print this page

Archiving Inside Installations

Archiving the website of Inside Installations.

Often the results of programmes and projects are shared on a specially created website. It costs money to maintain such a site even when it is no longer regularly updated.

The homepage of the Internet Memory Foundation.

The homepage of the Internet Memory Foundation where the website Inside Installations is archived.

Shut down is not an option because the results of the investigation and any discussions stemming from it should remain accessible. Archiving the website is one solution.

Inside Installations

Such a website for sharing knowledge was made for Inside Installations, Preservation and Presentation of Installation Art: a European project on the conservation of media art, 2004-2007. For administrators, the systematic conservation, documentation and registration of installation art is a challenge, both due to the site specificity of the works and the rapid developments in technology. The website compiled all the information and documentation on the re-installation of 33 works of art. This entailed a diversity of items: documents, PDFs, videos and a number of sub-sites, including an extensive wordlist and a virtual tour.

Internet Memory Foundation

The Inside Installations website was indeed often consulted after the conclusion of the project in 2008, but there have been no more changes or additions. In February 2012, the website was archived by the Internet Memory Foundation (IMF, formerly Europarchive). The IMF is a foundation that aims to 'preserve active internet applications as new media for cultural heritage and other cultural objectives'. Archived websites can still be visited but are not longer modified.

Findings

After contact with the IMF, they analysed Inside Installations for size, external links, functionality etc., from which a cost estimate was made. Now IMF has stored the site under an individual link (see Results). The archived website does have limitations; the search field and most links to external sources no longer work. To enable these functions, their sources must first also be archived. This is now completed for the pages made during and especially for the project, but not all linked sources are enabled. Users can work round this by copying and pasting the desired URLs into their browser.