Workshop: Digital Media Archaeology in Practice

With Ben Fino-Radin (MoMA) & Vincent Leclaire (Sicilium)

iMAL - Centre for Digital Cultures and Technology in Brussels and PACKED - Centre of Expertise in Digital Heritage, are organising a 2-days workshop and 1-day open atelier on the handling of obsolete data carriers and computer hardware.

On the 9th and 10th of April, Ben Fino-Radin, Digital Repository Manager at the Museum of Modern Art in New York will host a workshop on data preservation and access from obsolete and current media carriers. These two days will be followed by a open atelier by Vincent Leclaire (Sicilium) where participants will get advices and examples on how to keep legacy computer equipment working to access and experience data stored on obsolete carriers.

Programme

• 9-10 April: Data preservation bootcamp

• 11 April: Open atelier for vintage computer hardware care and data retrieval

Data Preservation bootcamp: 9 - 10 april

Coached by Ben Fino-Radin, digital repository manager, MoMA

This workshop will provide an immersive two-day boot camp, providing attendees with some of the most critical basics for handling and caring for digital art. Included will be hands-on activities such as capture and recovery of legacy and contemporary media carriers, use of checksumming tools, breathing life back into obsolete software through the use of emulation, and experimentation with simulating the properties of CRT monitors. Also covered will be the fundamentals and best practices of designing a digital storage system for long-term preservation. An emphasis will be placed on using free and open source software, arming participants with the ability to accomplish their preservation goals no matter the resources at their disposal.

Open atelier: vintage computer hardware care & data retrieval

Coached by Vincent Leclaire (Sicilium)

For all those interested to maintain their Amiga, Commodore, Sinclair, Atari, Tandy, old Macs and PCs and get back some content from all these obsolete data carriers: 5.25 and 3.5" floppies, sysquest, jazz, tapes,...

For who?

Potential participants of the workshop include specialists and non-specialists with the minimum knowledge about computers:

• Artists and curators,
• Archivists and librarians,
• Conservators and collections managers,
• Preservation technicians
• etc.

Attendees are expected to come with their own laptop to the workshop.

Registratie

Registration using the following URL is mandatory for both the workshop (max. 12 participants) and the open atelier.

http://imal.org/nl/register/digital-media-archaeology-practice-register

Workshop leaders
 

About Ben Fino-Radin

Ben Fino-Radin is a New York, NY based media archaeologist specializing in the preservation of digital contemporary art and culture. Presently, Fino-Radin serves as Digital Repository Manager at the Museum of Modern Art's department of conservation, and as Adjunct Professor in NYU's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program. In private practice Fino-Radin has advised museums and artists, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, artist Cory Arcangel, and the art collective JODI. Fino-Radin holds an MS and MFA from Pratt Institute in Library and Information Science, and Digital Art respectively, and is an alumnus of Rhizome at the New Museum where he formerly served as Digital Conservator.
More on http://benfinoradin.info/

About Vincent Leclaire and Silicium

Vincent Leclaire is a member of the Toulouse based French computer collectors and enthusiasts association Silicium. Silicium is a French association with the mission to keep and preserve old computers and game consoles to show them to today and tomorrow's audience. Its member hold a collection of thousands of pieces renewed and enriched each year. For more than twenty years, Silicium is collecting and building an inventory of this huge collection of machines and documentation.
More on http://silicium.org