Using the Webrecorder
The Electronic Literature Lab partnered with Rhizome to use its Webrecorder tool to preserve The Progressive Dinner Party. Developed by IIya Kreymer and directed by Dragan Espenshied, the project provides an archiving tool that preserves page performance and functionality. The Electronic Literature Lab held a Zoom meeting with Dragan Espenshied remotely, who introduced them to the Webrecorder and answered any questions the lab may have had. One of Espenshied’s main points was that there are two methods of recording that are made available by the Webrecorder: the first is used for local files, while the second is reserved for external files.
Kathleen obtained local files from the artists by contacting them via Email, while Dene Grigar sought them out through Facebook and Instagram. Though they had many of the artists’ email addresses already, they had to find some of their contacts by browsing the web for online portfolios, artist statements, interviews, etc. Once contact was made, the artist would search her personal archives for her works and send the files to Kathleen, who would proceed to download them to her computer and check for possible missing files. If files were missing, Kathleen would make a list of what was needed and send it to the artist, who would then continue searching for more files. On occasion, Kathleen would have to make alterations to the work to make them functional (such as reconstructing folders to match file directories found in the code.)
Once all the files were obtained, Kathleen would locally run them through the Webrecorder. However, certain steps had to be taken prior to the recording. The local files first had to be prepared by placing them all in the same directory, and the URLs had to be changed from absolute to relative. The WARCIT utility was then used to convert the contents of the directory into the web archive format known as WARC (WebARChive.) Afterwards, the generated WARC file was compared with the original files to check for accuracy, and notes were placed in Scalar whenever discrepancies occurred. Lastly, the WARC file was published to the online Webrecorder and made accessible online.
When needed, Kathleen was able to find the external files to a work still intact on the Web. She oftentimes found links to these files in The Progressive Dinner Party, and could run them in The Wayback Machine if need be. If she could not obtain them this way, she would search the web for other possible locations the work could have been housed, including in online journals besides Riding the Meridian and in online portfolios. Once the external files were obtained, they were first examined to ensure their functionality. Kathleen would traverse the work and compare it to other references (such as images or video traversals) of what they looked like in their original state and environment. If a work appeared differently through Chrome, Safari, FireFox or Pale Moon browsers, a note was made in Scalar noting the differences between the newly recorded work and the original. When Kathleen finished checking the work for its functionality, she would copy and paste the link into the online Webrecorder. A compatible browser was then chosen from the ones made available in the Webrecorder. Once these steps were complete, Kathleen manually traversed the works for all possible links on the site to capture them in full. The Webrecorder would generate a new URL so that the files were made available online.
In some instances, neither the local nor external files of a work could be obtained. This either meant that Kathleen could not make contact with the artist or the files were no longer available to anyone.
Below is a chart by ELL manager Holly Slocum detailing the process in which works are captured by the Webrecorder.
