Make or break? Concerning the value of redundancy as a creative strategy

Presentation by Simon Biggs

There is a contradiction at the heart of digital art making regarding its temporal mediality and its relationship with a mainstream visual arts practice that values permanence. Why do we wish to preserve something temporal and fleeting? Will the preservation of digital works contribute to a process of commoditisation that many media artists have sought to avoid by embracing the ephemeral nature of digital media? Are there reasons that would justify preserving digital works of art when, for some artists, redundancy is a key principle of their practice?