The Summit on New Media Archiving is a gathering of scholars, art practitioners, academics, archivists, curators, and technicians who are interested in critical issues related to media art histories. Through the exchange of knowledge, this summit hopes to facilitate the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of information related to both physical and online archiving of electronic and emerging art.

As digital and electronic arts continue to evolve, preserving artworks and archiving information requires rethinking traditional archival methods. It is necessary to continually adapt to new technologies, methodologies and practices. This summit serves as an important international platform for discussing the theoretical and practical challenges of new media art archiving.
History

The Summit on New Media Art Archiving emerged from two roundtable discussions held first at ISEA2018 in Durban, South Africa then at ISEA2019 in Gwangju, South Korea. These discussions served as a foundation for expanding connections amongst new media art institutions and archivists. Consequently, the First Summit on New Media Art Archiving took place virtually at ISEA2020 in Montreal during COVID, followed by subsequent Summits at ISEA2022 in Barcelona, ISEA2023 in Paris and ISEA2024 in Brisbane, culminating in the 5th Summit hosted at ISEA2025 in Seoul. Also, in February 2025, a workshop was held at ZKM in Germany which focused on connecting new media archives around the world. This year the 6th Summit on New Media Art Archiving will be held in conjunction with ISEA2026 in Dubai during the week of 10-19 April 2026 (most likely the first 2 days – TBD).

For more information, see: https://www.isea-symposium-archives.org/6th-summit-on-new-media-art-archiving/

Accepting: Papers, Panels, Short Archive Presentations and Round Table Discussions

Topics
- New directions in online archiving
- The challenges of physical archives
- New technologies for archiving
- Interdisciplinary and cultural exchange of information

The Summit is accepting:
- Paper presentations (Short and Long)
- Panel discussions (4-5 participants)
- Short archive presentations (5 minutes each)
- Roundtable discussions (propose a topic)

Format
Accepted submissions are encouraged to attend the Summit in person. If you are unable to attend, you may deliver your talk in-person via Zoom remotely. Panels and papers may have speakers both in-person and remote. Remote attendees should be able to engage with the speakers by asking questions and contributing to roundtable discussions.
Submission

The Summit on New Media Art Archiving is an international, collaborative initiative involving the following archive partners: ISEA Symposium Archives, Archive of Digital Art (ADA), ZKM Archives, ACM SIGGRAPH History Archive, Electronic Language International Festival (FILE) Archives, MEMODUCT Posthuman Archive, Ars Electronica and a number of research institutions that focus on new media archiving. This dedicated group aims to connect archives around the globe and enhance the archiving and preservation efforts of new media art.
UAE Local Partners

The Summit team is very interested in working with local partners who work with new media art and archiving. New media art archiving in the UAE is a growing field with universities and art institutions focusing on the digital preservation of artifacts and also making previously inaccessible collections available online.

The Summit on New Media Art Archiving will be accepting submissions soon via EasyChair.