Over the last six decades, networked art practices have anticipated and responded to the changing material conditions of communications systems, infrastructures and technologies. Whether pre-internet mail art or born-digital software-based or net art, changes to these material conditions have been frequent and far-reaching and extend to the preservation as well as the production of networked art practice. Aligned with the so-called ‘dematerialisation of the art object’, the material and, at times, ideological dimensions and proprieties of these works have challenged existing approaches, methods and protocols of art conservation. This chapter aims to unpack existing preservation efforts concerning online and offline exchanges, including work featured in 'The Art Happens Here: Net Art’s Archival Poetics' (New Museum, 2019) and recent speculation regarding the possible re-enactment of Robert Adrian’s 'The World in 24 Hours' (1982). We also feel out the implications of web archiving tools such as the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine as preservation strategies and how they affect artistic and curatorial agency and authorship. We do so by reporting findings from our workshop, 'Networked Art Practice After Digital Preservation', at ISEA 2020, based on case study research of the Museum of Ordure (2001 onwards) founded by Stuart Brisley, Geoff Cox, and Adrian Ward and involving Maya Balgioglu and curator Rosse Yael Sirb and '6 Months Without' (2018-2019) by Nastja Säde Rönkkö. Overall, this chapter contributes to current research tracing the edges and boundaries of networked art practice after digital preservation.

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