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 paper aims to unpack existing digital preservation efforts concerning online and offline exchanges while also feeling 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) by Stuart Brisley, Geoff Cox and Adrian Ward and 6 Months Without (2018-2019) by Nastja Säde Rönkkö. Overall, this paper contributes to current research tracing the edges and boundaries of networked art practice after digital preservation.

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