New web site--Time-based media--addendum

Museum Consortium Launches Second Phase of Media Matters, A Website
for the Management of Timed-Based Media Works of Art

    <URL:http://www.tate.org.uk/mediamatters>

    **** Moderator's comments: The announcement of phase one of this
    project is found in Conservation DistList Instance: 19:11
    Friday, August 26, 2005

A consortium of curators, conservators, registrars, legal advisors,
and media technical managers from

    New Art Trust
    <URL:http://www.tate.org.uk/research/
        tateresearch/majorprojects/mediamatters/newarttrust.htm>

    **** Moderator's comments: The above URL has been wrapped for
    email. There should be no newline.

    The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA
    <URL:http://www.moma.org>

    The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
    URL:http://www.sfmoma.org>

and

    Tate
    <URL:http://www.tate.org.uk/home/>

has launched the second phase of Media Matters, an innovative
website designed to provide international guidelines for the care of
time-based media works of art (e.g. video, slide, film, audio, and
computer-based installations). The consortium launched the first
phase, on loaning time-based media works, in 2004. The second phase,
launched in 2007, raises awareness about acquiring time-based media
works.

The second phase of Media Matters is the result of a two-day meeting
held in January 2007 at MoMA, sponsored by New Art Trust. Giving
particular focus to the process of acquiring time-based works, the
new content provides effective and practical acquisition methods, as
well as tools for their implementation. The website addresses what
to consider prior to purchasing a specific work, the activities that
need to be completed before title can change hands, and how to
prepare work for its future life within a collection. A range of
templates has been provided, including copyright and purchase
agreements, structure and condition reports, and a cost assessment.
The consortium hopes that the information will be a valuable
resource for artists, collectors, dealers, and museums who are
especially concerned with the acquisition of time-based work.

About Media Matters

Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, artists have sold works to
museums and collectors incorporating 35mm slides, video, film,
audio, and computer-based elements. In light of advances in
technology, which made the presentation of time-based media more
accessible, such works have become an integral part of the
contemporary art scene. Media Matters has, for the first time,
brought together a group of professional curators, registrars,
conservators, and technical and legal experts to raise awareness of
the requirements of these works and to provide a practical response
to the need for international agreement among museums.

The challenge of preserving and managing time-based media is one
best met collaboratively, and, it is the group's hope that others
will not only benefit from this information but will also contribute
over time to the further refinement of methods for care of these
works of art. The material is intended to aid to artists,
collectors, dealers and museums, the primary custodians of
time-based media.

Press contacts:

    Pip Laurenson <pip.laurenson<-a t->tate< . >org< . >uk>
    Libby Garrison <lgarrison<-a t->sfmoma< . >org>
    Margaret Doyle <margaret_doyle<-a t->moma< . >org>


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:4
                   Distributed: Tuesday, July 8, 2008
                        Message Id: cdl-22-4-012
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