Media Art Preservation Links
Media Art Preservation Links is an ongoing research initiative of the Netherlands Media Art Institute. This Media Art Preservation page is dedicated to the handling, documentation and preservation of video art and other forms of media art.
This link page is a work in progress so please contribute your media art preservation research to the editor Gaby Wijers.
Links are organized into the following categories and ordered alphabetically. They can be found by scrolling down the page:
Projects / Presentations
Institutions / Initiatives / Networks
Glossaries
Texts / Bibliographic Resources
Databases / Archives
projects / presentations
A - F
404 Object Not Found: What remains of media art?
http://nimk.nl/eng/404-object-not-found-what-remains-of-media-art
Project and congress concerning the production, presentation and preservation of media arts, such as video, net and software-based works (19.-22.6.2003, Dortmund).
AktiveArchive
http://www.aktivearchive.ch/content/information_e.html
http://www.aktivearchive.ch/digitalconservation
This research project (2004 - 2009) about conservation, restoration and also documentation was centred on the study of electronic and time-and-space-related artworks, both video and computer-based.
Archiving the Avant Garde
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/about/avantgarde
Documenting and preserving variable media art
CASPAR - Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval
http://www.casparpreserves.eu/caspar-project.html
Besides many others goals this project aims to develop virtualization services, which will support long term digital resource preservation still having in mind the normal changes associated with computing (hardware and software) and storage systems.
CoOL Conservation OnLine
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/
Resources for Conservation Professionals - links to relevant web sites
CoOL, a project of the Preservation Department of Stanford University Libraries, is a full text library of conservation information, covering a wide spectrum of topics of interest to those involved with the conservation of library, archives and museum materials
CoOL Video Preservation
palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/video/
Links to relevant web sites about video preservation.
Digital Art Conservation
http://www.digitalartconservation.org/
Digital media art conservation project, which is being accomplished since 2010 until 2012, focusing in the documentation and catalogue of digital art collections in the region of the Upper Rhine Valley.
Digitizing Contemporary Art
http://www.digitisingcontemporaryart.eu/
Project, which involves 12 European countries aiming to make contemporary art objects accessible to the wider public through their digitization and presentation at Europeana.
DOCAM - Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage
http://www.docam.ca/
DOCAM (2005-2010) was a Daniel Langlois Foundation project focused on documentation and conservation of media art. There were published guidelines based on five-research axis: conservation, documentation, cataloguing, history of technologies.
EAI Online Resource Guide for Exhibiting, Collecting & Preserving Media Art
http://www.eai.org/resourceguide/
Online resource guide for exhibiting, collecting and preserving single-channel video, installations and computer-based arts.
Experimental Television Center: Video History Project
http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/history/
On-going research initiative, which documents video art and community television.
Forging the Future
http://forging-the-future.net/
As a sequel to the Variable Media Network project it was developed an alliance, Forging the Future (2007-2008), that worked in order to provide tools related with digital culture preservation.
G - N
Inside Installations: Preservation and Presentation of Installation Art
http://www.inside-installations.org/home/index.php
Inside Installations project was an interdisciplinary European project managed by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE)*, which was developed between 2004 and 2007. Several research axis were conducted including the research into documentation, artist participation, preservation, and theory of installation art.
IMAP Independent Media Arts Preservation
www.imappreserve.org
Supporting the preservation of works reflecting the early history of independent media.
InterPARES
www.interpares.org
International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems
Media Matters
www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/majorprojects/mediamatters/
Guidelines for the processes of loans and acquisitions borrowing and lending time-based media
O - T
Obsolete Equipment: The preservation of playback and display equipment for audiovisual art.
http://www.packed.be/en/projects/readmore/obsolete_apparatuur/
This project was developed in two phases. The first phase was focused on video-based art (2009-2010) and in a second phase (2010 - 2011) the research focused on the computer-based art conservation.
POCOS - Preservation of Complex Objects Symposia
http://www.pocos.org/
Project created with the goal of delivering three symposia about different subjects, in the United Kingdom: Visualisations and simulations (16-17 June 2011); Software Art (11-12 October 2011); and Gaming Environments and Virtual Worlds (to be organized in the beginning of 2012).
PRACTICs of Contemporary art: The Future
http://www.incca.org/practices
PRACTICs (2009-2011) means Practices, Access, Collaboration, Teaching In Conservation and during this project several events were organized promoting networking between various professionals such as the Symposium Contemporary Art: Who Cares? held in Amsterdam in June 2010 and Access2CA seminars held in Ljubljana (2009) and Porto (2011).
Preserving the Immaterial: A Conference on Variable Media
http://www.variablemedia.net/e/preserving/html/var_pre_index.html
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (30.-31.3.2001)
Preservation Media Art Collections in the Netherlands
http://nimk.nl/eng/preservation-media-art-collections-in-the-netherlands
This Dutch project, coordinated by NIMk, is an effort to preserve art works from 20 national and public media art collections regarding digital sustainability of media art. In addition, the project includes the research about computer-based artworks (Born Digital Art) and the accessibility of media art in public collections.
Project Preservation Video Art
http://nimk.nl/eng/project-preservation-video-art
http://www.sbmk.nl/projects/detail/id/3
A project aiming to implement and evaluate a methodology for the preservation of analogue video works. It was focused in works of art accomplished by the first generation of video artists avoiding the threats of obsolescence and materials wear and tear of the video formats making them inaccessible in the future.
Seeing Double: Emulation in Theory and Practice
www.variablemedia.net/e/seeingdouble/home.html
Exhibition and symposium Echoes of Art: Emulation as Preservation Strategy. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. (19.3-16.4.2004)
U - Z
Variable Media Network
www.variablemedia.net
This research project aimed to help building a network of organizations to develop tools, methods and standards needed to implement new strategies for media arts conservation.
Video History Project
www.experimentaltvcenter.org/history
On-going research initiative, which documents video art and community television
Institutions / Initiatives / Networks
A - F
Association of Moving Image Archivists
www.amianet.org
AMIA is a dynamic professional association dedicated to advancing the preservation, collection, and use of moving images through public and professional education.
Bay Area Video Coalition
www.bavc.org
BAVC is a nonprofit media arts center. BAVC was launched in 1976 as a way to make emerging video technology accessible to independent media makers.
The Daniel Langlois Foundation
www.fondation-langlois.org
The Daniel Langlois Foundation's purpose is to further artistic and scientific knowledge by fostering the meeting of art and science in the field of technologies.
Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)
www.eai.org
EAI is a leading nonprofit resource for video art and interactive media.
EAI Online Resource Guide for Exhibiting, Collecting & Preserving Media Art
http://www.eai.org/resourceguide/
Online resource guide for exhibiting, collecting and preserving single-channel video, installations and computer-based arts.
Electronic Media Group
http://cool.conservation-us.org/coolaic/sg/emg/
EMG strives to preserve electronic art, electronic-based cultural materials and tools of its creation while also providing a means for conservators and related professionals to develop and maintain knowledge of relevant new media and emerging technologies.
FIAF International Federation of Film Archives
http://www.fiafnet.org/
FIAF brings together institutions dedicated to rescuing films both as cultural heritage and as historical documents. Also organises a summer school in association with the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE).
G - N
Hochschule für Gestaltung, Kunst und Konservierung, Bern
http://www.hkb.bfh.ch/en/studium/fachbereiche/kur/
Conservation and restoration department at Bern University of the Arts.
IMAP Independent Media Arts Preservation
www.imappreserve.org
Supporting the preservation of works reflecting the early history of independent media
INCCA (Amsterdam)
www.incca.org
INCCA, International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art, is a network of professionals connected through the conservation of modern and contemporary art.
Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk), Preservation
http://nimk.nl/eng/preservation
Preservation department of NIMk, offering a vast array of information about media arts preservation, information about a number of research projects, and models for media arts documentation.
National Television and Video Preservation Foundation (NTVPF)
www.ntvpf.tv
The National Television and Video Preservation Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization created to fulfill a long-standing need by raising private funds and providing grants to support preservation and access projects at institutions with television and video collections throughout the United States.
Media Arts & Electronic Culture
www.netzspannung.org
An Internet platform for artistic production, media projects, and inter-media research. As an interface between media art, media technology and society, it functions as an information pool for artists, designers, computer scientists and cultural scientists.
O - T
PACKED
Centre of Expertise in Digital Heritage
http://www.packed.be/
Flemish centre for centering and spreading the development of knowledge, experience and expertise concerning digitization and digital archiving.
PADI
http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/
The National Library of Australia's Preserving Access to Digital
Tate
http://www.tate.org.uk/conservation/time/
Tate Conservation: time-based media conservation
U - Z
Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie
www.zkm.de
ZKM probes new media in theory and practice, tests their potential with in-house developments, presents possible uses in exemplary form and promotes debate on the form our information society is taking.
Glossaries
Art and Architecture Thesaurus. Getty Research Institute
www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/aat/
Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC): video preservation glossary of terms
palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/bavc/bavcterm.html
Capturing Unstable Media, Glossary
http://capturing.projects.v2.nl/glossary.html
Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage
DOCAM Glossauros
http://www.docam.ca/en/glossaurus.html
Electronic Arts Intermix: Glossary of terms relating to electronic media
http://resourceguide.eai.org/glossary.html
Inside Installations Glossary
http://glossary.inside-installations.org/
Preservation of Dutch Video Art Collections: glossary of terms
www.montevideo.nl/en/pdf/CONSERVERING_153tm168.pdf
Universal Format Preservation Glossary
http://info.wgbh.org/upf/glossary.html
Variable Media Glossary
variablemedia.net/pdf/Glossary_ENG.pdf
texts / Bibliographic resources
A - F
Bek, R.
Between Ephemeral and Material - Documenatation and Preservation of Technology-Based Works of Art” in Inside Installations. Theory and Practice in the Care of Complex Artworks edited by Tatja Scholte and Glenn Wharton. Amsterdam University Press, 2011.
Brokerhof, A, W., Scholte, T., Ankersmit, B., Wijers, G., Vermaat, S.
“Installation Art Subjected to risk Assessment - Jeffrey Shaw’s Revolution as Case Study” in Inside Installations; Theory and Practice in the Care of Complex Artworks, Tatja Scholte and Glenn Wharton (eds), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011
Depocas, Alain
"Digital Preservation: Recording the Recoding." 2001. Ars Electronica Festival 31.12.2003
Depocas, Alain Jon Ippolito & Caitlin Jones (Eds.)
Permanence Through Change: The Variable Media Approach / La permanence par le changement: L'approche des médias variables, Guggenheim Museum Publications, NY, USA & La fondation Daniel Langlois pour l'art, la science et la technologie, Montreal, Canada, 2003, ISBN 0-99684693-2-9
http://www.variablemedia.net/e/preserving/html/var_pub_index.html
G - N
Gapsevicius, Mindaugas, Vanishing net art, 1999
'Introduction to Net Art Restoration"
www.o-o.lt/agon/v_n.a/
Huber, Hans Dieter
"About the collection, preservation and presentation of bits and bytes"
http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/ARTNINE/huber/writings/bitse.html
Huber, Hans Dieter
"PPP From Point to Point or from Production to Presentation to Preservation of Media Art"
Lecture held at the congress 404 Object Not Found, Dormund 19-22, June 2003.
http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/ARTNINE/huber/writings/ppp_e.html
Jimenez, M & Miller Hocking, S
Video preservation - The basics, New York: Media Alliance.
Laurenson, P.
"The conservation and documentation of video art” in Modern Art: Who Cares? An Interdisciplinary Research Project and an International Symposium on the Conservation of Modern and Contemporary Art. Ed. Ysbrand Hummelen and Dionne Sillé. Amsterdam: Stichting Behoud Moderne Kunst / Instituut Collectie Nederland, 1999
Laurenson, P.
The Management of Display Equipment in Time-based Media Installations, Tate Papers Spring 2005. Available: http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/05spring/laurenson.htm
Laurenson, P.
“Vulnerabilities and Contingencies in the Conservation of Time-based Media Works of Art” in Inside Installations; theory and Practice in the Care of Complex Artworks, Tatja Scholte and Glenn Wharton (eds), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011
Lawers, M
Changing Sceneries, Changing Roles - Media Management in the Digital Era, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, 2004.
Misselbeck, Reinhold, Martin Turck (Eds.)
Video in Museum, Restaurierung und Erhaltung, neue Methoden der Presentation, der Originalbegriff, Internationals Symposium, Museum Ludwig (9.9.2000), Köln, 2001
O - T
Rinehart, Richard
"Preserving the Rhizome ArtBase", September 2002
rhizome.org/artbase/report.htm
Rosenthal, S.H,
Format obsolescence: assessing the threat and the defenses. Library hi tech,
28(2), 195-210. (2010).
www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1864748&show=pdf
Rothenberg, Jeff
Digital Preservation Summary, 2003
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/rothenberg.pdf
Saaze, V. van, Wijers, G.
Research into four media installations, Materiaaltechnische informatie over beeldende kunst (Information on materials used in the visual arts), No. 46, Summer 2003.
http://www.eai.org/resourceguide/collection/installation/pdf/saaze_wijers.pdf
Sharp, Rebecca
"The Ephemeral Will Endure: The future of conceptual art and digital preservation: an interview with Jon Ippolito", DigiCULT: A Newsletter on Digital Culture, Issue 2 (2002), p.9.
http://www.digicult.info/downloads/digicult_info2.pdf
Tabea Lurk
“On the Aging of Net Art Works” (Basel 2010) in: Owning Online Art, Selling and collecting netbased artworks, Ed.: Markus Schwander, Reinhard Storz, Basel FHNW 2010, p. 51-65.
http://www.ooart.ch/publikation/inhalt/PDF/06-Tabea-Lurk-e.pdf
Tabea Lurk
An Evaluation Schema for Born-Digital Media Artworks?
Examining the Preservation of Internet-based Art. (Media in Motion / DOCAM 2008).
http://www.aktivearchive.ch/digitalconservation/media_in_motion_docam_final.pdf
Tabea Lurk
Virtualisation as conservation measure (Archiving 2008)
http://www.aktivearchive.ch/digitalconservation/Archiving_Paper_TL.pdf
Tykwer, F. Y.
“Frabrizio Plessis Liquid Time II at ZKM | Center for Art and Media: (Part 2) Technical Options and Limitations for an Authentic Reinstallation” in Inside Installations. Theory and Practice in the Care of Complex Artworks edited by Tatja Scholte and Glenn Wharton. Amsterdam University Press, 2011.
U - Z
Waibel, Günther
"Produce, Publish and Preserve: A Holistic Approach to Digital Assets Management," Spectra (Fall) 2000, pp. 38-43
www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/moac/imaging/
Wheeler, Jim
Videotape Preservation Handbook, 2002.
http://amianet.org/resources/guides/WheelerVideo.pdf
Wijers, Gaby, Evert Rodrigo, Ramon Coelho (Eds.)
De houdbaarheid van videokunst = The sustainability of video art, Amsterdam: Foundation for the Preservation of Modern Art, 2003, ISBN 90-807675-1-4
http://nimk.nl/eng/preservation/pilot-project-preservation-in-video-art
Wijers, G.
Control and Preserving of Videotapes, An Introduction to the Handling, Storage and Conservation of Analog and Digital Videotapes, 2003.
Available: www.eai.org/resourceguide/collection/singlechannel/pdf/wijers_control.pdf
Wijers, G.
“To Emulate or Not” in Inside Installations. Theory and Practice in the Care of Complex Artworks edited by Tatja Scholte and Glenn Wharton. Amsterdam University Press, 2011.
http://nimk.nl/eng/to-emulate-or-not
Zirlewagen, T.
“Frabrizio Plessis Liquid Time II at ZKM | Center for Art and Media: (Part 1) The Ravages of (Run)time - Maintenance of Electronic Hardware During Long-term Preservation” in Inside Installations. Theory and Practice in the Care of Complex Artworks edited by Tatja Scholte and Glenn Wharton. Amsterdam University Press, 2011.
Databases / Archives
A - F
AIC American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
http://www.conservation-us.org/
Provides a forum for art conservators and related professionals.
ArtBase
www.rhizome.org/artbase
Rhizome.org connecting art and technology.
Artnine
http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/ARTNINE/
Basis Wien
www.basis-wien.at
Art, Information and Archive.
(The) CACHe Project Archive:
http://www.e-x-p.org/cache/index.HTM
Archive of pioneering British computer art.
Cinovid
www.cinovid.org
Database for experimental film and video art.
Conservation OnLine (CoOl)
palimpsest.stanford.edu/
Resources for Conservation Professionals.
Danish Video Art Data Bank
www.mediaart-preservation.dk
Non-profit agency for promoting of Danish video art outside Denmark.
DIGA - The Digital Game Archive
http://www.digitalgamearchive.org
Electronic Arts Intermix
www.eai.org
A leading nonprofit resource for video art and interactive media.
EMG Electronic Media Group
http://cool.conservation-us.org/coolaic/sg/emg/
A specialty group of the American Institute for Conservation.
G - N
GAMA - Gateway to Archives of Media Art
http://www.gama-gateway.eu/
Access to information about the works of media artists from European collections of media art.
Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/index.php
Digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artefacts in digital form.
KEEP - Keeping Emulation Environments Portable
http://www.keep-project.eu/ezpub2/index.php
The project goals consists in assisting the universal access and preservation of digital heritage by means of flexible tools for accessing and storing a wide range of digital objects. Thus, it aims to develop emulation services for the access in long term and it will also approach the legal issues linked to the implementation of emulation-based systems.
Lux Online
www.luxonline.org.uk/work/index.html
A web resource for exploring British based artists' film and video in-depth.
MAH Media Art Histories Archive
http://www.mediaarthistory.org/
Archiving the histories of media art, science and technology.
MEDIAFILES.AT
mediafiles.at/php/index.html
Online-informations system media für Österreichischen Medienkunst
MEDIA ART NET
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/mediaartnet/
Extensive Media Art Resource.
MKA Medien Kunst Archiv Wien
http://www.mka.at/
The MKA has set itself the goal of archiving media art, and developing related theory and mediation of this art in the Internet.
netart-Datenbank
www.netart-datenbank.org
Sammlung, documentation & präsentation von netzkunst.
Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk) - Catalogue
catalogue.montevideo.nl/
Cataloge of media art works from the Netherlands Media Art Institute collection
O - T
OASIS Archive
http://www.oasis-archive.eu/index.php/Hauptseite
Open archiving system with Internet sharing.
Open Archives Initiative
http://www.openarchives.org/
The Open Archives Initiative develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content.
OVNI, Barcelona
http://www.desorg.org
Observatori de Video Non Identificat
PADI Preserving Access to Digital Information
www.nla.gov.au/padi/
Subject gateway to international digital preservation resources.
POCOS - Preservation of Complex Objects Symposia
http://www.pocos.org/
Project created with the goal of delivering three symposia about different subjects, in the United Kingdom: Visualisations and simulations (16-17 June 2011); Software Art (11-12 October 2011); and Gaming Environments and Virtual Worlds (to be held in the beginning of 2012).
Rewind
http://www.rewind.ac.uk/rewind/index.php/Welcome
Rhizome
http://rhizome.org/
Rhizome is an organization focused on creation, presentation, preservation and also critique of emerging artistic practices, which embrace technology.
Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu/about/index.php
Presents international artwork produced on CD-Rom, DVD-Rom, video, digital interfaces, and the internet.
Sitemapping.ch
http://www.sitemapping.ch
U - Z
V2_ARCHIVE
archive.v2.nl
The web-based portal of V2_'s archive.
VEKTOR European Contemporary Art Archives
http://www.vektor.at/
Since mid-1999 various archives and databases concerned with recent and contemporary art have been co-operating under the name VEKTOR. The long-term goal of this co-operation is the linking of decentralised archives through a central Internet interface.
Video Data Bank
www.vdb.org
A leading resource in the United States for videotapes by and about contemporary artists
Video History Project
http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/history
Wayback Machine
http://www.waybackmachine.org
The Internet Archive, working with Alexa Internet, has created the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine makes it possible to surf more than 10 billion pages stored in the Internet Archive's web archive.