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discourse and increase the odds for media-based art. A new kind of network has also recently emerged in the field, the Gateway to Archives of Media Art (GAMA) project. Based on the library model of ‘union lists’ (which provides access to numerous library collection catalogues from one central access point), GAMA is a consortium of media art archives in Europe allowing access to all their collections from one central point. By making it available from a unified portal, GAMA is able to promote collaboration between archives with similar collections and mandates, provide an opportunity for the participating institutes to promote their collections to a broader audience, and increase awareness of digital art and culture as a whole.14
Funding is still a necessity, but it need not be the primary obstacle, or the beginning and end point of any discussion for future developments. Projects such as Archive2020 and others continue to shed light on smaller institutes that have been doing the practical work of caring for their own collections for years with minimal resources. Self-archiving and DIY initiatives are being undertaken by many small institutes as well as by artists themselves. Drawing on available resources, both financial and informational, there is a network of people and places that are providing new frameworks, encompassing multiple perspectives and spreading the responsibility for preserving cultural memory.
Moving forward The efforts of the past ten years have left plenty of wellarticulated, informational and intellectual resources to help us all begin the process.
14 Gabriele Blome and Gaby Wijers provide a detailed explanation of GAMA in Chapter 5.