TechArchaeology: Works by James Coleman and Vito Acconci

Two very different pieces of installation art - Vito Acconci's Pornography in the Classroom (1975) and James Coleman's INITIALS (1993–94) - are analyzed using the protocols pioneered at the TechArchaeology Symposium. The Acconci work has two video channels, one with audio soundtrack and a series of slides. It is a conceptual work that was reformatted in 1998. James Coleman's INITIALS has one visual element—slides—with a synchronized audio channel output from four speakers. The differences are between a 25-year-old reformatted conceptual work (Acconci's) and a recent “structuralist's” work (Coleman's) that must be kept in its original format for the foreseeable future. This article is a result of TechArchaeology: A Symposium on Installation Art Preservation. (SFMOMA, January 5-6 2000)

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