Open internet gateways to archives of media art

The EU-projects OASIS Archive and GAMA aimed to develop systems for the common presentation of distributed Media Art works, independent of their location. The paper presents the technical solutions implemented during projects, and contextualise the work in the related media art scene. In order to ensure the preservation and availability (sustainability) of cultural heritage, the metadata systems of all participating institutions were interlinked and they can now be accessed by individual users (both researchers and general public) through an on-line interface. The developed multimedia archive servers enable the exchange of metadata within a distributed system and enable various play-out sources and media. The decentralised architecture, where data can remain at their physical location and are linked at the metadata level, is the key concept of the presented system.