The Rose Goldsen Archive: 50 Years of New Media Art

What is new media art?  How can it be collected and preserved?  The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art has addressed these questions by documenting the past 50 years of electronic and digital artwork and related ephemera.  “Signal to Code,” the current exhibition in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, offers a unique opportunity to experience more than 60 original electronic and digital artworks in video, sound, portable media and the Internet, on 15 separate media display stations.  The exhibition also features posters, pamphlets and other items documenting the work of international media artists and the granting agencies and cultural centers that have supported this work across artistic boundaries and geopolitical zones.

This talk and the exhibit tour, given by  Elizabeth D. Muller, Curator of Digital and Media Collections for the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, will provide a brief history of new media art, the Rose Goldsen Archive, and Cornell University Library’s efforts to preserve this important material.