Please note: Major updates & re-launch of this project coming 2014

Media art presents a unique and evolving set of exhibition, collection and preservation challenges. For four decades, artists have created electronic works, from single-channel video to art made from digital source code, that demand new practices and vocabularies for exhibitors and collectors. The variable ecology of media art, with its reproducible forms, changing technologies and mutable contexts, is one of its most dynamic if challenging attributes.

Founded in 1971, EAI is a nonprofit organization that distributes and preserves a major collection of new and historical video artworks. For 35 years, EAI has fostered the creation, exhibition, distribution, and preservation of video art and, more recently, digital art projects. EAI is committed to providing audiences with access to media art.

EAI’s Online Resource Guide for Exhibiting, Collecting & Preserving Media Art addresses key issues and brings together information on current practices and critical dialogue relating to single-channel video, computer-based art and media installation. The Preservation section was created by IMAP (Independent Media Arts Preservation), a nonprofit resource for preserving electronic media. The Guide features a range of essential information:

• Best practices; basic questions; planning process; budgets; agreements and reports; and equipment and technical guidelines
• Interviews with artists, curators, educators, collectors, conservators, archivists, technicians, scholars and other experts in the field
• Case studies of significant projects and organizations
• Hard-to-find and out-of-print articles, conference papers and essays
• A glossary of terms, a guide to media formats, and related resources

The Guide may be entered via any of the three main sections: Exhibition, Collection and Preservation. Each section features specific discussions of Single-Channel Video, Computer-based Art, and Installation.

By providing access to basic information, recent developments and critical dialogue, we aim to broaden understanding and demystify the process of exhibiting, collecting and preserving media art.

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The EAI Online Resource Guide was made possible with generous support from New Art Trust.

IMAP received support for the Preservation section from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the New York State Council on the Arts.