Just in time for the New Year, the Rhizome ArtBase, an online archive of
Internet art (www.rhizome.org/artbase), announces its newly automated,
artist-driven artwork submission process. The Rhizome ArtBase preserves
and provides access to net art–projects that use the net as a medium
and are made to be experienced online. The Rhizome ArtBase represents
one of the first concerted efforts in the field of net art conservation.

The preservation of these works is especially important given their
vulnerability. Unlike a physical object, a work of net art can be
deleted with the click of a mouse. Technological obsolescence also poses
a risk, as new technologies supercede older applications and preclude
the viewing of some works. Working directly with participating artists,
the Rhizome ArtBase's new submission process will ensure the rapid and
accurate processing of artworks and archival information submitted to
the ArtBase. Using the system's online questionnaire, artists provide
the guidance needed to assess each work's preservation needs and to
determine the artwork's conceptual and technological parameters.

Technical data gathered in the new artwork submission process will help
us determine the migration and emulation procedures that will be
required to recreate the works for future viewing, exhibition, and
research. The artists are also asked to provide information about their
intent which can be retained for the life of the artwork after it enters
the archive.

Rhizome.org is a nonprofit organization that connects and educates the
public through its community-based email services, web site and outreach
events. Rhizome.org takes its name from the botanical term for an
underground stem system that connects plants into living networks, a
metaphor for Rhizome's grassroots community and non-hierarchical
structure. Rhizome.org's projects and activities are focused on three
goals: fostering communication and critical dialogue within the new
media art community; introducing the works of new media artists,
curators, critics and educators to a wider public; and archiving these
works for future generations.

Contact:

Jennifer Crowe
ArtBase Coordinator
Rhizome.org
115 Mercer Street, 3rd fl.
New York, NY 10012
212-625-3191
artbase@rhizome.org