ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that documents can sometimes communicate more about a work and how it is experienced than its physical manifestation can. It focuses on documentation as a tool in conservation. The word 'document' derives from the Latin verb docere, 'to learn, and inform', as well as documentum that signifies instruction and/or teaching. A framework of a documentation model for net art should address the creative process, reflect the work's variability, relate to the context and take into account the participants' experience. Blast Theory's documentation as presentation follows their 'open-ended' strategy in which hierarchy, or in this case one pivotal perspective, is avoided as much as possible. By using documentation as process and making specific documentation that reflects the intention, concept and atmosphere of the live performance, documentation as presentation, and combining these in an archive, at first sight Blast Theory seems to be focused on future re-creation.
