Introduction The Contexts of Documentation

This introduction traces the origins and early debates relating to the practice of documentation in information studies, performance studies, and art history to understand how museums are affected by changes in the documentation of digital art. Analysing what artists, museums, and researchers have understood documentation to be in a range of contexts, this introduction focuses on emergent uses of documentation, especially in relation to the three main practices of production, circulation, and preservation of art that inform the three main sections of this publication and illustrate the use of documentation as art.