Practical Ethics v3.0: Version Control
Loading...
Citations
Altmetric:
Altmetric::
Download
Associated Records
Authors
File Licence
Editors
Date
2022
Source Title
Kunst und Material Konzepte, Prozesse, Arbeitsteilungen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Scheidegger & Spiess
Melbourne Authors
Affiliation
Robert Cripps Institute for Cultural Conservation
Document Type
Chapter
Subject Code
Citation
Kemp, J. (2022). Practical Ethics v3.0: Version Control. Fayet, R (Ed.). Krähenbühl, R (Ed.). Kunst und Material Konzepte, Prozesse, Arbeitsteilungen, (1 st), pp.209-226. Scheidegger & Spiess.
Access Status
This item is currently not available from this repository
DOI
Access URL
Open Access URL
Open Access at PMC
Linked Resource URL
NHMRC Grant Code
ARC Grant Code
Description
Abstract
Recent ideas coming from contemporary art conservation - especially performance, installation, media art - have focused on how documentation and archiving are key to preserving the identity and continuity of such artworks. By comparing documentation (in its widest sense) from various iterations of a work, conservators make decisions around what changes are permissible for any subsequent iteration. Various models have been proposed for this decision-making, and all are designed to assimilate how such artworks are both necessarily open-ended and changeable. These models all suggest that conservators can both manage change and understand the parameters necessary for maintaining an artwork’s identity through that change.
Where many approaches to conservation, of contemporary art or otherwise, continue to be founded around notions of identity and, by default, autography, one argument to be made is that the preservation of cultural heritage is ultimately an allographic process and that any iteration of a work effects a particular and time-stamped “version of record”.
The logic of this approach is that conservation can be recast as being fundamentally engaged in practices akin to Version Control (VC). Typically, VC systems allow each phase of software development to be made accessible for cross-checking against any other version by all involved. VC thus allows collaborative groups of people to work on a project without losing sight of any changes and, importantly, with the project’s authorship being distributed. As such, each software project can be understood as ontologically open-ended, with either its obsolescence or forking into distinct programs both freighted within its VC management.
This chapter will briefly describe Version Control practices used in technology; it will use case studies to draw links and parallels with practices by default enacted by conservators and others involved in the care of cultural heritage; finally, it will discuss how recasting conservation’s practices as acts of Version Control can help revitalise the profession by foregrounding its activities in the production of culture.
Notes
Terms of Use
Keywords
Publisher Licence
Unknown