🌐 Tom Ensom

I am a freelance digital conservator based near London. I specialise in the preservation of software-based art and work with those caring for it to research, develop and implement strategies for its long-term preservation.

You can contact me at tom@tomensom.com.

💿 What is Digital Conservation?

Digital media is vulnerable to loss: hard drives fail, computer hardware becomes rapidly obsolete and file formats fall out of use. Maintaining access to artworks that depend on digital media requires an active approach of monitoring, assessment and intervention. To achieve this, a digital conservator works at the intersection of the traditions of cultural heritage conservation and digital preservation, applying their respective principles to caring for a variety of media types (e.g. video, software, web content) and the hardware required to access those media.

I have a particular interest and expertise in the conservation of artworks with software and computer components. These can be used in a wide variety of ways by artists e.g. to generate moving images, to publish web content or to control other electronic equipment. With their basis in the live execution of computer code, and the host of technologies needed to support this, such artworks pose various medium-specific conservation considerations that myself and colleagues in the conservation and preservation communities are working to address.

🎓 Research and Teaching

Research Interests

  • Conservation and long-term preservation of time-based media artworks, particularly software-based artworks.
  • Environment intervention as a conservation strategy e.g. disk imaging, emulation and virtualisation.
  • Analysis, documentation and reverse engineering of software objects and environments.
  • Use of software as an artistic and creative medium, particularly real-time 3D rendering and game engine technologies.
  • Approaches to creating documentation and sharing knowledge in support of time-based media conservation.

Teaching

I regularly teach courses and workshops on digital conservation, software-based art conservation and related topics, including disk imaging and emulation. For more information and availability, please get in touch using the details at the top of this page.

PhD Research

My PhD research explored documentation theory and practice in the conservation of software-based art. This research was the result of an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Award between King's College London and Tate. The thesis was examined in November 2018 and passed with minor corrections. The thesis, titled Technical Narratives: Analysis, Description and Representation in the Conservation of Software-based Art, is available online via the King's College London Research Portal.

👨‍💻 Professional Practice

As a freelance digital conservator, I work with arts organisations and artists to:

  • Apply conservation best practices to the care of digital and time-based media artworks, particularly software-based artworks.
  • Retrieve data from contemporary, ageing and obsolete media (e.g. computers, optical discs, storage drives).
  • Develop best practices, equipment and workflows to support the acquisition and treatment of digital and time-based artworks.
  • Enhance the documentation and metadata created for digital and time-based artworks and their components.

I work regularly with Tate's Time-based Media Conservation team as a freelance acquisitions conservator and on two research projects, the Software-based Art Preservation project and the Preserving Immersive Media project.

If there's something you'd like to work with me on, please get in touch using the details at the top of this page.

📝 Publications

Selected Publications

  • Bernard, E., Ensom, T., François, R., and Kranz, T. (2024). Opening Windows: Remote Imaging as a Preservation Tool for Legacy Computers. Conference paper published in iPRES 2024 proceedings. Available online.
  • Engel, D., Ensom, T., Falcão, P. and Phillips, J. (2022). Caring for Software- and Computer-based Art. Book chapter in Conservation of Time-Based Media Art, ed. Engel, D. and Phillips, J. Publication information. Accepted Manuscript PDF.
  • Ensom, T. and McConchie, J. (2021). Preserving Virtual Reality Artworks. White paper created as part of Tate's Preserving Immersive Media Project. Available online.
  • Ensom, T. and Falcão, P. (2019). Conserving Digital Art. Book chapter in Museums and Digital Culture, ed. Bowen, J. and Gianichi, T. Preprint available online.
  • Ensom, T. (2019). Technical Narratives: Analysis, Description and Representation in the Conservation of Software-based Art. PhD Thesis. Available online.
  • Ensom, T. (2018). Revealing Hidden Processes: Reverse Engineering and Instrumentation in the Conservation of Software-Based Art. Paper in the American Institute of Conservation's EMG Review (5). Available online.
  • Rechert, K., Falcão, P., & Ensom, T. (2016). Introduction to an emulation-based preservation strategy for software-based artworks. Published by Tate and available online.

Selected Presentations and Workshops

  • Ensom, T. (2024). Conserving Artworks Created in Contemporary Game Engines. Speaker and panelist for the event ‘Donnerstags-Vortrag #70 - From Pop Culture to Cultural Heritage: Preserving historic and contemporary video game technologies’, Hochschule der Künste Bern, Switzerland, 17 October 2024. Event web page.
  • Ensom, T. (2022). A Medium for Building Worlds: Conserving Artworks Created in Game Engines. Presentation for the 'Topics in Time-based Media Conservation' series, organised by the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, November 30 2022. Video recording available online.
  • Ensom, T. and McConchie, J. (2022). Preserving Virtual Reality Artworks. Just in Time: On the Status Quo and Future of Electronic Art Preservation, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany 7-8 October 2022. Event web page.
  • Ensom, T. and Falcão, P. (2022). Preserving Software-based Art at Tate: From Research to Best Practices. American Institute of Conservation Annual Meeting 2022, Los Angeles, California, USA, 13-18 May 2022. Event web page.
  • Ensom, T. (2022). Caring for Real-Time 3D and Virtual Reality Artworks. Guest lecture for the Handling Complex Media module on the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation at NYU, 12 April 2022.
  • Ensom, T., McConchie, J., Espenschied, D. and Röck, C. (2019). Understanding the Variability of Virtual Reality Artworks. Hackathon at iPRES 2019, EYE Film Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 17-19 October 2019. Abstract available online.
  • Ensom, T. (2019). Digital Materiality and the Conservation of Software-based Art. For 'Collecting Digital and Intangible Objects' panel at V&A Digital Design Weekend, V&A, London, 22 August 2019. Event web page.
  • McConchie, J. and Ensom, T. (2019). Preserving virtual reality artworks: a museum perspective. Presentation at ACM SIGGRAPH 2019, Los Angeles, USA, 29 July 2019. Summary paper available online.
  • Ensom, T. and King, C. (2019). Conserving Software-Based Artworks: Negotiating Ontology and Technology. Sussex Humanities Lab, University of Sussex, Sussex, UK, 1 May 2019. Event web page.
  • Ensom, T. and Seuskens, W. (2019). Disk Imaging and the Preservation of Software-Based Artworks: A Practical Introduction. Workshop at Future Proof!? Transformation Digital Art 2019, LIMA, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 22 March 2019. Event web page.
  • Ensom, T. and McConchie, J. (2019). Towards a Preservation Strategy for Virtual Reality Artworks. Vanishing Point: The Curation and Preservation of Virtual Reality, Central Saint Martins, London, UK, 19th March 2019. Video recording available online.
  • Ensom, T. and Falcao, F. (2018). Can We Beat Obsolescence? Subtitled Public 10 Years On. Conservation Piece(s) IV, Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel, Switzerland, 25 June 2018. Event web page.
  • Ensom, T. (2018). Revealing Hidden Processes: Reverse Engineering and Instrumentation in the Conservation of Software-Based Art. American Institute of Conservation Annual Meeting 2019, Houston, Texas, USA, 1 June 2018. Event web page.