Documentation

Documentation is the process of gathering and organizing information about a work-including its condition, its contents, and the actions taken to preserve it.

The interactive nature of much computer-based art means that its documentation calls for a broader range of data than that of single-channel video works or conventional films. Cataloging requires not only gathering data about the digital files that make up the work-what is known as metadata-but also information about the work's behavior-what it actually does.