Virtual SARBICA International Symposium
Published on November 17th, 2022
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Preservation is a cornerstone of memory institutions like the archives while Sustainability and sustainable development are the all-important challenges of our times. Partnering both issues in the theme is appropriate and timely. The Symposium shall provide a venue to raise awareness, gain new perspectives, promote discussions and engage with critical questions on the intersection between the work of memory institutions, the environment and sustainability.
“Preservation & Sustainability: Two Sides Of The Same Coin?”
The environmental reality of the global climate crisis leading to unstable ecosystems, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, increasing natural disasters and displacement of people inspired the theme of “Preservation & Sustainability: Two Sides Of The Same Coin?” for the 2022 Virtual International Symposium of the Southeast Asia Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (SARBICA). Preservation is a cornerstone of memory institutions like the archives while Sustainability and sustainable development are the all-important challenges of our times. Partnering both issues in the theme is appropriate and timely. The theme also suggests that there may be differing opinions and perspectives on this link. The Symposium shall provide a venue to raise awareness, gain new perspectives, promote discussions and engage with critical questions on the intersection between the work of memory institutions, the environment and sustainability.
The Paradox of Digital Sustainability
Annet Dekker, Archival and Information Studies, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Abstract:
It is clear that rapid and radical transformation towards a low-carbon society is needed to prevent the increase of further environmental disasters. But what happens to the increasing footprint that is left when considering the future of the digital present? Since the advent of digital technology, heritage is created, stored and preserved by heritage and archival institutions. Consisting of different technical layers, digital heritage’s functioning relies heavily on the migration, emulation or virtualization of technical equipment and infrastructures. A tension emerges between the need to keep digital material safe for the future and the continuing need to update technical tools, methods and skills to enable these projects to function. While recognizing the value of recent sustainability efforts to minimise the carbon footprint in museum and archival institutions, for an archival ecological paradigm shift to occur, also socio-cultural adaptation is needed. I will discuss the paradox of ‘digital sustainability’ in relation to the preservation of digital art, and address another potential area where digital preservation can become more sustainable: the concept and practice of ‘networks of care’. This notion proposes to extend care by letting digital heritage evolve, in which the ‘original’ may be decaying over time (Desilvey 2017). Such an approach requires a collaborative model of shared governance in which digital preservation will depend less on continuous technical innovation in favour of the engagement and preservation of social relations and low-tech solutions, thereby reducing vulnerability, creating greater socio-cultural awareness and moving towards a resilient and sustainable management of digital heritage.
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