“…because of the performance aspect of many installations, conservators working with this medium will need to look beyond the material and consider that the "heart" of a work might lie primarily in its less tangible qualities. Preserving for the future something that is above all an experience might require conservators to take a more fluid view of what may or may not be changed about a work, challenging conventional notions of accuracy and authenticity.”

William A. Real (2001). “Toward guidelines for practice in the preservation
and documentation of technology-based installation art”. Journal of the
American Institute for Conservation, Vol. 40, no. 3, p. 226.

In the context of the project "Methods of production, presentation and preservation of media art", a programme of studies regarding the preservation and presentation of four existing multimedia installations is being conducted at the Netherlands Media Art Institute, Montevideo/TBA. The installations will be set up at the exhibition "Dertig Jaar Nederlandse Videokunst / Thirty Years Dutch Video Art".

The studies will focus on answering the following questions:

- Which aspects play a role in the preservation and re-installation of multimedia installations?

- What are the criteria for preservation and re-reinstallation?

- What technological know-how is required to ensure the possibility of presenting these installations in the future?

- How should installations be registered and documented?

- What is essential to the determination of origins and authenticity of the work?

- What are the essential aesthetic and technological elements that absolutely need to be preserved if the piece is to retain any integrity into the future?

An installation scenario, including context, history, registration, instructions and bibliography, will be drawn up for each work.