Presentation of Internet-Based Archive of Media Art

CIANT: March 2007

7.03.2007 / 18:00 /

Experimentální prostor Roxy / NoD – NoLab, Prague, Czech Republic

Viliam Šimko (SK) & Michal Máša (CZ)

OASIS (Open Archiving System with Internet Sparing) has been under construction since 2004. The main goal of the project granted by the European Union in the framework of CULTURE 2000 programme was to create a platform allowing for the preservation of the electronic arts which are in danger of disappearing with the passage of time. During the project the international consortium has provided a distributed archival platform which now allows the connection of the partners’ media art databases.

Therefore, a complex middleware system has been built up and it functions as an interface between differently structured databases and storage systems of the partners as well as a common web portal for research and information purposes. Artistic content and descriptive metadata are represented here at the web portal. While storing information on a central server system is a popular solution for so called networked media art archives, OASIS is a distributed archival platform that connects the hosting institutions immediately. Instead of data migration, an archive adapter was implemented for translating, clearing and user administrating. This aspect is very important because the project deals with artistic content and other data that come under sensitive rights properties. Finally, the OASIS platform provides information and curatorial tools for various artistic and cultural content and operations.

This public presentation is part of dissemination activities of the OASIS project. It is intended to introduce to general and professional public the results of the project and to invite new beneficiaries, especially coming from regional art schools, to become new OASIS users.

Artifacts by Steina and Woody Vasulka.