Finn, Dan

Media Conservator

Dan Finn's conservation work specializes in time-based media art. These include artworks that incorporate film, analog video, digital video, sound, computer technology, performance, and other electronic media. His research interests include large-scale multimedia installations, the use of AI in artworks, software-based art, video art, and the evolving roles of conservators and other museum staff in the care of time-based media art.

Positions

Conservator, Time-based Media, Smithsonian American Art Museum 2015 -
Media Preservation and Digitization Specialist, National Museum of African American History & Culture 2014 - 2015

Background And Education

Education And Training

M.A. in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation, New York University , Tisch School of the Arts, Thesis title: Out of the Darkness: Preserving the Digital Output of Independent Punk and Metal Labels 2012 - 2014
B.A. in Modern Studies, University of Virginia , College of Arts and Sciences 2004 - 2008

Professional Biography

Dan Finn is a media conservator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He received an MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from New York University in 2014. He also serves as chair of the Smithsonian's pan-institutional Time-based Media and Digital Art Working Group. He previously worked as a media preservation and digitization specialist for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He has additional media archiving experience with Democracy Now!, CUNY-TV, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Third World Newsreel.