OVERVIEW
This website is an archive of the printed and digital materials from the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA). Since 1988, this nomadic symposium has been organized in a different city by a different team each time. The ISEA symposium is overseen by ISEA International (isea-web.org), a non-profit organization fostering interdisciplinary academic discourse and exchange among culturally diverse organizations and individuals working with art, science, the humanities and emerging technologies. More information on ISEA International on the bottom of this page. To learn something about the history of ISEA see this 1994 video interview and this e-mail interview (2013).
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A Video Compilation of the first 20 years of the ISEA Symposium History (1998-2017)
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New ISEA Symposium Archive
We are building a new version of this archive, that is more dynamic and visual, has many more internal connections and possibilities for data visualisation. For the time being, the ‘classic’ archive (you are visiting now) is more complete. Go to the new archive. The production team for the new version of the ISEA Online Symposium Archives can be found below.
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Glossary
Some explanation regarding the terms used in this archive. The naming of events is derived from the categories of events and presentations at the ISEA symposia themselves. We use ‘symposium’ for a single events and ‘symposia’ for the plural. Same for medium and media. Since ISEA’s roots lay in Europe, UK English is the official language, although, because of the international character of the symposium, you will find american English all over the contents of the archives. Go to Glossary.
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Call for Volunteers
We need helping hands to work on extending and improving the archives of the International Symposium on Electronic Art. Great work for students (credit points possible in principle), retirees, and anyone interested in the electronic arts or in networking in that world.
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September 2023
Provisional Proceedings of 3rd SNMAA Summit
Provisional Proceedings of 3rd SNMAA Summit (part of ISEA2023) are online in this archive. The defenite poroceedings will be included in the ISEA2023 Proceedings.
See https://isea-archives.org/docs/2023/3rd_SNMAA_Provisional_Proceedings.pdf
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October 25, 2023
CALL FOR PAPERS, PANELS & PRESENTATIONS
4TH Summit on New Media Art Archiving
June 24-26, 2024
Part of the 29th International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2024 ‘EveryWhen’
June 21-29 2024 Meanjin (Brisbane), Australia
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO NOVEMBER 12, 2023
Submissions:
https://ISEA2024.isea-international.org/newmediaartarchiving
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June 08, 2023, update January 26, 2024
ISEA2023 Catalogue/Book of Abstracts/Programme Now Online
The ‘Catalogue’ of ISEA2023 (May 16-21, Paris, France) is now online. It is more than a catalogue, because it contains info on the main organisers, abstacts of the keynotes and other presentations, as well as on exhibitions and exhibited or performed art works, as well as the full programme. It can be found here: https://isea-archives.org/docs/2023/Catalogue_ISEA2023.pdf
The publication of the ISEA2023 Proceedings, by the ISEA2023 organisers, is delayed and is now expected in March, 2024.
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Other Updates
In 2022 we were able to get a number of ISEA videos digitised. We made them part of our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@iseasymposiumarchivevideos6425
and we added them individually to the corresponding entries in this archive, as well as in the new archive. We entered all data for ISEA2022 (Barcelona) as well as for the ISEA2022 Pre-Event, that took place in 2021. Recently, we added the Catalogue of ISEA98 (Liverpool/Manchester) to the archive (https://www.isea-archives.org/docs/1998/catalogue/98_catalogue_ReSized.pdf). We are busy preparing the Catalogue of ISEA2002 (Nagoya, Japan) for inclusion soon. We are still missing materials, for example the ISEA98 Papers, since no Proceedings were published that year. If you think you have materials we are missing, please contact us at info[at]isea-archives.org. Thank you!
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updated May 31 2023
Third Summit on New Media Art Archiving Major Success
ISEA2023 PARIS – FRANCE – MAY 16-21, 2023
The ISEA Symposium Archives organisied the Third Summit on New Media Art Archiving in partnership with ISEA2023, ISEA International, the Archive of Digital Art (ADA), the archive for the Histories of Media Art, the Ars Electronica archive, the ZKM archives, the SIGGRAPH History Archive, the SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community, the Electronic Language International Festival (FILE) archives, and the MEMODUCT posthuman archive. The Summit was held during ISEA2023, the 28th International Symposium on Electronic Art (Paris, May 16-21) on May 19-20.
The full programme was streamed by the organisers and the streams were recorded. The videos will soon appear on the ISEA2023 Presentation pages of both ISEA Symposium Archives.
Final Programme
CfP PDF
For all abstracts of the presentations and bios of the presenters go to:
https://www.isea-archives.org/isea2023-presentations
For the full papers go to the Provisional Proceedings:
https://isea-archives.org/docs/2023/3rd_SNMAA_Provisional_Proceedings.pdf
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Feb 23, 2023
ISEA2022 Proceedings and Catalogue now online!
Finally the Proceedings and Catalogue of ISEA2022 have appeared and right away they were included in this archive, on the page ‘ PROCEEDINGS / CATALOGUES’. Pau Alsina and all his colleagues did a great job. The Catalogue is over 300 pages and the Proceedings over 1000. And both publications look great. See for yourself:
ISEA2022 Proceedings
ISEA2022 Catalogue
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updated July 11, 2022
June 10 & 11, 2022, MACBA, Barcelona, Spain
Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving
held at ISEA2022
In partnership with Ars Electronica, the Archive of Digital Art (ADA), the SIGGRAPH History Archive, the Electronic Language International Festival (FILE), and the ISEA Symposium Archives, ISEA2022 hosted the Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving. It was held during ISEA2022, the 27th International Symposium on Electronic Art and in co-operation with the MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona.
For further information see Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving
Organised by:
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[updated July 11 , 2022]
Future of ISEA
ISEA Symposium: Learning from the Past; Looking at the Future
This Round table discussion was held on Monday 13 June 4:30-6:00 in the Centre for Contemporary Art Barcelona (CCCB) Main Theater
The ISEA International Advisory Committee organiserd an open discussion at ISEA2022 to reflect on ISEA’s past and help define its future.
The ISEA symposium has been held in 20 countries around the world since 1988. A lot has changed in that time and we now find ourselves in an environment where dissemination of information and community engagement has changed radically. The structure of the ISEA organisation has also changed in the past 34 years and is continuing to change. The voice of the larger ISEA community is incredibly important in helping the organisation pave a dynamic and effective path forward. We would appreciate your input.
There were four options for providing feedback:
1. Attending the Round Table discussion 13 June at 4:30 at ISEA2022
2. Filling out a survey
3. Joining remotely
4. Submitting suggestions to the designated physical dropboxes at ISEA2022
Question:
What changes or improvements would you like ISEA to make in the future?
Thank you for your comments and suggestions; we received 85 of them, categorised as follows (number of suggestions between brackets):
- ISEA symposium themes and content (14)
- Symposium structure (19)
- Symposium organisation and collaborations (14)
- ISEA community and community engagement (12)
- Participation conditions (5)
- Specifically on student participation (7)
- Publishing (5)
- Comments regarding the ISEA Board, IIAC (Advisory Committee), and the ISEA organisation (9)
The ISEA International Advisory Committee (IIAC)
http://www.isea-web.org/about/committees/
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[updated May 20, 2021]
Production Team
The production teams for the new and the classic versions of the ISEA Online Symposium Archives can be found here.
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NEWS
We will regulaly inform you here on the progress we make in improving and updating this archive as well as on the development of the new version of the ISEA Online Symposium Archives. Also, we will include other information related to the history of ISEA.
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ISEA Archive Video Channel on YouTube!
With the aid of a financial contribution from the Dutch Cultural Participation Fund, the ISEA Symposium archivists were able to have part of their video collection digitised. These videos were entered by Symposium participants whose submission was accepted and others were recordings of actual symposium events. We first checked whether the videos could not already be found online and only digitised videos we could not find there. We believe we provide a service to the history of the electronic arts. However, if someone feels not good about their work being put online, they are asked to contact us (info[at]isea-archives.org), after which we will remove the video.
The URL of the ISEA Archive Videos channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMMSJTMr8U1m-r64aZht5BQ
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ISEA Symposium Archives logo
Bonnie Mitchell designed an ISEA Symposium Archives logo!
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You are invited to join us at SIGGRAPH 2021 (Online) at the:
New Media Art Online Archives Roundtable Discussion entitled:
Interconnections
Thursday 12 August 2021
9:00am PDT, 12:00 noon EDT, 5:00 pm GMT, 6:00 pm CEST
s2021.siggraph.org/presentation/?id=vill_109&sess=sess612
DESCRIPTION
This roundtable discussion is an opportunity to contribute to a conversation regarding the concept of connecting new media art online archives from around the world. Participants are welcome to do a very short presentation of the archive they are affiliated with as well as contribute ideas to the discussion. Anyone interested in the history of media art and performance, or online archiving may benefit from participating in this event. Invited guests include representatives from the SIGGRAPH History Archives, the ISEA Symposium Archives, the FILE (Electronic Language International Festival) Archive, ADA (Archive of Digital Art), Ars Electronica, and other new media art archive administrators from around the world.
Related events, also on Thursday August 12::
10am – 11am PDT ACM SIGGRAPH Village
Digital Arts: ISEA International
11am – 11:30am PDT ACM SIGGRAPH Village
Digital Arts: New Media Art History – ISEA (International Symposium on Electronic Art) Archives
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ISEA Archives presented at FILE Festival
Bonnie Mitchell, Janice Searleman and Wim van der Plas presented the ISEA archives and the SIGGRAPH Art Show archives at the online FILE Festival on March 30, 2021. The presentations are on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=VE63Yoa1l8M&t=2s
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ISEA Archives presented at Russian Panel
The ISEA archives were presented at an online panel discussion organised by the European University at St. Petersburg (Russia) on December 2, 2020, entitled: “Online Archives and Media Art Collections” Summary of the panel discussion
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[updated September, 2020]
ISEA2020 is now included in the archives
The abstracts, artists statements etc of the online ISEA2020 are now included in this archive. Also, you can find the ISEA2020 Proceedings (including the Summit on New Media Archiving papers) and Catalogue online here.
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[updated October 21, 2020]
Summit on New Media Art Archiving was major success
The Summit took place as planned, without flaws, thanks to the support of the ISEA2020 organisation for the first 5 hours (the 16 presentations and 5 q&a sessions) and the Zoom hosting by Bonnie Mitchell for the 3 parallel break-out sessions and the plenary concluding session, during the last 3 hours. Read more.
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[updated September 9, 2020]
Archive Presentations at Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is presenting 3 archives: Their own, SIGGRAPH Digital Art Show archive and the ISEA Symposium archives. You can enter the Archive Hub with the three videos from September 9-13: keplersgardens.info. You find the room in the list of the Featured Projects on the lower left. Enjoy and feel free to invite and share with others!
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[updated September 3, 2020]
Other Archives
We are now working on the listing of and linking to all other online archives on electronic art, digital art, new media art, and other archives that focus on the relationship between art and science. See the new menu choice at the top of the page.
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[updated August 6, 2019]
ISEA2019 Proceedings
The Proceedings of the successful 25th International Symposium on Electronic Art, held from June 22-28 2019 in Gwangju, South Korea, are now included. You can find them here. All the other data of ISEA2019 have been uploaded.
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[updated August 6, 2019]
25th ISEA Celebration Animation
On the occasion of the 25th ISEA symposium, the Dutch artists and early symposium contributors Peter Sweenen & Robin Noorda made a wonderful short animation, called “The International Symposium on Electronic Art: From The Netherlands to the Republic of Korea in 25 Great Achievements”. Even though it is very short, like an animated intro, it, in a way, contains the whole story. Look at it more than once, you will keep discovering new elements. Thank you very much, Peter, Robin, Seth (who provided the outer space sounds from SETI) and Alfred (who processed the outer space sound).
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Terms Of Service and Contact
The terms of service regarding this website and the materials it contains, can be found here. If you find inaccuracies, omissions, or other issues with the site, please contact us at: info[at]isea-archives.org. We welcome your input and hope you find the archives useful.
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ISEA International
Founded in the Netherlands in 1990, ISEA International (formerly Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts) is an international non-profit organisation fostering interdisciplinary academic discourse and exchange among culturally diverse organisations and individuals working with art, science and technology. The main activity of ISEA International is the annual International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA). The symposia were initiated in 1988 by the Dutch Foundation for Creative Computer Applications (SCCA).
Visit the ISEA International website
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Past Sponsors of the archive
Mondriaan Foundation (NL)
VSB Fund (NL)