Low Resolution .JPGs and Collaborative Networks: Dreaming a Sustainable Digital Archive

Imogen G. Wilson, The University of Western Ontario

Abstract

This thesis explores various challenges in the archiving of Internet Art, including accelerated obsolescence of technology, the ever-changing nature of the Internet and the environmental impacts of digital archives. Using the Solar Protocol Network, Morris Fox’s Vestiges and Remains, Rhizome’s ArtBase and the Pad.ma video archive, the author builds an argument towards the cultivation of collaborative networks in archiving alongside the use of low resolution images in the creation of reliable digital archives of Internet Art. This paper draws from the conservation approaches of Annet Dekker, Richard Rinehart and Jon Ippolito, as well as, the writings of Josephine Bosma and Hito Steyerl.