From Bytecode to Heritage: AI-Assisted Restoration of Java Executable Artworks

Abstract

Executable works produced in Java in the late 1990s are threatened by the disappearance of applets and the obsolescence of their software interfaces. This article presents an exploratory study of their restoration from bytecode and surviving assets, without access to the original source code. The protocol combines two conventional decompilers, a coding assistant based on a large language model, historical references, and iterative human validation. Following a methodological pilot on John Maeda’s Flora Calendar, it is applied to Forward (Komplex, 1998), a complex and obfuscated Java demo. In these two cases, reconstruction in the original language provides a more reliable foundation than direct porting: it allows us to restore execution, examine the algorithmic logic scene by scene, and then produce documented derivative versions. The contribution is a traceable heritage-restoration protocol that restores access to some of the aesthetic and technical know-how buried in the code. AI acts as an assistant for interpretation and repair; the fidelity of the reconstruction remains subject to external evidence and human expertise.