Fountains of Data: Meandering Through Healing Waters: Case Study

Fountains of Data is an open-access research-creation repository documenting over 90 ancient Celtic healing fountains located in Brittany, France. Compiled by artist and professor Marilène Oliver in 2024 and revisited in 2025 in collaboration with professor and composer Scott Smallwood, the collection includes LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scans, 360° video (in both 4K and 8K resolutions), 360° photographs, and 360° ambisonic sound recordings for over 30 fountains, alongside detailed historical, ritual, and descriptive metadata. This paper presents a case study of an ongoing collaboration between the artist and the Library to digitally preserve and provide access to this rich archive in Aviary, an audiovisual digital curation platform. Integrated into the case study is concrete technical and operational guidance for preserving and providing access to spatial media, as drawn from best practices and the scholarly literature. Fountains of Data frames the database itself as a conceptual artwork. Rather than a static archive, it functions as an “aviary” of data, inviting audiences to meander through fountains and experience the interplay of birdsong, trickling water, overgrown ruins, and ritual sites. Of direct relevance to the conference theme encouraging play in digital preservation, Fountains of Data embraces exploration and experimentation as its core design principles. This orientation likewise requires the adoption of playful approaches to digital preservation, and an ongoing commitment to flexibility and change as the project develops. Immersive artworks such as Fountains of Data pose significant digital preservation challenges for cultural heritage institutions, including complex file-integrity requirements, substantial storage demands, and labour-intensive deposit and packaging workflows arising from the technical complexity of spatial media. Addressing these challenges required research into best practices for preserving immersive artworks, as well as the development of custom workflows for transcoding large-format video into streaming derivatives while retaining embedded spatial metadata. Additionally, there are inherent limitations to supporting fully authentic immersive (and playful) user experiences within digital repository environments such as Aviary. Reflecting on these challenges and limitations, we argue that an access-first approach to preserving immersive art forms offers a productive path forward. Identifying technical and experiential limitations through practice can inform the evolution of digital repositories by encouraging service expansion and the adoption of creative approaches. Working together in the spirit of resisting the static nature of the archive and embracing creative approaches to digital preservation have shown us the value of different expertises being in conversation with one another.