TLDR:
1. Taking care of anything is easier said than done.
2. Documentation of a process standardizes the practice over time.
3. Archives serve as safekeeping for memories that could otherwise be lost.
4. Recordings show the evolution of how design and technology have influenced today’s work.
Artists have an inevitable need for archiving because art is communication. From storage to showcase, shelving ideas into archives preserves content for potential backup or later use.
Protocols such as Open Archival Information System are reference models to guide people in maintaining digital or physical assets that are flexible for specific needs. Sustainable documentation handles the continuation of practices through high quality file transfers (from person to person), exports (from file type to file type), technological progression (format to format), etc.
Art has evolved as both a reflection and through the mediums of technology, time, and people that have transcended into pieces of cultural time capsules. Progress is built off of the work of the past and ideas for the future. Reality turns into ideas through curation of learning.
If asking, once again, what do artists leave behind? Archive the journey for answers left to find.
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