Week 1: Introduction to the field

•Why document, preserve and archive art?

•A historical overview and distinction of the disciplines

•From object to dynamic processes

•The challenge of ephemerality

•The performative

•What to use archives and collections for as cultural producers and artists?

Week 2: The archive

• The archive in a historical perspective

• Archival theory

• Institutional approaches to archiving

• The move away from chronology

• Artistic approaches and use of archives as material and theme

Week 3: Documentation

• Methods to use for documentation

• Performance art: capturing the moment

• Re-creation and re-enactment as artistic genres

• Digital art: software as performance instruction

• Sound and time-based art capturing

• Documenting the exchange between work and audience

Week 4: Preservation

• Preservation methods used in institutions today

• Variable media initiatives

• The performance document and remains as artworks

• Digital art and Internet art preservation

• Notation and score-based works / conceptual art

• Reconstruction of artworks

• Documentation instead of preservation – when other strategies fail

• A dynamic approach to preservation

• Experimental strategies – challenging the formats