Can you archive digital art?

Do you have to enjoy digital art in a gallery, in the here and now? Or can it be archived and preserved for future generations?

Leading figures from film, video and new media art will be at FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) for a one-day symposium, to discuss the merits and histories of archiving time-based media, on 16 October 2007.

The event coincides with the launch of the FACT Archive, which is the world’s first archive of video art, video-installation art and new-media art to be made available online, with moving image records, including all the links between the data, made freely accessible to all. It contains information and recorded documentation from the FACT Video Positive Festival 1989-2000, at the time Britain’s first and biggest festival for art in these forms.

The one-day symposium, Had to be There? will discuss archiving time-based media, issues arising in its development, and how those issues might affect the art form itself.

Invited speakers include:
Mike Stubbs, artist and Director/CEO of FACT;
A: Database, collaborators on the FACT Archive;
David Hall, artist and filmmaker;
Lynn Hershman Leeson, artist specialising in interactive computer and net-based media art;
Tamara Krikorian, artist and founding member of London Video Arts;
Stephen Partridge, artist, producer and lead on REWIND at the University of Dundee;
Katie Lips, artist, marketer and Director of Kisky Net Media;
Superflex, artist collective;
Sonia Boyce, artist

Had to Be There?
FACT
16 October 9.30am - 6.00pm
Symposium 25.00/20.00 (FACT Members and concessions)
Symposium & Dinner 50.00/45.00 (FACT Members and concessions)
(Dinner 15 October 7.00pm)

For more information contact Gabrielle Jenks on Gabrielle.Jenks@fact.co.uk or 0151 707 4450