Permanence Through Change: The Variable Media Approach

Abstract

Since 1999, the Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D) of The Daniel Langlois Foundation is building a documentation collection on the history, artworks and practices associated with the electronic, digital and media arts. Amongst the archives fonds and collections are the Steina and Woody Vasulka fonds; the Collection of Documents Published by E.A.T.; the 9 Evenings of Theatre and Engineering fonds and the Sonia Landy Sheridan fonds. A specific relational database has been developed to manage information not only about the documentation collection itself but also about individuals; organizations; events; tools and instruments used and developped by artists; artworks and keywords. A Web search and display interface has also been created. It give access to many search possibilities and fully exploit the rich data structure of the database and the numerous relations between the various objects such as documents, individuals, events, etc. The interface show the results of queries using an interactive display inviting the users to explore the information furthermore. This interface is linked to other features allowing the display of digitized archives documents online. All these elements working together provide the users an innovative research environement.