Ever since the mid-1990s, when it was first discovered that magnetic tape degrades over time, the digitization of videos has been adopted as a conservation measure. For archives and collections, this means that the preservation of video art involves a technical apparatus of migration. An end to such migration is not in sight, whether for previously analog videos nor for those now digitally produced, since even the currently available software and hardware require frequent adaptation and upgrades of the digitized material. In addition to these technical processes, we must also ponder the consequences of this changed object status and this approach to the collection object “video art,” as well as think about what questions now confront us that run counter to the conventional definition of archival records and artworks.
