Media Art Needs Global Networked Organisation & Support
An International Declaration
versión en español versione italiana
State of Affairs
Digital technology has fundamentally changed the way art is made. Over
the last forty years, Media Art has become a significant part of our
networked information society. Although there are well-attended
international festivals, collaborative research projects, exhibitions
and database documentation resources, Media Art research is still
marginal in universities, museums and archives. It remains largely
under-resourced in our core cultural institutions.
As a result of rapid changes in technology, many major works made even
10 years ago can no longer be shown or are disappearing without a trace.
If this situation is not addressed, we face losing an art form that is a
central part of our post-industrial digital culture. To date, systematic
global preservation and documentation campaigns do not exist.
Many important online documentation and research projects are also
disappearing from the web. As they falter, we risk losing their valuable
material forever. Contemporary scientific research relies on access to
shared data. The same is true of the Arts and Humanities, which lack a
concerted international policy for sustainability and support of the
digital heritage, such as exists partly in the natural sciences.
Several science disciplines have developed large collective projects to
address the challenges and opportunities of our time by way of networked
digital environments, based on a sustainable and international support
structure. International Media Art research needs similar global
organisation and collaboration.
Goals
a.) Establish international and sustainable funding structures
Therefore it is essential to establish international and sustainable
funding structures that can guarantee the persistence of these valuable
resources, and to make use of networked collaboration to archive key
data in a cooperative process of knowledge transfer between artists,
institutions and researchers internationally. While many nations are
devoting funds for interdisciplinary e-research, we urgently need global
networked collaboration in Media Art research.
Such an international structure/alliance needs the actively supported
membership of media art organisations, archives and individuals. It
should be supported with adequate funding and expertise from the
existing networks of funding agencies, archives, online initiatives and
research institutions.
b.) Supporting an International Association/Institution for Shared Data
We urgently need global networked collaboration in Media Art research
across the aforementioned networks. We need as many bridges into society
as possible: archives, conferences, text repositories, collective
database documentation, and preservation.
This alliance will promote collaboration and advocate the
sustainability, understanding and appreciation of media art heritage by:
Only when we develop systematic strategies to address these challenges
will we be able to fulfill the task that digital culture and its research
demands of us in the 21st Century.
Signing Instructions
Governments, universities, research institutions, researchers, artists,
academics, funding agencies, foundations, libraries, museums, archives,
learned societies and professional associations who share the vision
expressed in this Declaration are invited to join the signatories that
have already signed the Declaration.
Please add your name, institution/affiliation, country in the box below.
October 2011
Signatories
Sean Cubitt, Winchester School of Art, Southampton, UK
Oliver Grau, Danube University Krems, Austria
Ross Harley, COFA, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Christiane Paul, The New School, New York, USA
Diana Domingues, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil
Lanfranco Aceti, Goldsmiths and Sabanci University, UK and Turkey
Vanina Hofman, Taxonomedia, Argentina / Spain
Frieder Nake, University of Bremen, Germany
Anna Munster, National Institute for Experimental Arts, Sydney, Australia
Darko Fritz, freelance curator, researcher and artist, Croatia / Netherlands
Lisa Gye, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia
Roy Ascott, University of Plymouth, UK
Ianina Prudenko, National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Martin Warnke, Leuphana University, Germany
Mike Stubbs, FACT Liverpool, UK
Stephen Jones, Stephen Jones & Associates P/L (Video Conservation), Sydney, Australia.
Andy Williamson, Digital Strategist and Commentator, UK
Winnie Fu, Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong
Stephen Partridge, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, UK
Paul Thomas, COFA, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Alessandro Ludovico, Neural, Italy
Vince Dziekan, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Darren Tofts, Swinburne University, Melbourne Australia
Itsuo Sakane, Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences, Tokyo, Japan
Lev Manovich, University of California, San Diego, USA
ZHANG Ga, The New School / Tsinghua University, US and China
Michele Barker, COFA, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Andreas Lange, Computerspielemuseum, Berlin, Germany
Nina Czegledy, University of Toronto, Canada
Pau Alsina González, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Mikel Rotaeche y González de Ubieta, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Nelson Vergara, National University of Colombia, Bogota, Colombia
Gabriela Baldomá, Instituto de Investigación, Conservación y Restauración de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Argentina
Ryszard W. Kluszczynski, University of Lodz, Poland
Raivo Kelomees, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia
Mike Leggett, Creativity & Cognition Studios, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Anne-Marie Duguet, University of Paris 1, Paris, France
Will Straw, Department of Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University, Canada.
Steve Dietz, Northern Lights.mn, USA
Dmitry Bulatov, National Center for Contemporary Arts, Kaliningrad branch, Russia
Gunalan Nadarajan, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, USA
Maurice Benayoun, University Paris 8, Paris, France
Cleomar Rocha, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brasil
Akihiro Kubota, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan
Andres Burbano, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Eric Kluitenberg, Chief of Tactical Media Files, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
Edward A. Shanken, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Andreia Magalhaes, Fine Arts Faculty, Porto, Portugal
Felipe Cesar Londoño, International Image Festival, University of Caldas, Colombia.
Frank Popper, University of Paris VIII, Paris, France
Caitlin Fisher, York University, Toronto, Canada
Timothy Conway Murray, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell University, New York
Douglas Kahn, National Institute for Experimental Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Baruch Gottlieb, transmediale, Germany
Angel Kalenberg, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Spain
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, independent artist, Mexico, Madrid, Montreal
Andreas Broeckmann, Leuphana Arts Program, Germany
Jeffrey Shaw, City University Hong Kong School of Creative Media, Hong Kong
Olga Shishko, MediaArtLab, Information & Research Center for New Media Art and Culture, Moscow, Russia
Lars Gustaf, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Eduardo Kac, Arts Institute Chicago, Chicago, USA
Peter Weibel, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau, University of Art and Design, Linz, Austria
The list of signatories continues on the Media Art History site.
To add your signature send an email to wendy.coones@donau-uni.ac.at
[contact-form 1 “Contact form 1”]