What is "docam"

DOCAM (Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage) is an international research alliance on the documentation and the conservation of the media arts heritage.

DOCAM’s main objective is to develop new methodologies and tools to address the issues of preserving and documenting digital art, technological and electronic works of art. Over the project’s five-year mandate, numerous case studies will be conducted that will focus on documentary collections and conserving works of art featuring technological content.

DOCAM's key areas of focus include:

• The conservation of works of art featuring technological components;
• Documentation strategies and structures adapted to these works of art;
• A typology and historical listing of the technologies deployed by the artists;
• Catalogue structures and methods for works featuring technological components; and
• Terminological tools and structures for the electronic arts.

The DOCAM research alliance is composed of some 20 institutional partners from around the world. It also brings together more than 20 specialists and researchers in domains such as new media art preservation, the cataloguing of museum collections, art history, information management, archival science, art documentation and computer science. The project is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Daniel Langlois Foundation.