A time-based media installation is best understood in its installed state as a dynamic system. The system transforms a media element into sound and image, which unfold to the viewer over time, within the context of a prescribed environment. The installation may also include sculptural elements. A system can be defined as 'an assembly of components, connected together in an organised way'. The components are effected by being in the system and the behavior of the system is changed if they leave it. In determining the identity of a work, conservators are interested in the relationship of the components of the system to the meaning of the installation. Some of the components may have a significance broader than purely functional value.
Laurenson, 2004
Refers to works that incorporate a video, slide, film, audio or computer based element. Time-based media installations involve a media element that is played back within a defined space and in a way that has been specified by the artist. Part of what it means to experience these works is to experience their unfolding over time according to temporal logic of the medium as it is played back. (q)
Laurenson, Lecture 2006
