Software Archaeology and the Preservation of Code-based Digital Art

摘要

The long-term conservation of code-based digital art remains an open issue. Recently, we have proposed the use of software engineering methodologies to create rigorously structured documentation that will support archival preservation of a digital artwork with the intent of future installation. In this paper we expand this notion by proposing that the software engineering process, and its artifacts provide a means for systematically organizing and comparing a collection of digital artworks. In so doing, software engineering transforms existing artisanal preservation procedures into a schematized process that can be integrated with traditional art conservation practice. Software preservation also becomes an activity associated with software archaeology: the systematic study of software systems through the recovery and examination of outstanding material evidence, such as source code, tests, and design documentation. The paper focuses as well on the practice of software archaeology as it applies to the systematic study of software-based artworks to: reveal patterns in their underlying architectures, preserve archetypal software, maintain a historical record, and select artifacts for preservation.