Networks of Care

There is a need to preserve our digital cultural heritage for the future. However, the increasing speed with which technical media is used in digital preservation becomes obsolete, which leads to problems such as changes to the aesthetics and content of the artworks, organisational shifts, and ecological burden. Drawing from the concept of care and connecting this to the idea of networks of care, this chapter shows how the conceptualisation of care in digital preservation helps to comprehend the challenges of digital art preservation and networked culture more widely. By analysing three art projects in which networks have formed around the preservation of the project, the chapter emphasises that while there are multiple typologies of networks of care, there is a shared focus on a relational arrangement of care in which preservation is negotiated between different actors, including humans, but also material and technical elements. When acknowledging that these actors, and thus the care, may change over time, the implementation of networks of care can lead to more sustainable solutions for digital preservation.