University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Phantoms of the digital opera: The need for long term preservation of born-digital actors and multimedia objects using methods that permit ongoing new creations - Prepress

Strong, Dena L.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/97218

Description

Title
Phantoms of the digital opera: The need for long term preservation of born-digital actors and multimedia objects using methods that permit ongoing new creations - Prepress
Author(s)
Strong, Dena L.
Issue Date
2017-09-25
Keyword(s)
  • Long term digital preservation
  • Digital video creation
  • Digital animation
  • Translation
  • Version compatibility
  • Emulation
  • Digital lifecycle
Abstract
While the rapid improvement in computing power and digital tools have offered a vast new realm of creativity to more independent creators than ever before, that same rapidly changing pace also offers a unique threat to those digital creators: What can you do when the length of time you need to finish your project is longer than the length of time your computer’s OS or software is supported? How can a small creative or research group best ensure that their work can still be actively worked with in five years – or twenty-five years? In this paper, I’ve assessed digital preservation recommendations over time, discussing the gap between the recommendations for preserving a completed work and digital creators’ ongoing needs to be able to create further work. I have three case studies created from longitudinal interviews with digital creators to determine how their own creative ecosystems have held up to the pressure of time, where their systems have begun to degrade, and how they continue their digital work across years or decades. Currently, either maintaining an aging system or recreating entire worlds with different, newer systems are the best available options for the digital creators I interviewed, though neither is optimal. Hardware and software vendors’ intentional dropping of backwards compatibility prohibits accurate forward migration for many digital media creators. The Pericles model seems promising, but Pericles itself is not open to individuals. Future improvements in emulation, including cloud-based virtualization, may offer a path forward if these services can improve their user friendliness and resolve the version compatibility issues that create obstacles today.
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97218

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