The Variable Media Network is joint project by the Guggenheim Museum and the Daniel Langlois Foundation to look at models for preserving “performance, conceptual art, installations and, of course, artwork incorporating technological elements or relying on structures or networks that are themselves very unstable.” The project has online case studies and has published a edited book, Permanence Through Change.
This concept (variable media) suggests considering the description of works independently of the media used to create them. Rather than list a work’s physical components, the variable media approach is to understand the work’s behavioural characteristics and intrinsic effects. (Variable Media Concept as developed by Jon Ippolito, quoted on Fondation Daniel Langlois page.)
The idea if preserving variation and behaviour instead of stable media makes sense as a strategy for documenting interactive works, even beyond new media art, like computer games and electronic literature.