CA24129 - European Media and Born-digital Art Conservation and Knowledge Network (EMBARK)

Since the 1960s, European artists have been experimenting with emerging technologies, incorporating film, video, sound, slides, software and networked environments into their art production. Acknowledging media art’s unique significance within the intersecting histories of art, technology and society, a diversity of museums, archives and art organisations across Europe have actively collected media art for decades. However, Europe’s heritage institutions are struggling to maintain their media art collections, as they lack critical access to specialized conservation research, expertise, practice and infrastructure. For the last 15 years, the European heritage field has been addressing its growing need for specialized conservation expertise by establishing academic university curricula in media conservation, and by dedicating specialized conservation staff to media art collections.

However, the new expertise is still relatively scarce and scattered across disconnected institutions and small university departments. Existent knowledge, tools and practices remain siloed and inaccessible, and there is no shared understanding of current practices across Europe. With the goal to avert the preservation crisis, the ambitious pan-European EMBARK (European Media and Born-Digital Art Conservation and Knowledge Network) aims to strengthen Europe’s ability to safeguard its collections of media art–an overlooked and underestimated segment of Europe’s cultural heritage and research infrastructure–for current and future generations. EMBARK connects academic researchers, heritage professionals and relevant experts from the creative and technology industries, including conservators, art historians, anthropologists, curators, archivists, artists, digital preservationists, information and computer scientists, legal experts and engineers.