Domain expiration and hosting lapses AI-researched
Dependency: Domain renewals and web hosting
Net art can disappear without any platform shutdown when domains expire, hosting is not renewed, or credentials are lost — often producing silent 404s and partial file loss that complicates restoration.
Affected Artworks
Martine Neddam
Requires ongoing domain registration, email, moderation tools, and hosting maintenance. Actively maintained by artist; still at structural risk.
Olia Lialina
Distributed web files/locations across the network. Partial destruction through code obsolescence and liquidation of some locations.
Beat Brogle & Philippe Zimmermann
Depends on a maintained project domain plus server-side code and upstream services.
Fixes & Mitigations
- Workaround: Prevention: auto-renew domains, institutional escrow for accounts/credentials, redundancy for DNS and storage.
- Archive: Periodic WARC captures plus complete server-side source escrow; store build/deploy instructions.
Not a single “switch-off,” but a recurring failure mode: registrars delete domains after expiry; hosts delete sites after non-payment; credentials and moderation access become unavailable.
Notes
This entry pairs well with hosting shutdown entries because it explains “why works vanish even when the web still exists.”