The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is Australia’s national museum of film, TV, video games, digital culture and art. Unique in the museum landscape in Australia, we celebrate the past, present and future of the moving image and its profound impact as it transports, challenges and entertains people of all ages and backgrounds, right across the globe. When ACMI was established in 2001 (formerly the State Film Centre of Victoria), hundreds of single- and multi-channel media works were added to the collection along with videogames and numerous art commissions that furnished the building upon opening. Since then, the media arts collection has amassed approximately 400 titles.
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The Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) expedites experimentation and innovation across art, science and technology by identifying opportunities and delivering projects that enable artists to contribute meaningfully to Australia’s reputation for creativity, diversity and innovation. ANAT is the early adopter of the Australian arts sector. We introduce artists to new experiences, with partners drawn from areas with limited exposure to the transformative power of the arts. We do the trial and error R&D so that others don’t need to. We channel experimental artists and those working with emerging forms into the broader arts sector.
ANAT understands that experimentation is the bedrock of innovation and that harnessing diverse perspectives and knowledge is central to Australia’s research future. Collaboration is in ANAT’s DNA. We forge relationships across industry, academia, the community and government to create unique opportunities for artists. We deliver residencies, symposia, workshops and other professional pathways, supported by robust national and international networks
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) was the first state gallery in the country to establish an archive and is one of the few Australian institutions today that is collecting, preserving and making available for research primary material on Australian visual art. The National Art Archive and Research Library has a vast collection of visual arts publications, personal artist archives and collections, and galleries organisational archives. In recent years the National Art Archive has been growing its interactive media arts collection, which includes the resent acquisition of the dLux Media Arts archive (previously known as Sydney Intermedia Network). The dLux archive includes interactive digital works dating back to the 1980s. dLux Media Arts has played an important role in supporting and showcasing artists working with emerging technologies, and is committed to the development, engagement, and experience of contemporary screen and digital media culture.
Experimenta is an Australian organisation dedicated to commissioning, presenting and touring contemporary art driven by technology. Experimenta collaborates with some of the world’s most adventurous contemporary artists working on the periphery of convention; artists who work with technology in unexpected and original ways. It presents major touring exhibitions, partnerships with like-minded provocateurs, holds talks and symposiums, develops public programs, and advocates on behalf of the sector. Since its inception in Melbourne in 1986, Experimenta has developed a worldwide reputation for fostering creativity that extends the aesthetic, conceptual and experiential potential of art forms. Over this 30+ year history, we have grown an extensive media and paper-based archive of some of the art, collaborations, projects and people that have helped to shape Experimenta, and make us what we are today.
Griffith University Art Museum has a proud legacy of auspicing, collecting, and curating media art. The Museum traces its history back to the Griffith University Film and Drama Centre’s artist residency program, which supported the development of many seminal video art works that were subsequently acquired for the Collection. The Centre evolved to become Griffith Artworks, and is now known as Griffith University Art Museum (GUAM). In this project, we are aiming to emulate the Museum’s CD-ROM collection, which comprises 18 artworks by key Australian media artists dating from 1994-99.
The State Library of South Australia’s core purposes are to collect and maintain the documented history of the State and provide access that connects people with our resources. We aim to guarantee access for present and future generations through a wide range of preservation strategies. Our collections consist of both published and original archival material, with media art falling primarily into the archival collecting area where material is collected as part of either an artist’s personal archive or an organisational record group. Within its media arts holdings, the State Library maintains the personal archive of Stanisław Ostoja-Kotkowski, which includes approximately 800 computer disks comprising computer graphics artworks created by the artist in the 1980s and 1990s, along with records relating to his laser artworks and more from his artistic career. In addition, to date our media arts collections also comprise approximately 450 digital objects that form part of various other organisational collections holdings.
UNESCO PERSIST (Platform to Enhance the Sustainability of the Information Society Transglobally) is a cooperation between UNESCO, the International Council on Archives (ICA), the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), LIBER, the National Library of the Netherlands and the Digital Heritage Netherlands Foundation (DEN). The project is setting out to collect and share worldwide best practices and guidelines on selecting policies and digital strategies. UNESCO PERSIST is a collaborating organisation on both Play It Again: Preserving Australian videogame history of the 1990s, ARC Linkage, 2019 – 2021 and Archiving Australian Media Arts: Towards a method and national collection, ARC Linkage, 2019 – 2021 research projects.
In terms of digital heritage, PERSIST is a project of the Memory of the World Programme, set up to ensure long-term access to the World’s Digital Heritage by facilitating development of effective policies, sustainable technical approaches, and best practices in ensuring long term access and use of digital artefacts. PERSIST supports collaborative projects between memory institutions and the ICT community, especially in the area of legacy software, and seeks to enhance practices in memory institutions in the area of content curation and digital preservation. PERSIST is interested in these projects’ evaluations of EaaS and EaaSI, and the practicalities of making heritage software artefacts available to multiple people at the same time and the development of a distributed national collection. These projects will be case studies for PERSIST’s Technology Working Group as it develops its Heritage Software Platform and associated guidelines.