Documentation is Preservation: New Media Documentation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 2001, The Met’s time-based media collection was first introduced with the exhibition Closed Circuit: Video and New Media at the Metropolitan, held from February 23 to April 29, 2007. This thesis focuses on applying and analyzing the validity of a series of new protocols being introduced in 2018 to The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s time-based media collection. Generated by the Met’s Time-Based Media Working Group, these best practices including new and innovative documents and best practices for preserving not only the artworks themselves, but the knowledge and procedures required to install and display these works. Using the exhibition Closed Circuit as a case study, this thesis describes and analyzes these new protocols to illustrate the value and importance of institutional and inter-departmental collaboration for compiling a multi-voice record for each work of art. .