Preservation of software-based art & computer forensics at the BFH

The two departments of the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), Technology & Informatics (TI) and Conservation and Restoration at the Bern University of the Arts (HKB), collect historical equipment and use it to restore data and digitise old video tape formats. On the other hand, preservation strategies must also be found for contemporary works of art that use web and computer technologies, which must keep pace with the rapid progress of technology.

On this table, from the digital forensics laboratory of the CyberLab of Technology and Computer Science, you will find a 9-track tape drive that we use to recover data from old mainframe and UNIX computers from the 1970s and 1980s.

Visitors can also browse the website of an artwork from the early 2000s, which has lost its full functionality due to the obsolescence of browser plugins and outdated scripting language. As part of a restoration project, students at the HKB explored preservation strategies involving migration and emulation and developed two prototypes, which can be examined and explored here.