Curating the future through the CYENS Art:Tech archive approach. *-disciplinary creators as archivists

This paper considers the roles of artists, scientists and technologists in contributing to the institutional archiving of New Media Art (NMA) and Art, Science and Technology (AST) projects, exploring their impact on the contextualization, preservation, and dissemination of the genre. Given the conceptual, technical, and disciplinary layers of such projects, we explore whether all production contributors should be actively involved in developing a relevant archival resource. Literature from the art and technology fields, including international NMA/AST-focused initiatives, is reviewed, while we also inquire whether an archive’s structure, content, and indexing can serve and incentivize multiple disciplines and purposes. The paper introduces the developing Art:Tech Archive, which will host NMA/AST projects developed and/or presented at CYENS CoE, highlighting the intention to include artists and contributors in the archive’s formulation and use. A participatory action research approach design is presented as ideal for investigating creative, technical, and archival processes; contributor’s needs and potential roles; and how the value of an archive aspiring to support both creative and scientific networks is perceived by contributors. Lessons from various contexts inform this developing archival resource, which aims towards reflexivity, longevity, and dynamic knowledge dissemination while emphasizing the importance of multidisciplinary contributions in the archival praxis.