Towards Preserving Digital Culture: An interview with Tom Ensom
Towards Preserving Digital Culture series is a contribution to the Software Heritage initiative supported by INRIA and UNESCO, The primary objective of this series is to underscore the pivotal role of software heritage preservation in mitigating the loss of digital cultural heritage. Through these interviews, we present diverse perspectives to foster discussions on challenges related to technological progress, obsolescence, legal limitations, and preservation complexities, contributing to addressing current field needs.
Hello Tom! Before we started, could you tell us more about yourself?
Hello, absolutely! I call myself a Digital Conservator, which means I work within the tradition of art conservation and apply its principles to the care of digital materials. My primary specialism is the conservation of software-based artworks. Software and computers can be used in a wide variety of ways by artists e.g. to generate moving images, to publish web content or to control other electronic equipment.
The day-to-day reality of my work is quite varied as artworks tend to require a tailored approach to their care. The role can sometimes be quite technical and I might be found analysing a piece of software to figure out how it works, carrying out the disk imaging of a computer hard drive or setting up an emulated computer environment. It can also be more theoretical and involve engaging with the historical context of an artworks production or display to inform a conservation approach. I also work in a research capacity, investigating and responding to emerging challenges in the field of time-based and digital media conservation.
What are the main benefits of software preservation?
Although software preservation is often talked about as a means of accessing other digital material, in my work software is the object of preservation efforts. For software-based art, software is a central and critical component of the artwork, without which the artwork cannot be displayed. For myself, and others interested in modern and contemporary art, working to conserve it is about ensuring that a component of our cultural history survives in some form.
What are the challenges and/or obstacles?
The need for software preservation is precipitated by obsolescence: computers age, repair or replacement becomes impossible and we lose the means to access our software. Application of certain techniques, often supported by work with skilled specialists, can help us achieve long-term access. For example, we can modify code to run on modern platforms or use an emulator to simulate an obsolete computing environment. In applying such interventions, characteristics of the artwork may change. How perceptible are these changes? Do they compromise the integrity of the artwork? Navigating these kinds of questions is a big part of what we do in time-based media conservation. As obsolescence is cyclic, we know its effects will be felt again, and software preservation must remain an active and ongoing process.
What would be your advice on collectively moving forward on software preservation?
Software preservation work requires access to proprietary legacy software like operating systems, hardware drivers, development environments and game engines. Unfortunately we don’t currently have a legitimate or practical route for accessing the installers and licences required to make use of these. Furthermore, some of these software (I’m looking at you Windows XP) require defunct methods of authentication to install. I would love to one day see flexible access to these important tools provided for preservation use-cases like emulation. Source code in Software Heritage would be even better of course!
Could you recommend us with a blog, article or publication that you particularly appreciated?
Recently I really enjoyed this discussion between Elena Cordov and Eddy Colloton for the VoCA Journal. It’s a frank and pragmatic look at the nature of our efforts to care for time-based media art, foregrounding an inclusive, flexible and ultimately kind approach that I really like. Software preservation can feel overwhelming and I have to remind myself that it’s not about preserving this thing forever right now or having all the answers — as Eddy puts it, “you just have to get the baton to the next person.
Thank you, Tom, for joining this interview series!
