Post-digital architectures of memory: informal preservation of media art

This research investigates the emerging informal preservation practices of digital cultural artefacts amid rapid techno-cultural and techno-political transformations. With the shift towards a post-digital paradigm, digital art – particularly software-based art – presents unique ontological and preservation challenges. Traditional preservation frameworks, rooted in the stability of physical objects, prove insufficient for the ephemeral nature of digital media. In response, non-institutional, adaptive approaches to preserving digital works are emerging, increasingly shaped by rapidly evolving technologies and the influence of social networks. The findings of this research indicate that informal preservation encompasses a range of practices – active, incidental, tacit, and even deliberate rejection – that collectively redefine preservation, memory, and space in the digital era. This work underscores the need for preservation models that are flexible, participatory, and attuned to the fluidity of post-digital culture, where both human and non-human agents contribute to memory and forgetting, shaping cultural heritage in transformative ways.