Electronic Media Review The postprint publication of AIC's Electronic Media Group An Exploration of Significance, Dependency, and Virtualization in the Conservation of Software-based Artworks Patricia Falcao, Annet Dekker, and Pip Laurenson ABSTRACT Tate is actively involved in the conservation of software-based artworks in its collection. This paper builds on research carried out at Tate over the past twelve years, bringing together the investigation of significant properties with more recent work focused on understanding dependencies and developing strategies to mitigate the risks associated with technical obsolescence. The research described in this paper is based both on the day-to-day practice in Time-based Media Conservation and on results of Tate’s participation in the European research project PERICLES, which was a four-year European funded project focusing on evaluating and representing the risks for long-term preservation of digital resources. 1