The analogue technology of slides will soon cease to exist. For several years now, both the slide projection technology and the production of film material have come to a halt. Replacement equipment is becoming scarce and slides have become more or less unusable over the years. It is, therefore, all the more important to source analogue equipment in due time and prepare the transfer to digital media, for the purpose of preservation and presentation of this prominent collection of slide-based artworks (by Lothar Baumgarten, Nan Goldin, Ross Sinclair and many others). The focus of the project is on examining the various possibilities digitalisation has to offer. Yet it is also about critically questioning which losses digitalisation entails, as a last option of preservation.
The project is based on the overall knowledge of slide-conservation established by the time-based media conservation department at Tate.
With the generous support of the Schoof Foundation over several years and additional funding through the Wüstenrot Foundation, we were able to conserve the collection of slide-based artworks using the latest technology. In the course of the project and at its closure, results were published at IIC 2016 and were communicated at a two-day symposium in Germany, of which a book is published by Kerber Verlag in 2019.
See also: https://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/en/long-term-project-conservation-sl...
Photo by the author, Hamburger Kunsthalle (2016)
Video by Luis do Rêgo Silva, Hamburger Kunsthalle (2018) with music by Split Phase