T3D Re: TECH-3D digest 534

[Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxx>]

> You raise some good pragmatic points.  "Analogue" forms only
> require commitment for the storage facilities, while digital archives
> require periodic copy/conversion processes.

And now for the stuff that drives the techies crazy... if we're talking
an artistic piece originally created on an analogue medium such as a
photographic print or a painting, digital conversion might represent an
APPROXIMATION of the original, but could not replace the original in any
serious conservation effort.

If the art were originally created in the digital domain, then you just
have that freightful task of transfering/converting to what you guess to
be the storage medium of choice every decade or so. And in some
instances, as with outputing digital photographs to hard copy, there are
really no references so there is no way of knowing if the output bears
much resemblance to the original artist's intent. To some extent this is
true with monitor display as well...

Thank goodness for good old analogue materials such as paints, silver
prints, phono records and cylinders, traditionally dyed and treated
fabrics, etc, which have stood up over time with comparatively minimal
maintenance so that we may still enjoy artistic treasures today which
are in some instances many thousands of years old.


Eric G.


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