Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied, Once Upon, 2012

Rhizome is a nimble organization that is passionate about the impact we can make in the field of digital preservation—yet the work we do exists outside the funding structures of higher education or institutional research. We think organizations like ours play an important role in the ecosystem of the digital preservation community. If you believe this too, please support us.

A message from Dragan Espenschied: 

I was appointed Rhizome's new Digital Conservator in January, and though I've not even started yet, I've had a lot of encouraging feedback. People are enthusiastic about what this organization can do for the field of digital preservation.

Memory institutions are facing technical and conceptual issues in keeping their born-digital artifacts alive, in the sense that they can gain an ability to narrate, and the cultural relevance that they deserve. It is simply not acceptable that a history is constructed almost solely on the basis of enumerable, easily computable, decontextualized data; on most used search terms, ad banner clicks, video view counters—while at the same time, things that could actually tell us something of value are regarded as "ephemeral" by nature.

I strongly believe that designing the access to complex legacy digital artifacts and systems is the largest contemporary challenge in digital culture. Rhizome is one of the few places in the world that can conduct the research and execute the ideas that I believe can make a big impact. 

Make a donation to support the sustenance and growth of Rhizome’s digital preservation work in this next phase. 

-Dragan Espenschied