Digital artworks form an indispensable part of our cultural heritage. Digital art is an inherently variable artform due to technological developments and interactions with and interpretation by new generations resulting in constant innovation and transformation. During this international symposium, we discussed preservation challenges, shared the latest insights and examined paradigm shifts related to preserving and documenting digital art.

The symposium's first day was dedicated to documentation as a critical strategy for digital art conservation, including an exploration of documenting VR and AI. The second day focused on collaborative care, managing and facilitating change in sharing knowledge and responsibilities in the digital art ecosystem. 

Thursday, 16 March: Documenting Digital Art

Documentation has become an important, if not the most important, preservation and presentation strategy in performance and digital art. Likewise, contemporary artistic practices challenge existing documentation forms and shift our understanding of what constitutes documentation. 

The symposium kicked off with a peek into current artists' practices that seamlessly blend performance, documentation and digital art. Then the potential of VR and AI for documenting and preserving digital art was presented. In the afternoon, visitors were invited to participate in one of the DIY workshops. Finally, we wrapped up the first day with a panel discussion on the challenges inherent in capturing digital artworks now and in the future. 

Friday, 17 March: Caring for Digital Art

It is now widely recognized that future-oriented fostering of digital artworks can only be rooted in multidisciplinary and collaborative care. In lectures, workshops and discussions, we addressed how to implement more collaborative practices and to sustain change. 

In the morning session, a panel discussion debated pressing issues and future scenarios for digital art conservation. Participants were also invited to brain-pick kindred networks about their collaborative caring and sharing practices across different levels. The afternoon session offered workshops and lectures on analyzing net art, practices that focus on collaboration and green preservation. To conclude, LI-MA shared an exciting new initiative on digital care and invited visitors to a festive closing of the symposium.

Transformation Digital Art 2023 included contributions by Matt Adams, Annie Abrahams, Karen Archey, Marije Baalman, Steve Benford, Olivia Brum, Melanie Bühler, Annet Dekker, Joost Dofferhoff, Dragan Espenschied, Gabriella Giannachi, Haitian Ma, Jan Robert Leegte, Jonas Lund, Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, Joanna Philips, Margit Rosen, Rafael Rozendaal, Ilka van Steen, Monika Szűcsová, Matthieu Vlaminck, Gaby Wijers, and Tamara van Zwol. More contributors to be announced.

The symposium is kindly supported by Documenting Digital Art, AFK, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Mondriaan Fund, Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds & Gieskes Strijbis Fund.