Archiving Australian Media Arts: Towards a method and national collection

Archiving Australian Media Arts: Towards a method and national collection

The early years of Australian digital media arts heritage are at risk. Working with key cultural institutions, this project will conserve key media art case studies from the archives of media arts organisations, and develop a best practice method for the preservation of our digital media arts heritage.

Partners

Australian Centre for the Moving Image; 

The Trustee for Art Gallery of NSW; State Library of South Australia; 

Experimental Media Arts.  

Australian Network for Art and Technology; 

dLux Media Arts Incorporated; 

UNESCO PERSIST; 

Rhizome

Griffith University  Art Museum

Investigators

Melanie Swalwell

Denise de Vries

Helen Stuckey (RMIT)

Nick Richardson (ACMI)

Carolyn Murphy (AGNSW)

Andrew Piper (SLSA)

Angela Goddard (Griffith)

Jonathan Parsons (Experimenta)

This research is funded by the Australian Government though the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Program (LP180100307)

The early years of Australian digital media arts heritage are at risk. Australians were significant contributors to the development of media arts internationally, as well as making and exhibiting work nationally, yet only a tiny portion of the digital artwork by Australian artists has made it into institutional collections. 

 

Deteriorating disks and reliance on obsolete hardware and software mean that innovative digital preservation and access solutions are needed if these artworks are to be saved. Working with key cultural institutions, this project will conserve key media art case studies from the archives of media arts organisations, and develop a best practice method for the preservation of our digital media arts heritage.

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Play It Again: Preserving Australian videogame history of the 1990s

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Play It Again: Preserving Australian video game history of the 1990s

This project documents, preserves, and exhibits digital cultural heritage by recovering the history of Australian made videogames of the 1990s, preserving significant local digital game artefacts currently at risk, and investigating how these can be exhibited as playable software using the newest emulation techniques.

Partners

ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image)
AARNet
UNESCO PERSIST
OpenSLX 
GmbH

This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council Linkage Program.

Investigators

Melanie Swalwell (TMT)
Angela Ndalianis (TMT)
Helen Stuckey (RMIT)
Denise de Vries (Flinders University)

Play It Again: Preserving Australian videogame history of the 1990s is a project funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant (2019-21) and led by Melanie Swalwell. The other chief investigators include Angela Ndalianis (TMT), Helen Stuckey (RMIT) and Denise de Vries (Flinders University).

Play It Again documents, preserves, and exhibits digital cultural heritage, focusing on Australian videogames of the 1990s. The challenge of preserving and accessing complex digital cultural heritage such as software is one that collecting institutions worldwide are facing.

Partnering with the Australian Centre for the Image, AARNet, UNESCO PERSIST and OpenSLX GmbH, this project addresses the challenge of digital heritage by recovering the history of Australian made videogames of the 1990s, preserving significant local digital game artefacts currently at risk, and investigating how these can be exhibited as playable software using the newest emulation techniques. 

The project will generate new knowledge needed by government, museums and industry to inform future strategy and infrastructure investment aimed at making a range of digital cultural heritage available to the public.

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