Monoskop

Monoskop archive of media arts in east-central Europe

Problem

Throughout the years I collected about 75 gigabytes of experimental films, video art, electroacoustic music, scanned copies of computer-aided paintings, graphics, and prints from 'the east', and numerous publications which currently sit on my harddrive. I included everything that I thought may be relevant for history of 'media arts' in this region. I want to share.

Question - How to make the collection a 'living' public archive and encourage people to contribute more works, especially from their personal archives?

a. Create a public web archive (this would be vulnerable to copyright claimers, but in a longer run unavoidable).
b. Create an invitation-only educational web resource (platform for art history depts and art academies).
c. Publish a torrent (would you download almost 100 gigs of mostly unknown stuff?)
d. Propose a section at www.ubu.com (however ubu.com is 15 years old idea).

Question - How to organise it?

a. Into formal categories roughly ordered in time (constructivism, op art, computer art, video, new media art, etc).
b. Let people tag.

Question - How is art history produced? What kind of role do art collections play in that process? Does anyone still care (artists for instance)?

a. Develop an 'open source history' methodology: provide source documents and data/tools for their remaking and interpretation.

Question - How not to piss off everyone?

a. Artists and their survivors own copyrights, art collectors own other rights, professional archivists follow professional methodologies, museums and galleries run on scarcity, audience hates low quality footage, etc.

Question - Would anyone care?

a. There is abundance of stuff online anyway. Who is the audience?