Renewing knowledge structures for Media Art

Over the last thirty years Media Art has evolved into a vivid contemporary factor. Digital Art became 'the art of our time' but has still not 'arrived' in the core cultural institutions of our societies. Thus, we witness the erasure of a significant portion of the cultural memory of our recent history. The development of the field is supported in an increasingly enduring manner by new scientific instruments like online image and text archives, which attempt to document collectively the art and theory production of the last decades. By discussing examples from a variety of projects from the natural sciences and the humanities, this article tries to demonstrate the strategic importance of these collective projects, especially in their growing importance for the humanities.