Video Art / Media Art Preservation:  Studies and Suggestions                      THE DANISH VIDEO ART DATA BANK

Passive or Active Damage Prevention/protection

 When it comes to prevent damage/degradation you can distinguish between passive preservation versus active preservatiln / conservation / restoration.

Passive preservation
... is a preventive maintenance procedure. It is often chosen because of financial constraints and/or reactions to mistakes in previously performed conservation treatments. The main goal is to prevent the tape from degrading prematurely.

Active preservation/ conservation / restoration
... is extensive actions – often very specialised technical – to restore detoriated or damaged video tapes and preserve / conserve the tapes for future use.