About LI-MA

LI-MA – Living Media Art is the leading international platform for sustainable access to media art in Amsterdam, with a strong commitment to art, artists, technology, and future generations. We use our expertise to preserve video art, digital art, online art and performance, and to make and keep these accessible. LI-MA is a national and international network organisation. In close collaboration with artists, museums, universities, and technical partners worldwide, LI-MA researches and develops innovative solutions for conservation, distribution, and contextualization of time-based media art. LI-MA takes care of media art preservation and storage services to more than 50 collections.

Context & Challenge

LI-MA is currently participating in several large international research and development projects and is therefore expanding its staff. As of May 2026, LI-MA is seeking a Time-Based Media Conservator. This is a part-time position for 36 months (May 2026 – April 2029, 16 to 24 hours per week) with the possibility of extension.

LI-MA is participating in CUSP (Creative Understanding, Saving & Preserving of Time-Based Media Art), a European collaboration between the National Gallery of Iceland, the National Museum of Norway, Vasulka Kitchen Brno (Czech Republic), and Mystetskyi Arsenal (Ukraine). Within this project LI-MA will collaborate in case studies and knowledge transfer and will address the lack of shared TBM standards by jointly designing a rule set.

In addition, and with a longer-term perspective, we are looking for a Time-Based Media Conservator who will be involved in all aspects of conservation within LI-MA's media art collections and research. In the coming years, our focus lies on developing and safeguarding the acquired knowledge and infrastructure, strengthening and rejuvenating our team, and developing sustainable organisational and funding models. 

The Position

As Time-Based Media Conservator, you are responsible for the care of the artworks entrusted to LI-MA. You work closely with the researcher and director. You initiate and participate in case study research, and evaluate processes and workflows. Together with the team, you are responsible for the education of artists, collections and students.

Tasks:

• Comparative research/exploration: how do others document interactivity and what tools are available? 
• Development of a documentation framework based on the creative trajectory of Intuition Machine as a pilot study that captures the technological and artistic infrastructure of this project and that can potentially be applied to other installation performances.
• Setting up and maintaining a structured documentation and archiving environment, including metadata and version control.
• Collecting, organizing, and making accessible multimodal data such as video, motion capture, audio, code, and technical diagrams.
• Writing and editing documentation, including descriptions of artistic processes, technical workflows, and manuals.
• Translating artistic processes into technical and transferable documentation, and vice versa.
• Documenting rehearsals, tests, and audience interactions, including observation of audience behavior and interaction patterns.
• Define the formats, methods and shareability components of the creative process and documentation framework to be used and re-used by others.

Your Profile

We are looking for a candidate who:

• has a relevant university education (e.g. conservation, media studies, digital heritage), or equivalent professional experience in this field;
• has theoretical, technical, and hands-on knowledge, skills and experience in the field of media art conservation; 
• has experience with working for museums, artists, and collections;
• has experience conducting independent research, and contributing to international knowledge exchange;
• is an independent and critical thinker who models our preservation strategies reflecting the collaborative and dynamic nature of digital art and culture;
• has an active professional network in the field of time-based media art and conservation.

You have knowledge of or interest in:

• the history of formats, software and hardware;
• digital storage technology;
• digital preservation: systems, standards, and collaboration.

Personal qualities

You:

• are passionate about media art preservation and your attitude inspires others;
• combine analytical thinking with a practical and solution-oriented approach;
• take responsibility and show initiative proactively; 
• are a team player with strong mediation and communication skills;
• can work independently as well as collaboratively with colleagues and external partners;
• have a good command of the Dutch and English, both spoken and written.

Practical Information

Please respond before 20 April by sending your CV and motivation to info@li-ma.nl.

For more information about the vacancy, please contact Gaby Wijers, gabywijers@li-ma.nl.

Header: Image from the LI-MA office.