Module IV - Online Resources on Media Art

1. Research projects

• Media Matters. http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/matters-media-art. (Consulted on July 4, 2008).

Media Matters, a research project led by the Tate, MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and the New Art Trust, provides detailed recommendations for the acquisition and loan of time-based media artworks. Templates for condition reports and reproduction rights contracts can be downloaded from the site. In the Acquisition section, the process for acquiring media artworks is broken down into three phases: pre-acquisition, accessioning and post-acquisition. Purchase contracts can also be downloaded from the site.

• International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (INCCA). http://www.incca.org/. (Consulted on July 4, 2008).

This Web site contains information on projects, seminars, documentation and student theses as well as articles on the conservation of modern and contemporary art.

• Inside Installations: Preservation and Presentation of Installation Art. https://www.tate.org.uk/about-us/projects/inside-installations. (Consulted on July 4, 2008).

The project Inside Installations: Preservation and Presentation of Installation Art is coordinated by the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN) in Amsterdam. It has partnerships with institutions in Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain and Holland. The project's Web site presents the results of some 30 case studies of installations (including media artworks) for which conservation has proven to be a challenge. The site also contains best practices' guides for the application of strategies for conservation, documentation, etc.

• V2_: Institute for the Unstable Media. Capturing Unstable Media. http://capturing.projects.v2.nl/index.html. (Consulted July 7, 2008).

This Web site includes a summary of research conducted by the V2_ archival team on documenting electronic artworks for conservation purposes. The site also offers strategy recommendations for the documentation of electronic art, metadata and archival interoperability, as well as a glossary.

• Variable Media Network. http://variablemedia.net/e/welcome.html. (Consulted on July 10, 2008).

The Variable Media Network is coordinated by the Guggenheim Museum and the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology. Drawing on case studies and three major publications, the Web site describes conservation strategies for media artworks from both a theoretical and practical point of view. It also contains documentation from the exhibition Seeing Double (Guggenheim Museum, March 19 to May 16, 2004), transcripts from the symposium Echoes of Art: Emulation as a Preservation Strategy (Guggenheim Museum, May 8, 2004), and the publication Permanence through Change.

• Archiving the Avant-Garde. http://archive.bampfa.berkeley.edu/about/avantgarde. (Consulted on July 7, 2008).

The research project Archiving the Avant-Garde is led by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. The project's Web site includes videos of the New Media & Social Memory symposium (January 2007) as well as essays and articles on conservation strategies for digital art.

• Forging the Future. http://newmedia.umaine.edu/feature.php?id=685. (Consulted on July 7, 2008).

Part of the New Media program at the University of Maine, the Forging the Future research project offers terminology and tools for the conservation of media art.

• EAI, Electronic Arts Intermix. "EAI Online Resource Guide for Exhibiting, Collecting & Preserving Media Art. http://resourceguide.eai.org/. (Consulted on July 8, 2008).

EAI, Electronic Arts Intermix is an organization that distributes and conserves a major collection of video art. The EAI Online Resource Guide for Exhibiting, Collecting & Preserving Media Art offers a guide to best practices in exhibiting, acquiring and conserving media artworks, including single-channel videos, computer-based art, and installations. The guide also includes case studies and interviews.

2. DOCAM

Videos of DOCAM Summit Conferences (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)

• 2005 Annual Summit. http://www.docam.ca/en/?p=52 (Consulted on July 8, 2008).
• 2006 Annual Summit. http://www.docam.ca/en/?p=56 (Consulted on July 8, 2008).
• 2007 Annual Summit. http://www.docam.ca/en/?p=209 (Consulted on July 8, 2008).
• 2008 Annual Summit. http://www.docam.ca/en/?p=389 (Consulted on December 17, 2008).
• 2009 Annual Summit (forthcoming)

This Web site presents the conferences and research results of various committees (Cataloguing Structure, Conservation and Preservation, etc.) with regards to the documentation and conservation of artworks featuring technological components.

• DOCAM Seminars (2008-2007-2006): Recommended Readings and Videos of Lectures. http://www.docam.ca/en/?p=61 (Consulted on July 8, 2008).

The DOCAM seminars offer a number of online lectures and videos of presentations by guest speakers.

• DOCAM Techwatch. http://www.docam.ca/techwatch/ (Consulted on July 8, 2008).

The Techwatch section of the DOCAM Web site offers analyses and comments by DOCAM researchers on documents (articles, books, Web sites), events (exhibitions, seminars, conferences) and research projects associated with media art.

3. Copyright

Creative Commons. http://creativecommons.org/. (Consulted on June 17, 2008).

This Web site includes license models for authorizing the reproduction and distribution of online works.

GNU Operating System. http://www.gnu.org/home.html. (Consulted on June 17, 2008).

This Web site provides an introduction to the GNU Operating System, which produces free software.

Free Software Foundation. http://www.fsf.org/. (Consulted on July 4, 2008).

This Web site provides information about the philosophy behind Free Software, which allows users to use, copy, distribute, study, modify and improve a software application.

Department of Justice, Canada. Copyright Act. http://lois.justice.gc.ca. (Consulted on July 3, 2008).

The Department of Justice Web site's section on the Copyright Act describes the copyrights and moral rights of an artist and the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act for museums.

Open Source. http://www.opensource.org/. (Consulted on July 4, 2008).

This Web site provides the specifics of the Open Source Initiative, which offers a variety of models for free software use.

Pantalony, Rina Elster. WIPO Guide on Managing Intellectual Property for Museums. (New York: World Intellectual Property Organization, August 2007). http://www.wipo.int/copyright/en/museums_ip/. (Consulted on July 28, 2008).

In this guide, the author interprets and comments on Canada's Copyright Act and provides recommendations for the management of intellectual property in museums.

Pantalony, Rina Elster and Richard Rinehart. Intellectual Property and Digital Art, International DOCAM Summit 2007. http://www.docam.ca/en/?p=304. (Consulted on March 13, 2008).

In this presentation, the authors describe certain problems that can occur when managing intellectual property within the context of media artworks. Case studies are cited as examples.

Rinehart, Richard. Nailing Down Bits: Digital Art and Intellectual Property. (Gatineau: Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), 2006). (Consulted on January 11, 2007).

In this document, the author focuses on the aspects of intellectual property that apply to digital art. Notably, he presents the challenges that come with variable media and source codes used in artworks.