jacobs Bitemporal Vision: The Sea, 1994. Film performance. more	Bruce Nauman False Silence, 1975. Audio installation. more

	Felix Gonzalez-Torres Untitled (Public Opinion), 1991. Interactive installation. more	Nam June Paik TV Garden, 1974. Video installation. more

	Robert Morris Site, 1964. Performance. more	Meg Webster Stick Spiral, 1986. Installation. more
future case studies

The variable media paradigm looks at artworks not in terms of mutually exclusive technologies like film or video, but in terms of overlapping medium-independent behaviors that need to be preserved for the essence of the artwork to remain viewable. To uncover these behaviors, it helps to compare artworks created in entirely different mediums that present similar preservation challenges.



Meg Webster's installation Stick Spiral (1986), bears no obvious resemblance to a performance such as Robert Morris's Site (1964). Nevertheless, installing Stick Spiral requires not merely re-creating the appearance of the original, but also following a definite procedure—in this case filling a room with recently cut branches from the nearby area pruned for a reason other than the exhibition. In this sense, Webster's installation is performed. While Site is performed by a male and female dancer manipulating plywood boards and other props onstage, Stick Spiral is performed by curators and museum staff in the act of gathering materials necessary to recreate the installation. Both works require archiving instructions or a score for these performances to be reenacted in the future—a shared behavior. Another comparison

Installed
For the purposes of variable media guidelines, to say that an artwork must be "installed" implies that its physical installation is more complex than simply hanging it on a nail. Examples of artworks with this behavior are works that scale to fill a given space or make use of unusual placement such as the exterior of a building or a public plaza. For such works, the variable media questionnaire tracks issues of site-specific placement as well as scale, public access, and lighting.

Performed
In the variable media paradigm, "performed" works include not only dance, music, theater, and performance art, but also works for which the process is as important as the product. For such works, the variable media questionnaire ascertains instructions that actors, curators, or installers must follow to complete the work, in addition to more conventional performance considerations such as cast, set, and props.

Interactive
While the word is most commonly applied to electronic media such as computer-driven installations and Web sites, interactivity also describes installations that allow visitors to manipulate or take home components of a physical artwork. The variable media questionnaire tracks such considerations as the type of interface; the method by which visitors modify the work; and the form in which traces of such input are recorded.

Reproduced
In the variable media paradigm, a recording medium is "reproduced" if any copy of the original master of the artwork results in a loss of quality. Such media include analog photography, film, audio, and video.

Duplicated
To say that a work can be duplicated implies that it can be copied without loss of quality. Most digital media obey this behavior, as do works comprised of industrially fabricated or mass-produced components.

Encoded
To say that a work is encoded implies that part or all of it is written in computer code or some other language that requires interpretation (eg. dance notation). In the case of works with nondigital components, this code can sometimes be archived separately from the work itself.

Networked
A networked artwork is designed to be viewed on an electronic communication system, whether a Local Area Network or the Internet. Networked media include Web sites, e-mail, and streaming audio and video.

The variable media paradigm allows artists to choose from four strategies to tackle the obsolescence of a particular medium, such as the bulbs of Dan Flavin's fluorescent light installations.

Storage
The most conservative collecting strategy—the default strategy for most museums—is to store the work physically, whether that means mothballing dedicated equipment or archiving digital files on disk. Storing one of Flavin's fluorescent light installations simply means buying a supply of the out-of-production bulbs and putting them in a crate. The major disadvantage of storing obsolescent materials is that the artwork will expire once these ephemeral materials cease to function.

Emulation
To emulate a work is to devise a way of imitating the original look of the piece by completely different means. Emulating a Flavin fluorescent light installation would require custom-building fluorescent bulbs that produce the same light as and resemble the physical appearance of the original bulbs. Possible disadvantages of emulation include prohibitive expensive and inconsistency with the artist's intent. For example, Flavin deliberately chose to use ordinary off-the-shelf components rather than esoteric materials or techniques.

Migration
To migrate an artwork involves upgrading equipment and source material. The obsolete fluorescent bulbs of Flavin's light installation could be upgraded to fluorescent or halogen lights of comparable hue and brightness. The major disadvantage of migration is the original appearance of the artwork will probably change in its new medium. Even if state-of-the-art fixtures cast similar light to Flavin's originals, the actual fixtures are likely to look different.

Reinterpretation
The most radical preservation strategy is to reinterpret the work each time it is re-created. To reinterpret a Flavin light installation would mean to ask what contemporary medium would have the metaphoric value of fluorescent light in the 1960s. Reinterpretation is a dangerous technique when not warranted by the artist, but it may be the only way to re-create performance, installation, or networked art designed to vary with context.

Artists and consultants participating in the first phase of the Variable Media Initiative include

Bill Brand independent film restorer and artist
Paul Clay theatrical designer and visual artist
Jennifer Crowe ArtBase Consultant, Rhizome.org and Producer, EGG Online Thirteen/WNET New York
Alain Depocas Head of the Centre for Research and Documentation (CRD), Daniel Langlois Foundation
Steve Dietz Director of New Media Initiatives, Walker Art Center
Jon Gartenberg independent film curator and restoration specialist
Susan Hapgood Curator of Exhibitions, American Federation of Arts
Jon Huffman Representative, Nam June Paik Studio
Ken Jacobs artist
Mona Jimenez Interim Director, Independent Media Arts Preservation (IMAP) and artist
Branden Joseph Cotsen Fellow in the Princeton Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, Princeton University
Pip Lawrenson Sculpture Conservator, The Tate Gallery
Tiffany Ludwig Producer of Virtual and Physical Programs, Franklin Furnace
Robert Morris artist
Mark Napier artist
Richard Rinehart Digital Media Director, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Art Department Faculty and Founding Member and Architect, Conceptual and Intermedia Arts Online (CIAO)
Andrea Rosen Executor, Felix Gonzalez-Torres Estate
Jeff Rothenberg independent computer science researcher
Blair Thurman Representative, Nam June Paik Studio
Bruce Sterling science fiction writer and journalist
Stacy Sumpman Media Coordinator and Repertory member, Cunningham Dance Foundation
Stephen Vitiello independent media curator and artist
Meg Webster artist
Benjamin Weil Curator of Media Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Martha Wilson Founding Director, Franklin Furnace and member, Conceptual and Intermedia Art Online (CIAO)

The Variable Media Initiative is coordinated by Jon Ippolito, Assistant Curator of Media Arts, with John G. Hanhardt, Senior Curator of Film and Media Arts.

Contributing Guggenheim staff

The variable media questionnaire is an interactive form designed to assist artists and museum staff in writing variable media guidelines. The questionnaire is not intended to be exhaustive, but is intended to spur questions that must be answered in order to capture artists' desires about how to translate their work into new mediums once the work's original medium has expired.

In its current interface, the questionnaire prompts questions for each inherent artwork behavior that requires preservation. In its final form, the interface will present a series of introductory screens to help artists decide which behaviors are relevant to their work. View the current questionnaire prototype.



In another comparison of two artworks created in different mediums, Felix Gonzalez-Torres's Untitled (Public Opinion) (1991) would seeing to have little in common with Mark Napier's Net Flag (2001). The former is a candy spill in a museum, while the latter is an image of a flag on a Web site. However, both works based on duplicable formats, mass-produced commodities on the one hand and digital files on the other. Both works are also meant to be interactive, since visitors can take free candies from the Gonzalez-Torres and online visitors can modify Napier's flag by adding or subtracting parts of flags of various nations. Because of these similarities, re-creating these works will raise similar questions, such as how to re-create the work once its technology of duplication is obsolete and whether traces of previous visitors should be erased or retained in future exhibitions of the work. First comparison

The support of the following senior Guggenheim staff has been critical to this project

Bridget Alsdorf, Collections Curatorial Assistant
Caroline Aubin, Curatorial Intern
Julie Barten, Conservator, Exhibitions
Randolph Black, Registrar for Collections Management
Ann Butler, Archivist
John G. Hanhardt, Senior Curator of Film and Media Arts
Jon Ippolito, Assistant Curator of Media Arts
Paul Kuranko, Media Arts Specialist
Starr McCaleb, Curatorial Intern
Nancy Spector, Curator of Contemporary Art
Carol Stringari, Senior Conservator, Contemporary Art
Lynn Underwood, Director of Archives, Library, and Museum Records

Other participating Guggenheim staff

David Bleecker, Senior Education Program Manager
Susan Cross, Assistant Curator
Lisa Dennison, Collections Curator and Deputy Director
Deirdre Donahue, Librarian
Matthew Drutt, Associate Curator
Mara Guglielmi, Paper Conservator
Pablo Helguera, Education Program Coordinator
Victoria Holland, Assistant Theater Manager
Michael Lavin, Theater Director
Kevin Murphy, Administrative Assistant, Film and Media Arts
Eleanora Nagy, Sculpture Conservator
Fiona Ragheb, Associate Curator
Rajenda Roy, Program Manager, Film and Media Arts
Natasha Sigmund, Collections Registrar
Maria-Christina Villaseñior, Associate Curator, Film and Media Arts

Outside consultants

Future case studies include

	Stan Douglas Der Sandmann, 1995. Film installation.	John F. Simon, Jr. Color Panel v. 1.0, 1999. Digital sculpture.

	Jenny Holzer Untitled (Selections from Truisms, ...), 1989. Electronic installation.	Robert Smithson Hotel Palenque, 1969. Slide installation.
current case studies