Media art is a living, dynamic field, but its history and knowledge are dispersed across archives and institutions worldwide. Researchers, students, and the public often face fragmented access, making it difficult to trace connections, discover works, or understand the field’s evolution.  Without shared systems for exchange, the cultural record of media art risks becoming siloed, difficult to discover, and even harder to preserve.

LI-MA has long been committed to connecting media art archives and making collections meaningfully accessible for researchers, institutions, and the public. Through projects such as Connecting Media Art, LI-MA is developing internationally applicable standards and Linked Open Data (LOD) infrastructure that allow archives to remain in control of their data while contributing to a global, interoperable network. Since 1998, LI-MA (formerly NIMk) has made its collection available online and has extensive knowledge and experience in providing online access to, and connecting, collections, and archives. 

Workshop on Collaboration, Access, and Innovation at ZKM Karlsruhe

This vision also resonated strongly during a recent international workshop hosted by the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, which took place on 5–8 February 2025. LI-MA joined over 60 international participants at ZKM Karlsruhe to address the challenges and opportunities of connecting media art archives on a global scale. 

Representing the Dutch media art archives, LI-MA contributed to discussions on metadata, user needs, and federated access models. The gathering focused on building shared infrastructures for access, metadata, and sustainability – themes that directly resonate with LI-MA’s ongoing Connecting Media Art project, which aims to develop scalable, interoperable systems for digital art registration and knowledge exchange. 

Bringing together a wide cross-section of the international media art archiving community, the workshop convened archives and collections from distributors, festivals, universities, and knowledge centres across the Americas, Europe, and Australia. Among the participating organisations were HAMACA, SIGGRAPH, ISEA, Ars Electronica, IMAI, Zentrum für Netzkunst, Rhizome, TIP, and the ZKM Karlsruhe.

By linking over 50 collections in the Netherlands and collaborating with partners worldwide, LI-MA is helping to transform a fragmented media art landscape into an interconnected and sustainable network. The alignment between the outcomes of the ZKM workshop and LI-MA’s ongoing initiatives underscores a broader international momentum: moving towards shared infrastructures, open data, and resilient standards that future-proof digital and media art heritage.

A Shared Objective

The need to connect media art archives is not limited to one institution or country – it is a global challenge. At the heart of this challenge are two fundamental questions: How can archives exchange knowledge and data across borders? And how can this be implemented in a sustainable, future-proof way?

International discussions, such as the recent workshop at ZKM Karlsruhe, highlight that the solution lies in federated models of collaboration. Rather than centralising control, a federated infrastructure allows archives to remain custodians of their own data while making it accessible through shared protocols and metadata standards. This approach mirrors the goals of LI-MA’s Connecting Media Art project, which develops Linked Open Data systems that balance autonomy with interoperability.

Equally urgent is the question of metadata: what minimal information must be shared to make collections legible to one another? Across contexts, consensus is emerging that a lightweight, flexible standard – artist, title, year as a baseline – can serve as a foundation, enriched by shared vocabularies without imposing rigid uniformity. 

Finally, accessibility must address both expert and public needs. Future platforms will need to provide multiple entry points: open search interfaces for scholars and students, exploratory browsing for wider audiences, and plugins that embed global access directly into local archives and catalogues. In this way, media art can circulate widely without losing its connection to the institutions and communities that sustain it.

Next Steps

Ensuring that media art remains visible and accessible calls for sustained collaboration across borders. A key outcome of the recent international dialogue was the recognition that no single institution can address these challenges alone. What is needed is a shared framework: spaces for exchange, practical tools, and coordinated strategies.

To that end, working groups have been formed around three crucial themes:

• legal frameworks and funding,
• community-building,
• and technical implementation. 

Together, these groups will explore how to align rights management, secure resources, and create sustainable infrastructures for access and exchange.

LI-MA is taking an active role in all of these areas, contributing expertise from its long-standing experience in media art archiving. Through Connecting Media Art, LI-MA is already piloting solutions: establishing international identifiers for digital art, developing Linked Open Data infrastructures, and setting standards that balance flexibility with interoperability.

What emerges is a vision of a federated, future-proof ecosystem where media art archives remain in control of their collections while contributing to a wider, shared network. By working towards federated systems, shared vocabularies, and inclusive access models, LI-MA and its international partners are helping to build the infrastructure media art needs: a connected, open, and resilient ecosystem that can support discovery, research, and preservation for generations to come.

Header image by Kier in Sight Archives on Unsplash