Digital Projects Past and Present Survivors or Fossils? Christine L. Sundt, Technology Editor, Visual Resources & Visual Resources Curator, University of Oregon Over the past 20 years, Helene Roberts and I, editors of the journal Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation, have featured many impressive technology projects, dedicating ink and precious space to their promotion and documentation. In a number of cases, we showcased the early stages of projects, sometimes a first glimpse at what seemed like a promising initiative. Many of the projects were in fact prototypes or first dabs on the canvases of future masterpieces while others would play out, after the smoke and mirrors were gone, as vaporpieces. Today I will give you a summary of these projects and show you how they have fared over the years. My purpose is to postulate why some projects succeed so splendidly while others do not. What can we learn from the past to influence the future? How many are still around and why were they so lucky? Conversely, well be looking at those that didnt make it and I will speculate why they ended up on a shelf or worse yet were erased from the record. Yes, well venture into that black hole today as well. Visual Resources or VR was inaugurated in 1980 as the brainchild of John and Patricia Walsh who introduced their journal during a Mid-America College Art Association conference in Houston, TX, in the fall of that year. They were entrepreneurs who recognized a market niche and the need to document work being done by a new breed of librarians, the visual resources curator. Their journal was truly in its infancy with the first issue appearing only months before we learned about their project. Among the early articles to appear in the new journal was the paper I presented at that conference on slide preservation publication being a compliment beyond my wildest imagination for the research I had done and the results I had gathered and delivered to the audience. John and Patricia Walshs efforts were obviously valuable because in less than a year they successfully sold VR to Gordon and Breach , a publisher known for science journals with absolutely no history whatsoever in the arts. In their hands this new hot potato needed an editor (several attempts to find one ended unsuccessfully) and so it wasnt long before Patrick Kelly, an executive with G+B contacted me, the new president of the Visual Resources Association, with an offer to take over responsibility of the journal. To an upstart organization (VRA held its first official meeting in 1983), the offer was too good to pass up and so the journal, VR, became the scholarly publication of the organization, VRA. Since I felt a certain responsibility to the organization by taking on a new, larger-than-life project, I agreed to manage the journal but only in the capacity of a lower functionary, the Technology Editor. I was incredibly lucky to discover that Helene Roberts, then the Director of the Visual Collections at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, was interested in working with me on VR. So by executive decision, Helene became the new driving force of VR its Editor. That was then. Now 20 years later and wholly independent from the VRA, we are working on Volume 21. We have never missed an issue and we have survived a tenure-type review, the sale of the journal to Taylor & Francis/Routledge, as well as a succession of corporate Senior Editors who neither of us could list even if our life depended on it. The good news is that we have been publishing a substantial journal each quarter despite the turmoil that is only inevitable in light of economic downsizing, technological growth, and disastrous library funding on both sides of the Atlantic. In fact, this year we have even introduced a new look for VR that emphasizes boldness in color and clarity in format and I dare say you may be saying to yourself, finally! During this period we also launched a successful book series, Documenting the Image, that produced nine books including Roelof van Stratens An Introduction to Iconography: Symbols, Allusions and Meaning in the Visual Arts (Volume 1) , Anthony Hambers A Higher Branch of the Art: Photographing the Fine Arts in England 1839-1880 (Volume 4), Ulrich Kellers The Ultimate Spectacle: A Visual History of the Crimean War (Volume 7), and lastly Eleanor Hight & Gary Sampsons Colonialist Photography: Imag(in)ing Race and Place (Volume 9, 2002). In the transition from G+B to Routledge/Taylor & Francis, the book series was cancelled. It did not fit within the Routledge profile. But lets return to my investigation. Why did I decide to pursue this topic? For years, Ive suggested that this would be a worthwhile study but for whatever reason, even though everyone agreed that it would be both worthwhile and valuable, nobody took it up. Left with no takers, I had little choice but to do it myself. And what have I discovered? In a nutshell, survival or fossilization depends on evolution. Of the approximately 50 projects that I investigated, published between 1980 and the present, roughly 75% are still in existence but among that group only 40% have advanced beyond their original goals or promises. Of the total number only a third have advanced significantly while 10% showed some progress and another 30% remain but only as static or frozen projects. Twenty-five percent have ceased or disappeared entirely. I have taken the liberty of including projects that were not entirely digital from the outset but eventually migrated into a digital format. In fairness, then, I have included some early technology projects, namely microforms, since they formed the bases for several of todays digital projects. My criteria for judging success were based on the following ratings: 0, if the project ceased; 1, if the project is essentially the same and still functional as when we first reported on it; 2, if the project showed some advances after publication; and 3, if the project was successfully upgraded and is fully functional today. VR IssueProjectFormatStatusURLSCOREVII:4 (1991)3-D hearth examplecomputer-modelingprototype onlyhttp://www.cs.montana.edu/research.html0XI:2 (1995)A Videodisc Companion (The Voyager Company)videodiscout of print (The Voyager Company ceased operations in the late 1990s)www.voyagerco.com/ goes to http://www.bringyourbrain.com/catalog/index.php?cat=Everything0X:4 (1995)A Videodisc Companion: Michelagniolo, by Thomas Leuhrsen and Susannah Gottlieb (et al.)videodiscout of print (The Voyager Company ceased operations in the late 1990s)www.voyagerco.com/ goes to http://www.bringyourbrain.com/catalog/index.php?cat=Everything0IX:4 (1994)Brancusi Interactive Multimedia ProjectCD-ROMnot realized?0VII:4 (1991)Coin inventoryhypermediaprototype only 0X:4 (1995)Consortium for Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI)initiativeAs of December 15, 2003 CIMI has ceased operationshttp://www.cimi.org/CIMI_operations_announcement.html0X:4 (1995)HyperCardhypermediaceased (withdrawn from sale) March 2004http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard0XIII:2 (1997)Image Directoryonlineceased June 1999 0VII:4 (1991)Interactive Video Project & Palenque Projectvideodisc & hypermediaprototypes onlyhttp://www.cdli.ca/~elmurphy/emurphy/ile.html and http://ra.terc.edu/publications/terc_pubs/tech-infusion/ed_tech/ed_tech_cat4.html0VII:4 (1991)IRIS Intermediahypermediaobsolete due to platform changeshttp://www.victorianweb.org/cpace/ht/HTatBrown/Intermedia.html and http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?IntermediaFromIris0VII:4 (1991)Man Ray's Paris Portraits: 1921-39hypermediaprototype onlyhttp://www.mit.edu:8001/people/davis/Infrathin.html0IX:4 (1994)Project ChapmanInternetprototypehttp://www.si.edu/siphotos/CAPTIONS/oppsrules.html0XIII:1 (1997)Van Eyck Projectonline databaseno online accesshttp://194.134.65.21/vaneyck/ (Internet Archive/Wayback Machine only)0XI:2 (1995)University of Wyoming Art Museum (6,000 scanned images on CD-ROM)collection managementno online accesshttp://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/ArtMuseum/collections.asp1X:4 (1995)AVIADORvideodiscproposal: AVIADOR to seamless webhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/projects/aviador/AVIAWEB.doc AND final report: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/projects/aviador/aviador_orig/final_report.html1I:1 (Spring 1980)Christie's Pictorial Archivemicroformmicroform (still available for purchase)http://www.mindata.demon.co.uk/main_03.htm1XVI:1 (2000)Courtauld Gallery PaintingsCD-ROMavailable for GBP5 from the Courtauld!http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/sub_index/publications/gallery_cd-rom/gallerycdrom.html1XVI:4 (2000)Dutch Printers' Devices: 15th-17th Century: A CatalogueCD-ROMavailable (ISBN 90 6004 440 1)http://www.forum-hes.nl/hes/main_stock.phtml/subject/121/1/Bookhistory,%20Printing%20&%20Publishing.html1XII:2 (1996)Frank Lloyd Wright: Presentation and Conceptual Drawings, Frank Lloyd Wright Archives and Luna Imaging, Inc.CD-ROMavailable (Oxford University Press); Luna Imaging, Inc. refocused as software developer (Insight)http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ArtArchitecture/History/American/?ci=0195095766&view=usa and http://www.luna-imaging.com/1III:3 (Autumn 1986)Helen Allen Textile Collectionvideodiscvideodisc (still used)http://www.sohe.wisc.edu/depts/hlatc/location.html1XV:4 (2000)Italian Romanesque Panel PaintingCD-ROMavailable for GBP5 from the Courtauld!http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/sub_index/publications/garrison_cd-rom/garrisoncdrom.html1X:4 (1995)Microsoft Art GalleryCD-ROMavailable (Art Gallery, by Microsoft Press)ISBN: 5553537258 (January 1994)1XIII:3-4 (1998)The Piero Projectclassroom instruction tool (image database)housed at Princeton University (Kirk Alexander is now at UC-Davis)http://etc.princeton.edu/art430/1XV:4 (2000)Warburg Electronic Library (W.E.L.)data- and imagebasehoused in Hamburg (Technical University & University of Hamburg)http://www.sts.tu-harburg.de/projects/WEL/english/uberblick.html1IV:2 (Summer 1987)Witt Computer Indexdatabasedatabasehttp://www.courtauld.ac.uk/sub_index/photographic/witt/1XII:2 (1996) book and CD-ROM (Mac platform)available (Yale University Press)http://yalepress.yale.edu/YupBooks/viewbook.asp?isbn=03000184601XII:2 (1996)DISKUS (Digitales Informationssystem für Kunst und Sozialgeschichte)CD-ROMoriginally published by K.G. Saur, now Thomson; 17 published, nos. 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 17 still available)http://www.saur.de/ (search: DISKUS)2IX:4 (1994)European Museums Networkdatabase1992-1995http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/conservation/fr/laborato/narci.htm2III:2 (c.1985)First Emperor of ChinavideodiscCD-ROMhttp://web.simmons.edu/~chen/nit/NIT'93/93-059-chen.html2IV:1 (Spring 1987)InformationMachinehypermediaonline; revised and updated to 1997http://www.art.uh.edu/dif/burnettArtworks.html2IX:4 (1994)Kodak Photo CD System*CD-ROM http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/professional/products/ekn017045.jhtml and http://www.twocatdigital.com/kodakpcd.html2X:4 (1995)Architecture slides database database & CD-ROMonline: Krider Center Image Commonshttp://krider.arch.ksu.edu/ImageBank/CATALOG.htm3X:4 (1995)Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)database (print & electronic)online & licensed data files in XML, relational tables, and MARC formatshttp://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/aat/3X:4 (1995)ART on FILE Kodak Photo CDCD-ROMdownloadable & licensed image fileshttp://www.artonfile.com/html/download.lasso3XII:1 (1996)EmbARK, Digital Collections, Inc.collection managementnow Gallery Systemshttp://gallerysystems.com/ (chart comparing with other systems: http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/Collections_Management/Software_Review/impexport.html)3I:1 (Spring 1980)Hill Monastic Manuscript Librarymicroformonline Access database; will include images soonhttp://www.hmml.org/3V:3 (Autumn 1988)ICONCLASSprintCD-ROM followed by online versionhttp://www.iconclass.nl/3VII:4 (1991)ImageQuerydatabaseonline; now known as SPIROhttp://www.mip.berkeley.edu/spiro/about.html and http://ist.berkeley.edu/IST5/i4.html3XIII:3-4 (1998)Index of Christian Artonlinecard file to database to onlinehttp://ica.princeton.edu/3XIII:1 (1997)L.A. Culture Net (http://www.lacn.org/)onlinemoved to Yahoo Groupshttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/laculturenet/3XII:2 (1996)Marburger Indexmicroform with CD-ROM indexes utilizing ICONCLASS interfaceonlinehttp://www.bildindex.de/3IX:4 (1994)NARCISSE (Network of Art Research Computer Image SystemS in Europedatabaseongoinghttp://www.si.edu/scmre/about/93tsah.htm and http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/conservation/fr/laborato/narci.htm3X:4 (1995)NMAA Onlineinternet via America Online (by subscription) & anonymous ftponline; c. 40,000 workshttp://americanart.si.edu/index3.cfm3IX:4 (1994)PerseusCD-ROMonline [Perseus Digital Library]http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/3XIV:2 (1998)Thesaurus of Geographical Names (TGN)onlineonline & licensed data files in XML, relational tables, and MARC formatshttp://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/tgn/3X:4 (1995)Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)database (print & electronic)online & licensed data files in XML, relational tables, and MARC formatshttp://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/ulan/3XVIII:4 (2002)A Wheel of Memory: The Hereford MappamundiCD-ROMavailablehttp://www.press.umich.edu/subject.do?id=317.UMDG1.1 (not counted -- too new to evaluate)XVIII:3 (2002)Chart of Homes of Delft Artists and Patrons in the Seventeenth Centuryonlineongoinghttp://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/1 (not counted -- too new to evaluate)XVIII:4 (2002)Exeter Cathedral Keystones & Carvings: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Medieval Interior Sculptures & Their Polychromyonlineongoinghttp://www.exetercathedral.co.uk1 (not counted -- too new to evaluate) *Kodak will stop offering Photo CD services through dealers on May 1, 2004. If you are a dealer with customers who still want Photo CD scanning services, you can either direct them to us, or contact us about setting up a dealer relationship. AND The Kodak Photo CD Player is discontinued. Most DVD players do not play image files.You can write image files in several different file formats to a blank CD-R, but a true Photo CD Disc is written in the .pcd format. The software to create .pcd files is provided only to Kodak service providers. You can write your images to a blank CD-R using the Video CD file format. Video CD version 2.0 supports high-resolution still images but not all authoring software packages support this Video CD option, and not all DVD players are compatible with CD-R media And what were the reasons for success? Migration, migration, migration! Allow me to explain using some examples. In the earliest days of reporting, the highest tech we knew was microfilm. To my absolute delight, the first technology project featured in the Spring of 1980, the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library , is still with us as an online Access database that will soon include images. While in the eyes of many, this is still a modest technological leap, the project is still alive and growing. The site is accessible to everybody at HYPERLINK http://www.hmml.org http://www.hmml.org. But the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library turns out to be not only an early success but also somewhat isolated, because the next wholly successful project (receiving a 3 grade) doesnt appear until the Autumn of 1988 when we devoted a special issue to the project known as ICONCLASS . ICONCLASS started out as a data set, later distributed in print as a multi-volume publication known as the System, Index, and Bibliography. The conversion of the original data set into a database into a distributed set of disks and then a CD-ROM (Dutch Printers Devices) was realized by a group of very talented humanists and computer scientists in Leiden and Utrecht. Its success and acceptance also rests on the impressive work and diligence of Dr. Catherine Gordon, who during her tenure at the Witt Library, implemented and taught others her techniques in workshops and publications sponsored by the Getty Art History Information Program (later the Getty Information Institute). ICONCLASS endures today because it has survived format translation and migration and is available online either by license or as the freely accessible Libertas Browser. It is implemented in a number of other projects described in VR, namely the DISKUS (XII:2 (1996)) and Courtauld CD-ROMs (XV:4 (2000)) . Not unlike ICONCLASS , one of the three major Getty vocabulary projects the AAT (Art & Architecture Thesaurus) evolved from data set to print to database-on-disk to online resource. The other two Getty projects, ULAN (the Union List of Artist Names) and TGN (The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names) experienced fewer migratory steps but benefited from the lessons learned with the AAT. They are all available online, free of charge, or by license for use within local authority indexes in XML, relational tables, and MARC formats. Other notable projects that survived the test of time and technology through evolution are: from microform to online public database (the Marburger Index); from videodisc to CD-ROM (First Emperor of China); from CD-ROM to online public database (Perseus); from local in-house to online public database (The Index of Christian Art at Princeton University and ImageQuery/SPIRO at University of California, Berkeley); and from database software to online image management and delivery software (Gallery Systems and Lunas Insight). Projects that remain virtually the same One of the most promising art history pedagogical projects, The Piero Project at Princeton, a digital project allowing for viewing, panning, and zooming within a virtual interior space, has not advanced beyond its debut even though an online site documents it. The online Piero Project is accessible but essentially in linear format unless the viewer is willing to spend time figuring out the website and then downloading third-party specialized software. Also, with one of its creators, Kirk Alexander, having recently moved from Princeton to the University of California, Davis, the Piero Project will likely remain just an impressive demonstration document marking a moment in digital art history. The Helen Allen Textile Collection videodisc is apparently still in use at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is heartening to know that someone, somewhere, is still using this ancient technology. This can go on only as long as there are machines to read this format. From what we know about equipment, extinction is inevitable in the not-too-distant future. Similarly, Christies Pictorial Archive is still being marketed as a microform. This is not a digital project but it does demonstrate that certain formats may be with us for longer than we thought, co-existing with newer, more seductive formats. The AVIADOR videodisc (X:4 (1995)) is promised to be reborn as a seamless web presentation. With the retirement of AVIADORs tireless leader, Angela Giral, one hopes that this promise will be kept. These projects enjoyed success because their content had sufficient value and usefulness and could be sustained with enough funding to allow stability, maintenance, and a modicum of expansion. The bottom line is often a business plan. A business plan is ultimately a critical component during mergers or administrative and staffing changes. Several projects were lost because one or more of these elements were missing. Project that have not survived todays electronic fossils A number of the videodisc projects published by the Voyager Company (Michelangelo: Self Portrait and Salamandre: Chateaux of the Loire) were lost through corporate mergers or takeovers but perhaps more importantly because the analog videodisc format was eclipsed by its less cumbersome digital cousin, the CD-ROM. If a project isnt in demand and therefore deemed worthy of conversion to a newer format, it will be abandoned. The Image Directory, a project that I worked on with Academic Press, was put aside by the publisher just before Harcourt Brace was acquired by Elsevier. It was an expensive project that was perhaps too ambitious for its time because of the challenges faced in sustaining large image online databases at a time of rampant copyright paralysis that resulted in the suppression of images and information risks that should have been taken but werent. One very prominent project that I tried to follow was the Van Eyck Project that we featured in 1997 (XIII:1). The only way I have been able to locate data about this project was by invoking the Wayback Machine (a.k.a. the Internet Archive) . Sadly this data seems to have stopped leaving any tracks or clues to follow. Emails to those who were connected to it were also unfruitful. It seems to have ceased but the reasons are not obvious. (2 clicks) Among the most frequently found fossils were projects based on the hypermedia format. The format itself was officially withdrawn from sale in March 2004. Early projects employing hypermedia were Paul Kahns and Bernard Haans IRIS Intermedia (VII:4 (1991)), Judi Molines coin inventory (VII:4 (1991)), Ben Daviss Man Rays Paris Portraits: 1921-1939 (VII:4 (1991)) and Kathleen Wilsons Palenque Interactive Video (videodisc & hypermedia) (VII:4 (1991)). This truly extinct format, employed with these early digital projects, helped us prepare for the Internet and the World Wide Web. Their value is as demonstration tools that were not meant to last but rather to show us a promising process. The tragedy, however, is that except for the record of these projects in print, we cannot see or experience them today. Similarly, when online projects cease and their urls are no longer active, we run the risk of losing digital history. As mentioned earlier, the Wayback Machine assists us in tracking down what appears to be lost but only if you know the original url. Hotlinked text will not take you back to the future so remember to cite complete addresses in your documents to avoid the black hole where lost and erased historical records fall into oblivion. In summary, after studying and analyzing close to 50 projects, I am now prepared to highlight what I think are either notable accomplishments or warning signs that should not be ignored. Ill start with the latter. I feel confident in saying that the next format targeted for extinction is easily the CD-ROM. Anybody who is investing in these to archive or backup data should be on notice to migrate immediately. We have already experienced difficulties in reading CD-ROMs made in the late 1980s or early 1990s. As a medium they are prone to degradation and easily damaged. And most certainly, not all CD-ROMs are equal. Kodaks gold CD-ROM has been discontinued already; more will follow. The most successful record for evolution and upgrades goes to the Getty for its vocabulary projects. The progress from dataset to online access was swift. One can be thankful that the Getty Trust still values these projects and will continue to support them for many more digital generations to come. And finally, the best values among reported projects offered for sale would be Art on File, offering uncompressed 18MB digital images or 35mm slides for $6.00 each from their impressive collection of 6,500 images or a low-resolution jpeg for $1.50. The best offer for a CD-ROM are those sold by the Courtauld illustrated earlier: Italian Romanesque Panel Painting: An Illustrated Index and the Courtauld Gallery Paintings: Illustrated Catalogue, are being offered for the rock-bottom price of GBP5 each. Remembering that you may not be able to use these forever, they are excellent resources for the moment. Helene Roberts and I are pleased to be here at CHArt for what I believe is our 4th consecutive year. We look forward to dedicating more ink and precious space in VR to the next wave of digital projects and encourage all of you to submit or recommend articles. Remember, too, your responsibility of ensuring our digital historical record. Leave sufficient traces behind that allow us to know about and appreciate your accomplishments. We must promise ourselves that the digital record will be as enduring or better than what preceded it.