It’s no secret that we are passionate about preserving irreplaceable data at Ovation. We believe that when current and historical data isn’t protected, invaluable knowledge can be lost, creating gaps that can’t be filled and holding back future progress.
That belief shapes everything we do, from recovering fragile archives to structuring complex digital collections. But preservation today looks very different from even a decade ago. The next generation of curators will move away from handling paper files and photographs. They’ll be working primarily with emails, databases, audiovisual files, and technical datasets created at scale and under very different assumptions about privacy and consent. The role of the curator is expanding, and so is the responsibility that comes with it.
That’s why we’re investing in the future of digital curation through our internship program.
Our partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London, brings emerging curators into the real working environment of Ovation. The internship is designed to expose them not only to digital preservation workflows, but to the judgment and complexity that comes with them.
We took some time to speak with our interns, Charlie (not pictured), Bryan, and Yi, about their experience at Ovation, as well as how the digital transformation space is changing.
The Value of Real Experience
“It’s been a really rewarding cross-disciplinary practical experience because it is so different from your lessons or your experience in an art college. Working with Ovation it has been interesting to focus on the practical specifics of what archiving and digital heritage is.” -Charlie
The most consistent thing our interns tell us is how valuable it has been to apply their learning in a real-world setting. Digital curation principles are taught as part of their degree, but opportunities to put theory into practice are limited.
At Ovation, they’ve been working directly with digital records and have quickly learned that effective curation isn’t just about following a process. It’s about applying judgment, patience, organization, and teamwork, often all at once. They’ve found that tasks that look straightforward in theory become more nuanced when real data, real constraints, and real consequences are involved.
They’re also seeing first-hand how the scope of curatorial work is expanding. Increasingly, curators are responsible for digital collections created before today’s data protection frameworks existed, alongside large volumes of material that must be structured carefully to remain usable and compliant. Understanding how to work responsibly with this kind of data, and how to manage access appropriately within modern regulatory and ethical boundaries, is now just as important as traditional curation skills.
Digital Preservation at Scale
“In contemporary art at the moment you’re seeing this rise in digital time-based media entering institutions. Digital heritage and preservation practice is extremely important here. If there’s no means of understanding how to collect or archive this work, then it’s not going to be able to be displayed or be part of a collection that’s available in the future.” -Bryan
Today’s curators are increasingly responsible not only for digital records and personal information, but also for creative works that exist entirely in digital form, from films and artworks to interactive media, games, and digital publications. The volume of this content is growing rapidly, making digital preservation a central concern across the heritage sector and raising important questions about how materials should be preserved, accessed, and understood over time.
We’ve enjoyed listening to our interns’ thoughts on how this should be addressed. They’ve highlighted the growing need for collaboration between curators, technical specialists, and content creators. As collections become more complex, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to preservation. Future curators will need enough technical literacy to ask the right questions, understand constraints, and help shape decisions that respect both the material and the people connected to it.
Digital Preservation and the Role of AI
“It’s important to be aware of the limitations of AI and the potential biases that can arise with metadata and how they influence what and how things are archived. So it’s challenging this generation of curators to really start considering those things when it comes to digital heritage.” -Charlie
AI is an important part of our work at Ovation, and our interns were keen to explore its role in digital preservation. What stood out most in their reflections was how important human oversight remains, questioning their previously held assumptions that AI enabled total automation.
They noted that while AI can speed up certain tasks, it doesn’t replace the careful judgment or essential quality control that curators bring to the table. Decisions about quality, context, sensitivity, and bias still require human expertise especially when working with historical collections that may reflect inequalities, gaps, or perspectives that need careful handling.
The interns’ observations are a reminder that technology plays an important role, but it sits alongside human expertise, not in place of it. It is important that curators stay informed about changing processes and ethical questions surrounding data preservation. This insight provides the context, corrections, and critical thinking that AI alone can’t offer.
Looking Ahead
Digital preservation is moving steadily up the agenda across the heritage sector. It features more prominently in industry conversations and is recognized for its importance in expanding access to historical archives and collections. At the same time, challenges are growing, from managing sensitive data to navigating regulation and rapidly changing technology.
Our internship program gives students the opportunity to engage with these realities early in their careers. For us, it’s a chance to listen, to understand how newer curators see the landscape, and to share experience that helps them build confidence in their practice.
By bringing academic learning and industry experience closer together, we can help support a generation of curators who are comfortable working with digital records and equipped to guide institutions through an increasingly complex landscape.
Careful, thoughtful curation today is what will ensure that knowledge, memory, and context are preserved for the future.
“Preservation is not only important in the curating field, it is also highly connected with the media industry, art auctions and galleries. So it is really important for us to have training in this kind of data management company and to build our hands-on skills on how to deal with artifacts and historical documents.” -Yi
