At its core, Living Media Art brings together LI-MA’s diverse streams of knowledge, collections, and research in one shared environment. Users can upload or explore audiovisual works, contextual materials, and tools for inquiry, while actively shaping the platform through questions, contributions, and case studies.

Development and Design

Living Media Art was developed in collaboration with studio mot and a feedback group including students, artists, educators, and media art professionals. Living Media Art is set up as a hybrid platform for knowledge-sharing about digital and media art. It is intended not only to act as an online platform to explore but also meant for personal projects and invitation to encounters onsite, situated at LI-MA’s base LAB111, in Amsterdam. The idea to make its activities regarding preservation and research more visible arose in 2021 during COVID, when art institutions worldwide were looking for meaningful digital alternatives. For LI-MA developing a distinctive response came naturally, due to its extensive experience with digital technologies and online practices.

With support from Cultuurloket DigitALL, the development of the platform began at the beginning of 2024. Shaped in collaboration with RNDR, studio mot (Florian van Zandwijk and Koen Verbruggen, Witte Rook, and guided by insights from our community via the feedback group, the platform is designed as a fluid ecosystem that evolves through use, dialogue, and feedback. It is not a finished product, but a growing tool, co-created by and for its users. The platform embraces play, experimentation, and iterative design, allowing it to evolve alongside its users and respond to changing practices in media art.

Exploring and Contributing

Living Media Art functions as a central access point to LI-MA’s media art resources. It connects artworks, hardware, publications, projects, articles, and artists from the collection and archive, revealing connections and contexts across time.

The platform can be browsed anonymously or accessed through a personal account. Registered users are invited to contribute content, ask questions, and engage directly with LI-MA’s broader media art community, supporting both individual research and collective knowledge-building.

Designed for research, education, and creative exploration, Living Media Art offers tools that encourage curiosity, making it easy to cross-reference works and engage critically with the conceptual and material dimensions of media art.

A Shared Ecosystem

Living Media Art reflects LI-MA’s ongoing commitment to participation, care, and long-term accessibility. By enabling users to actively engage with archival materials, the platform supports ongoing research, education, and artistic practice.

Rather than separating archives from audiences, Living Media Art builds connections – between institutions and individuals, past works and present questions, local collections and global contexts. In doing so, it makes media art knowledge not only visible and discoverable, but shared and alive.

Credits
Project lead: Vevi van der Vliet
Creative direction: Florian van Zandwijk
Technical development: Koen Verbruggen

Header image: Design by Florian van Zandwijk