ABOUT
Norwegian Media Art Library
(Norsk Mediakunst Bibliotek)
The Norwegian Media Art Library (Norsk Mediakunst Bibliotek) is a collection of printed publications covering the Norwegian media art field. The collection represents the most comprehensive knowledge and documentation of media arts in Norway, in terms of history, artistic activities, artists, and developments within the field.
The project shows the media art field’s important role in the Norwegian art scene. The library contributes to further development of the Norwegian media art field by providing a solid basis of the field’s history in one complete archive. The project also encourages the growth of publishing, which is necessary for future developments in the field.
The Norwegian Media Art Library is produced and maintained by TEKS – Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre. The full collection is available for viewing at TEKS.studio in Trondheim, and by agreement, can be lent out to relevant exhibitions and showcases in Norway.
Preservation of digital art relies heavily on the lifespan of technologies used to create the work. The hardware and software of digital artworks frequently face updates and eventually grow obsolete. These aspects render the preservation of the digital art field a challenging task. Visual and textual documentation, as well as publishing, therefore, plays a significant role in preserving knowledge about the achievements in the field.
The Norwegian Media Art Library contains printed material about some of the wildest artworks and events realized in the media art field in Norway. The collection allows us to search through the history of three decades of visual and textual documentation about wild experiments done in the media art field in Norway.
THE FIRST EDITION
The first edition of the The Norwegian Media Art Library (under the title The Temporary Library of Norwegian Media Art) was produced and launched for the 5th Trondheim International Biennale for Art and Technology – Meta.Morf and it consisted of 103 printed publications, released between 1992 and 2018. The first edition was curated by Alessandro Ludovico (concept author of the “Temporary Library”), Stahl Stenslie (NO), and Zane Cerpina (NO/LV).
THE TEMPORARY LIBRARY CONCEPT
The project was initially created as a “Temporary Library” – an initiative by Alessandro Ludovico. Each edition has a particular focus, such as The Temporary Library for Transmediale, 2017 (Berlin, Germany), The Temporary Library of Latin American Media Art for ISEA, 2017 (Manizales, Colombia) and The Temporary Library of Portuguese Media Art for xCoAx, 2017 (Lisbon, Portugal).
