print / downloadMEDIA ART NEEDS GLOBAL NETWORKED ORGANISATION & SUPPORT – International Declaration
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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:
· Recognizing and building upon existing knowledge and resources
· Providing and fostering channels of communication
· Enabling the international research community to create/upload/access data to be shared.
· Encouraging peer exchange and addressing the new challenges of Media Art
· Developing scientific technologies for documentation and preservation of Media Art
· Providing inspiration and resources for curators, artists, scholars, educators and audiences
· Supporting the Media Art History network, its conference series, text repositories and scientific publications
· Promotion of new ways of understanding media art, science, technology and its histories
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.
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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.
Chair. Prof. Dr. Sean CUBITT, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Chair. Prof. Dr. Oliver GRAU, Academia Europea / Soc. Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology
Chair. Prof. Dr. Ross HARLEY, COFA, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Prof. Dr. Christiane PAUL,The New School, New York, USA
Prof. Dr. Diana DOMINGUES, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil
Prof. Lanfranco ACETI, Goldsmiths and Sabanci University, UK / Turkey
Prof. Dr. Frieder NAKE, University of Bremen, Germany
Prof. Dr. h.c. Peter WEIBEL, Chairman and CEO ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
Prof. Dr. Roy ASCOTT, University of Plymouth, UK
Sir Nicholas SEROTA : Director- Tate, London
Dr. Martin WARNKE, Leuphana University, Germany
Prof. Mike STUBBS, Director of FACT Liverpool, UK
Benjamin WEIL, Artistic Director, LABORAL, Spain
Dr. Andreas BROECKMANN, Director of the Leuphana Arts Program, Germany
Chair. Prof. Jeffrey SHAW, City University Hong Kong School of Creative Media
Prof. Eduardo KAC, Arts Institute Chicago
Prof. Dr. Christa SOMMERER, Professor for Interface Culture, University of Art and Design Linz, Austria
Prof. Dr. Laurent MIGNONNEAU, Professor for Interface Culture, University of Art and Design Linz, Austria
Alex ADRIAANSENS – former director of V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Prof. Dr. Horst BREDEKAMP, Institut fuer Kunst- und Bildgeschichte, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Howard BESSER, Professor / Director, Moving Image Archive and Preservation Program, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Cinema Studies Department
Vanina HOFMAN, PhD; Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Founder of Taxonomedia, Spain / Argentina
Ass. Prof. Ianina PRUDENKO, National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Prof. Dr. Anna Maria GUASCH, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
Sara DIAMOND, President OCAD University, Toronto, Canada
Prof. Dr. Barbara Maria STAFFORD, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga.
Darko FRITZ, freelance curator, researcher and artist, Croatia / NL
Dr. Lisa GYE, Swinburne University, Melbourne, AU
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anna MUNSTER, National Institute for Experimental Arts, Sydney, AU
Dr. Stephen JONES, Stephen Jones & Associates P/L (Video Conservation), Sydney, AU
Dr. Andy WILLIAMSON, Digital Strategist and Commentator, UK
Prof. Em.Vera FRENKEL, FRSC, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
Prof. Dr. Gilbertto PRADO, Visual Arts Departement, ECA/USP – Sao Paulo University, Brazil.
Winnie FU, Curator and Chairperson of Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong
Prof. Stephen PARTRIDGE, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, UK
Prof. Dr. Paul THOMAS, COFA, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Adj. Prof. Alessandro LUDOVICO, Academy of Art Carrara, Editor in chief of Neural magazine, Italy
Dr. Vince DZIEKAN, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Jon IPPOLITO, Associate Professor of New Media, Still Water lab, The University of Maine
Prof. Dr. Darren TOFTS, Swinburne University, Melbourne Australia
Prof. em. Itsuo SAKANE, Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences, Tokyo, Japan
Mitsuhiro TAKEMURA, Professor, Sapporo City University, Faculty of Design, Media Design Lab.
Prof. Dr. Lev MANOVICH, University of California, San Diego, USA
Prof. Dr. ZHANG Ga, The New School / Tsinghua University, US and China
Dr. Michele BARKER, COFA, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Andreas LANGE, Director of the Computerspielemuseum, Berlin, Germany
Prof. Pier Luigi CAPUCCI, NABA, Milan; NoemaLab, Italy
Prof. Dr. Jin-Woo Lee, Ph.D., Chair Professor, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea
Assoc. Prof. Nina CZEGLEDY, University of Toronto, Canada
Prof. Paul Alsina GONZÁLEZ, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Prof. Dr. Peter MATUSSEK, Chair for Media Aesthetics, University of Siegen, Germany
Prof. Mikel ROTAECHE y GONZÁLEZ de Ubieta, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Dr. Nelson VERGARA, National University of Colombia, Bogota, Colombia
Prof. Wolfgang MUENCH, Dean Faculty of Media Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
Gabriela BALDOMÁ, Directora del Instituto de Investigación, Conservación y Restauración de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Argentina
Prof. Dr. Ryszard W. KLUSZCZYNSKI, University of Lodz, Poland
Dr. Raivo KELOMEES, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia
Dr. Mike LEGGETT, Creativity & Cognition Studios, University of Technology, Sydney
Prof. Dr. Anne-Marie DUGUET, University of Paris 1, France
Paul BROWN, independent artist and writer; visiting professor, Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics, University of Sussex, UK; Synapse artist-in-residence, Centre for Intelligent Systems Research, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
Prof. Dr. Will STRAW, Department of Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University, Canada.
Steve DIETZ, President and Artistic Director of Northern Lights.mn, USA
Dmitry BULATOV, Curator at the National Center for Contemporary Arts, Kaliningrad branch, Russia
Prof. Dr. Gunalan NADARAJAN, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, USA
Ass. Prof. Maurice BENAYOUN, University Paris 8, France
Prof. Dr. Cleomar ROCHA, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brasil
Lynn HERSHMAN LEESON, Artist; Professor Emeritus, University of California, Davis; Chair, Film Department, San Francisco Art Institute
Prof. Dr. Akihiro KUBOTA, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan
Andres BURBANO, PhD researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Eric KLUITENBERG, Chief of Tactical Media Files, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
Prof. Dr. Edward A. SHANKEN, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Andreia MAGALHAES, PhD researcher at the Fine Arts Faculty, Porto, Portugal
Prof. Dr. Felipe Cesar LONDOÑO, International Image Festival, University of Caldas, Colombia.
Prof. em. Frank POPPER, University of Paris VIII,Paris, France
Ass. Prof. Dr. Caitlin FISHER, York University,Toronto, Canada
Prof. Dr. habil Marion G. MÜLLER, Research Center Visual Communication and Expertise (VisComX), Jacobs University Bremen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Timothy Conway MURRAY, Rose Goldsen Archiveof New Media Art, Cornell University, New York
Prof. Dr. Douglas KAHN, National Institute for Experimental Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Ass. Prof. Dr. Baruch GOTTLIEB, transmediale, Germany
Prof. Dr. Angel KALENBERG, Instituto Valenciano deArte Moderno (IVAM), Spain
Rafael LOZANO-HEMMER B.Sc., Independent artist,Mexico, Madrid, Montreal
Predrag RISTIC, Gradina FM, Member (Macedonia, Balkans) – design of collaborative working practices and implementation of IT systems.
Patrick LICHTY, Critical Artist and Theorist, Columbia College Chicago
Dr. Lewis KAYE, Sound artist; instructor, Dept. of Communication Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada
Maira Monteiro FROES, Prof. /Research Neuroscience, ArtSci Interface Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Ass. Prof. Dejan GRBA, University of the Arts / Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Serbia
Ass. Prof. Shane MECKLENBURGER, Art & Technology, The Ohio State University Dept of Art, Columbus, OH
Dr. Martin E. ROSENBERG, Independent Scholar, Pittsburgh, PA USA
Prof. Mariela CANTU, Researcher, Curator. Founder of Arca Video Argentino -On line Archive and Database of Argentinian Videoart-. Universidad de La Plata/Universidad del Cine/Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte.
Ass. Dir. Sherry Miller HOCKING, Experimental Television Center, Owego, NY, USA
Laura BERAZADI, Executive Director, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, Toronto, Canada
Dr. Mikhail A. STEPANOV, Russian Institute for Cultural Research, St. Petersburg, Russia
Dir. Helen SLOAN, SCAN, UK
Dr. Jussi PARIKKA, Winchester School of Art/University of Southampton
Jennifer Kanary NIKOLOVA, Artist, Researcher and Tutor Art and Research Honours Programme Gerrit Rietveld Academie/University of Amsterdam
Po-Wei WANG, Art Critic, Curator, Representative of the Digital Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Dr. Clarissa RIBEIRO, Director of The Double Collective, researcher at ECA – USP / School of Communications and Arts, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Prof. Dr. Bong Keun Yoo, Institute of Media Art, Seoul, Korea
Dr. Dmitry GALKIN, Institute for Arts and Culture, Tomsk State University, Russia
Assoc. Prof. Bent FAUSING, Aesthetics and Visual Communications in Modern Media, University of Copenhagen, Director of the international research program: Sensoric Image Science, Denmark
Dr. Suzana MILEVSKA, Art historian and Curator, Faculty of Fine Arts, Skopje
Dr. Melentie PANDILOVSKI, Director, Video Pool Media Arts Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Nina SOSNA, Russian University for Humanities
Dr. Karin WENZ, Director of studies MA Media Culture, Maastricht University
Dr. Emmanuelle LOUBET, New Media artist, sound creator, programmer and web developer, researcher, Canada / Japan
Dr. Mathias FUCHS, University Potsdam/ Germany and University of Salford , UK
Dr. Annette FINNSDOTTIR, Design & E-Concept Developing at Zibat, Campus Køge bei Køge Business School, Kopenhagen, Denmark
Univ.Prof.Dr.phil.habil. Ramón Reichert, Professor for New Media, Institute for Theater-, Film- und Media Studies, University of Vienna
Dr. Rudolf FRIELING, Curator of Media Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Dr. Kathy CLELAND, Director of the Digital Cultures Program, the University of Sydney, Australia
PD Dr. Lutz MUSNER, IFK Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften an der Kunstuniversität Linz
Prof. Dr. Bernhard SEREXHE, Chief Curator ZKM | Media Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany
Lidia STARODUBTSEVA, Director of the Center of Media Communications and Visual Studies, V.N.Karazin National University, Ukraine
Prof. Dr. Birte KLEINE-BENNE, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany
Lynn Hershman LEESON, Artist/Filmmaker Professor Emeritus U.C. David, Visiting Artist New School for Social Engagement.
to add your signature send an email to wendy.coones(at)donau-uni.ac.at