DATABASE OF VIRTUAL ART - now public

For the first time, the DATABASE OF VIRTUAL ART has been developed to
specifically document digital installation art. This type of art has rapidly
evolved over the last decades and is emerging into our most contemporary
art.

In close cooperation with established media artists, researchers and
associated institutions, a complex overview of the immersive, interactive,
telematic and genetic arts is being developed. This new documentation
instrument, appropriate to the needs of processual art, is built in Open
Source Technology. It is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
and the Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF).

The Database of Virtual Art is both an evolving research instrument and a
work in progress, changing according to the ongoing development of the
field. Its documentation system will also serve as a predesessor for the
systematic preservation of this art. Due to the fact that virtual art is
totally dependent upon storage media, it is no exaggeration to say that an
entire decade of art threatens to be lost for all time.


The Database:

http://virtualart.hu-berlin.de/


Considering the fundamental differences of virtual art, the documentation
system reaches beyond traditional data by especially focusing on information
about technical requirements, installation settings, blueprints,
software-hardware configurations, interface and displays. Video
documentation has strategically been given a core role, due to its ability
to show the processual nature of these works