Resources for the preservation of variable media works

The DOCAM Conservation Guide, prepared by the DOCAM Research Alliance Conservation and Preservation Committee, is a practical guide to help museum professionals choose the best conservation approach for works containing technological components. The guide is based on the results of research conducted as part of DOCAM case studies and also takes into account various existing conservation models.

Electronic Arts Intermix is a resource for finding variable media artists, as well as providing resources on preservation and advocacy. The EAI OnlineResource Guide for the collection, display, and preservation of media art lays out the issues involved in conserving time-based art. Particularly recommended are the “basic questions” sections, and the condition reports.

The Electronic Media Group of the American Institute for Conservation provides a forum for the conservation of artifacts falling under the time-based media rubric.

Forging the Future “refines and distributes free and open-source products that boost access and aid in preservation” of our digital heritage.

Independent Media Arts Preservation (IMAP) is committed to the independent artist working in with the variable medium. It provides preservation resources, classes, and advocacy.

Matters in Media Art is a “multi-phase project designed to provide guidelines for care of time-based media works of art.”

The Variable Media Initiative, a seminal project, pairs artists with museum and media consultants to provoke comparison of artworks created in ephemeral mediums. The initiative aims to define each of these case studies in terms of medium-independent behaviors and to identify artist-approved strategies for preserving artwork with the help of an interactive questionnaire.

LIMA preserves, distributes and researches media art, they provide services for artists and collections, as well as training courses and workshops.

Do you manage digital files in an archive, museum, library, studio, business, or government office?
This innovative distance-learning program could be for you. Our students learn how to collect, make accessible via database and Web site, and preserve digitized and born-digital assets, from VHS tapes to JPEGs to Word documents. Study online at the University of Maine and get up to speed on all things digital with their online course. 

Re-collection, the first academic book on new media preservation!!!

By Richard Rinehart and Jon Ippolito


The authors make a startling claim: that the historical record of our era will be unretrievable without a drastic change in the technologies, institutions, and laws that now govern cultural preservation. Weaving theory into practice, Re-collection spells out much-needed, real-world approaches to preservation along with their theoretical foundations and implications.
Written by two internationally acknowledged trailblazers in the field, Re-collection includes extensive case-studies of specific digital and media art works in the collections of museums and collectors that have been the focus of experimentation and research by the authors and their colleagues directly in the preservation effort.


Still Water Blog - an AMAZING resource, which includes reviews and articles on innovation in the field.


Scanlines collects together information about Australian media artists, curators, organisations and events since the 1960s. The database is an ongoing and evolving resource dedicated to information pertinent to artists, works and events that have Australia-wide and international significance. It consolidates and links to substantial materials (biographical information, videos, catalogue essays)

You can contribute to its growth and maintain data ensuring the inclusion of media based artworks in the historical record.


Digitising Contemporary Art |Guidelines for a Long-term Preservation Strategy for Digital Reproductions and Metadata
Curatorial Resource for Upstart Bliss (CRUMB) CRUMB aims to help those who 'exhibit' new media art, including curators, technicians and artists.


MeLa* European Museums in an age of migrations is a four year long research project funded by the EuropeanCommission under the Socio-economic Sciences andHumanities Program (FP7th). MeLa* is aninterdisciplinary programme which reflects on the newmuseums role with the aim to define new strategies forcontemporary museums in a context characterized by acontinuous migration of people and ideas.


Preservation of complex objecte (POCOS)

The aim of the POCOS project was to deliver a series of three symposia at locations across the United Kingdom at which global thought-leaders in research into the Preservation of Complex Objects would share and thereby extend the body of knowledge on this topic.